Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces chief announced on Thursday that members of the military had been preparing to launch a coup d’etat in the small West African country. “We have managed to identify a group of FARP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People) soldiers who have been mobilising soldiers by buying their conscience in exchange for banknotes in order to subvert the established constitutional order,” said armed force head General Biague Na Ntam, at a ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the creation of the military police force. Some of the bribed soldiers “denounced the perpetrators of these despicable acts”, he added. The announcement came on the day that President Umaro Sissoco Embalo left Bissau for a 48-hour working visit to Brazil. The former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau has suffered four military putsches since it gained independence in 1974, the most recent in 2012.