However, according to LaFort, Almayahu made a critical mistake by underestimating or even despising him; "it was out of the question that he would passively accept his personal elimination and the defeat of his views." And the events of 3 February 1977 put Mengistu back in control. At a meeting between Mengistu and his opponents, who included not only Almayahu Haile but chairman General Tafari Benti and a number of leading members of the Derg, military soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Asfaw rounded them up and arrested them. He was summarily executed with the others after a short while. Mengistu afterwards broadcast on Radio Ethiopia that Almayahu and his dead compatriots had attempted a "fascist coup d'etat in the capital identical to what had taken place in Chile", and labeling them "fifth columnists" of the Ethiopian Democratic Union and Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party rebel groups.