Coup Atlas Research Database
← Back to explorer
16009281951AttemptedMilitary coup

Argentina, 1951 — military coup attempt

Argentina (ARG)South America, AmericasSeptember 28, 1951

Event Summary

On 28 September 1951 the retired General Benjamin Andres Menendez led a poorly planned military uprising against President Juan Domingo Peron of Argentina, drawing on the army's cavalry arm and minor factions of the navy and air force. The rising came weeks before the November 1951 election and amid military unease at Peronist hegemony, the 1949 constitutional reform allowing reelection, and Eva Peron's short-lived vice presidential ambitions. The units the rebels counted on chose instead to back the government, and the uprising, nicknamed the chirinada, collapsed within about half a day and nearly bloodlessly.

That evening the gravely ill Eva Peron condemned the coup by radio. Roughly 200 officers had their careers ended by prison sentences or dismissal, purging the forces of anti-Peronist elements; several participants, and General Eduardo Lonardi who had declined to join, went on to lead the successful 1955 coup.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Juan Domingo Peron survived the uprising unharmed and was reelected in November 1951
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Juan Domingo Peron (president of Argentina, target)
Benjamin Andres Menendez (retired general, coup leader)
Eduardo Lonardi (general who declined and later led the 1955 coup)
Eva Peron (condemned the coup by radio)

Sources

The 1951 Argentine coup attempt, nicknamed the chirinada, was a failed uprising on 28 September 1951 led primarily by retired General Benjamin Andres Menendez with elements of the army's cavalry and minor navy and air force factions against Peron, and was suppressed within half a day.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1951 Argentine coup attempt open source ↗
The rebels lacked the support of units they had counted on, which decided to back the government instead, and that evening the gravely ill Eva Peron condemned the attempt by radio from her sickbed.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1951 Argentine coup attempt open source ↗
In total 111 officers of the three services received prison sentences and 66 others who could not be detained were dismissed, ending the careers of roughly 200 officers.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1951 Argentine coup attempt open source ↗
When the revolt occurred in September 1951, the Peronist CGT quickly called some 50,000 demonstrators into the streets in support of Peron.
SOURCE REVIEWED U.S. State Department, FRUS 1952 to 1954 vol. IV open source ↗

Editorial Note

Exact date match, well documented. The failed chirinada purged the officer corps and is widely read as clearing Peron's path, while several participants and Lonardi led the successful Revolucion Libertadora of September 1955 that appears elsewhere in the dataset.

Cross-Reference

Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
16009281951
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-160-1951-09-28

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Juan Domingo Peron survived the uprising unharmed and was reelected in November 1951.

Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation

Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Luttwak

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

Know something about this event?
Tips are reviewed against sources before anything is added.