Argentina, 1987 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
In April 1987, during Holy Week, a faction of the Argentine Army known as the Carapintadas, or painted faces, for the camouflage they wore, launched an armed uprising against the democratic government of President Raul Alfonsin, in the most serious challenge to Argentina's young democracy since the fall of the military junta in 1983. The revolt, called Operation Dignity by its leaders, began on 14 to 15 April when officers linked to the Dirty War refused to appear before courts prosecuting military personnel for the disappearances and torture of the 1976 to 1983 dictatorship; Lieutenant Colonel Aldo Rico led rebels who barricaded themselves in the Campo de Mayo barracks near Buenos Aires, demanding an end to the human rights trials and the removal of the army chief. Loyal units surrounded but would not attack the rebels, yet the coup collapsed under overwhelming civilian resistance: hundreds of thousands filled the Plaza de Mayo, unions called a general strike, and every major party backed Alfonsin, who went to Campo de Mayo and secured the rebels' surrender on 17 to 19 April, emerging to tell the crowd the house was in order.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
16004171987
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Raul Alfonsin faced down the April 1987 Carapintada Easter revolt and secured the rebels' surrender.
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
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
Wall Street Journal
Globe and Mail
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 →