Argentina, 1990 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 3 December 1990 the fourth and last, and by far the bloodiest, Carapintada uprising erupted in Argentina, this time against the government of President Carlos Menem, marking the final military rebellion of the series that had shaken Argentine democracy since 1987. The revolt was led once again by hardline nationalist officers of the Carapintada faction, associated with Colonel Mohamed Ali Seineldin, who were embittered that the concessions and pardons they sought had not gone far enough and who continued to resist civilian control and the legacy of the human rights trials. Rebel troops seized military installations, including army headquarters and an armored regiment, and this time the government responded with decisive force: loyal army units, no longer willing to tolerate the mutineers as in earlier revolts, attacked and crushed the rising in fierce fighting that left around thirteen or more people dead.
The defeat broke the Carapintada movement for good. Menem, who had already begun pardoning military officers, completed the process, but the crushing of this last uprising firmly established civilian supremacy over the Argentine armed forces.
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
16012031990
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Carlos Menem crushed the December 1990 Carapintada uprising by force, ending the movement.
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
CSP
Wikipedia
Irish Times
The Sun
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 →