Bolivia, 1958 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 14 May 1958 a rebellion broke out in Santa Cruz province against the MNR government of President Hernan Siles Zuazo, prompting the government to declare a nationwide state of siege. The rising came amid the deep strains of Siles Zuazo's first term, when the revolutionary Bolivian government was fracturing between the moderate center around Siles and the labor left around Juan Lechin, while the conservative opposition of the Bolivian Socialist Falange plotted repeatedly to topple the MNR. The Santa Cruz region, a stronghold of regionalist and Falangist sentiment, was a recurrent center of resistance to the La Paz government's economic stabilization program adopted under U.
S. and IMF pressure. The May 1958 revolt did not unseat Siles Zuazo, who lifted the Santa Cruz state of siege in June and governed to the end of his term in 1960, when Victor Paz Estenssoro returned to the presidency.
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
14505141958
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Hernan Siles Zuazo survived and governed to the end of his term in 1960.
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
New York Times
The Washington Post and Times Herald
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 →