On November 3 and 4, 1964 the Bolivian military overthrew President Victor Paz Estenssoro, leader of the 1952 National Revolution, months after his re election to a contested third term had fractured his own MNR party. The rebuilt army, whose chief General Alfredo Ovando Candia and the popular air force general Rene Barrientos, imposed on Paz as vice president, had become an alternative power center, moved after clashes between troops and striking miners near Oruro in late October. The coup began early on November 3 with the rebellion of the Ingavi regiment in La Paz; by evening the major garrisons had joined, and when the high command told Paz the army would no longer support him, he fled, flying with his family into exile in Lima on the afternoon of November 4, escorted to the airport by Ovando.
Barrientos and Ovando declared themselves heads of a junta, with Barrientos emerging as president by popular acclamation, promising a Restorative Revolution; roughly forty died in the associated clashes. The coup, which contemporaneous US records show Washington had opposed while instructing the embassy afterward to sustain a non-communist Barrientos government, opened eighteen years of mostly military rule.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Victor Paz Estenssoro, deposed and flown into exile in Lima, Peru with his family on the afternoon of November 4, 1964; he was not physically harmed and later returned, serving again as president in the 1980s.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Victor Paz Estenssoro (deposed president, exiled to Lima)
Rene Barrientos (vice president and air force general, coup leader, emergent president)
Alfredo Ovando Candia (armed forces commander in chief, co-leader and junta co-president)
Juan Lechin (left-wing labor leader and former vice president who supported the removal)
Sources
After armed clashes between the army and miners on October 28, Barrientos and Ovando launched their coup on November 3, beginning early that day when troops of the Ingavi regiment rebelled in La Paz; by evening all the major military units had backed the coup, and on the afternoon of November 4 Paz Estenssoro with his family was exiled to Lima as Barrientos and Ovando established a junta, in what some label a counterrevolution and its authors called a Restorative Revolution.
Contemporaneous US records report that President Paz Estenssoro fled the country and arrived in Lima with his family on the afternoon of November 4; a same day situation report recorded that the coup began when pro-Barrientos commanders of the Ingavi Regiment rebelled early on November 3, that by late evening garrisons in all major cities except La Paz had joined, and that when the army high command told Paz the army would no longer support him in office, the president fled; the State Department, which had supported the constitutional government until it fell, instructed the embassy to take every appropriate action to ensure continuation of a non-communist Barrientos government.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume XXXI, Document 151 and editorial notesopen source ↗
When Paz appealed to army commander General Ovando to end the rebellion, Ovando, a coup participant, responded that there was nothing he could do; the following day, November 4, Ovando accompanied Paz to the airport, where the deposed president flew into exile in Lima, and the relatively bloodless insurrection left about forty dead and two hundred injured, most of them Paz supporters.
SOURCE REVIEWEDEBSCO Research Starters, Reformist Bolivian President Paz Estenssoro Is Toppledopen source ↗
On November 4, 1964 Barrientos and Ovando occupied the presidential palace and declared themselves co-presidents, but as the crowd gathered outside persisted in shouting its preference for the more charismatic Barrientos, Ovando allowed Barrientos to assume the formal title alone while taking the post of commander in chief; Barrientos insisted his assumption of power was not counterrevolutionary and promised to restore the revolution to its true path.
SOURCE REVIEWEDLibrary of Congress country study material, Vice Presidential Coup in Bolivia 1964 (OnWar); corroborated by Wikipedia, History of Bolivia (1964-1982)open source ↗
Editorial Note
Date note: the dataset's November 3 is the day the coup began with the Ingavi rebellion; Paz's flight to Lima and the junta's installation came November 4, and both days appear as the event date across sources. The US posture is documented on two sides: contemporary US records and later scholarship agree Washington opposed the coup beforehand, while the post-coup instruction to sustain Barrientos and later covert support for his 1966 campaign are also recorded; claims of CIA campaign contributions are reported as alleged. Arc notes: former revolution leaders Lechin and Guevara Arze backed the removal; Barrientos's regime later disarmed the miners' militias, and the 1964 coup opened the military era running to 1982, including Ovando's own 1969 coup.
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:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Victor Paz Estenssoro, deposed and flown into exile in Lima, Peru with his family on the afternoon of November 4, 1964; he was not physically harmed and later returned, serving again as president in the 1980s..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. 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.
Powell and Thyne
Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Paz_Este Nss Oro
New York Times
“Military Revolt Shakes Bolivia; truce Reported,” November 4, 1964
“President of Bolivia Flees,” November 5, 1964
“Junta Restoring Order After the Revolt in Bolivia,” November 7, 1964
“Bolivia to Admit Ex-President,” March 24, 1966
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 →