Bolivia, 1968 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Bolivia on 21 August 1968, during the presidency of General Rene Barrientos, the populist air force officer who had seized power in 1964 and won a 1966 election, and who governed amid chronic instability, restive mine workers, and the aftermath of the 1967 campaign in which Che Guevara's guerrilla foco had been crushed and the revolutionary killed. Barrientos faced recurrent plotting within a fractious military and political class. Any coup attempt in August 1968 came within that turbulence and did not unseat him.
Barrientos died in a helicopter crash in April 1969, after which a rapid succession of governments followed, including the leftist military rule of Ovando and then Juan Jose Torres, until General Hugo Banzer seized power in 1971. The dataset's own record shows this period of near constant Bolivian coup activity.
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
14508211968
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Rene Barrientos survived the August 1968 plotting and remained in power until his accidental death in 1969.
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
Luttwak
New York Times
Chicago Tribune
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 →