Bolivia, 1971 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Bolivia on 10 January 1971, during the leftist military government of General Juan Jose Torres, who had come to power in October 1970 amid the chronic instability that followed the 1969 death of Rene Barrientos and the brief rule of Alfredo Ovando. Torres pursued a radical nationalist and pro-labor course that alarmed conservative officers and business interests, and his government was beset by plotting from the right. On 10 January 1971 the rightist General Rogelio Miranda and allied units attempted a coup against Torres, but it failed at that time.
Torres survived this attempt, but his position remained precarious. Later that year, in August 1971, the rightist Colonel Hugo Banzer, backed by conservative parties and reportedly by outside support, succeeded in overthrowing Torres in a bloody coup and installed an authoritarian military regime that ruled Bolivia until 1978.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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:
- Cline Center id
14501101971- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-145-1971-01-10
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Juan Jose Torres survived the January 1971 coup attempt but was overthrown by Banzer in August 1971.
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
Wikipedia
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 →