Bolivia, 1978 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 29 October 1978, in the final weeks of General Juan Pereda Asbun's brief and contested presidency in Bolivia, weeks before his overthrow by General David Padilla. Pereda, Hugo Banzer's handpicked candidate, had been declared winner of the July 1978 election through massive fraud, with official results showing more votes than registered voters; the National Electoral Court annulled the result on 19 July, and Pereda seized power the next day in a coup, becoming a non-constitutional president. He promised elections but set no firm date, and his regime was isolated and lacked a coherent program.
This alienated the younger institutionalist faction of the officer corps, who suspected he never intended to hold elections. On 24 November 1978 General David Padilla Arancibia overthrew Pereda in a bloodless coup and promptly set a firm date for a return to civilian rule. The October 1978 coding sits in this period of intense military plotting against the weak Pereda government in the weeks before the Padilla coup.
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
14510291978
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Pereda was overthrown on 24 November 1978 by Padilla, who set a date for elections.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. 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
Globe and Mail
LA Times
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 →