On November 24, 1978 General David Padilla, the army commander, overthrew President Juan Pereda of Bolivia in a bloodless coup led by democratically oriented officers, ending Pereda's four-month rule and setting a firm course back toward civilian government. Pereda had taken power in July 1978 through a coup after his rigged election was annulled, but he offered no clear timetable for new elections and no coherent program, alienating fellow officers who suspected he did not intend to hand over power. On November 24, 1978 Padilla and a group of reform-minded officers, embarrassed by the events of the preceding months, deposed Pereda.
Padilla promptly set a firm date for elections and pledged to transfer power to whoever won, positioning himself as a caretaker committed to a rapid return to democracy. Pereda was not physically harmed and withdrew from public life. Padilla kept his promise, handing power to an interim civilian president in August 1979.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Juan Pereda, overthrown on November 24, 1978 by army commander David Padilla; he was not physically harmed, and withdrew from public life.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Juan Pereda (president overthrown after four months)
David Padilla (army commander who took power)
Sources
Pereda acted as head of government from July 21 until November 24, 1978, when he was overthrown in another coup led by General Padilla four months later.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, July 1978 Bolivian coup d'etatopen source ↗
David Padilla was serving as Commander of the Army when he deposed the de facto government of General Juan Pereda on 24 November 1978, and Padilla came to power as the leader of a group of democratically oriented officers committed to returning the country to democratic rule in as short a period as possible.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, David Padillaopen source ↗
After four months in office, General Pereda was overthrown by democratically oriented officers under the leadership of General David Padilla, and feeling betrayed by everyone, Pereda withdrew from public life and never again participated in politics.
Pereda was overthrown in November 1978 by democratically oriented officers under General David Padilla who, embarrassed by the events of the last few months and suspecting that Pereda did not intend to call new elections, promptly set a firm date for a return to civilian rule.
Paired context: this November 1978 coup is the second of two Bolivia coups in this batch, overthrowing Juan Pereda, who had himself seized power in the July 1978 coup (the 1978-07-21 record); the two are part of the extraordinarily unstable Bolivian sequence of nine presidents in about four years. Fate coding: Pereda was not physically harmed and withdrew from public life, matching the dataset. Coding note: the dataset labels this a military coup; it was a bloodless internal takeover by reform-minded officers under the army commander Padilla, distinguished from most coups of the era by its explicit and fulfilled commitment to a rapid return to civilian rule. Arc forward: Padilla held elections in 1979 and handed power to interim civilian president Walter Guevara in August 1979, though the instability continued with further coups (Natusch in November 1979, Garcia Meza in 1980), separate later events.
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 Juan Pereda, overthrown on November 24, 1978 by army commander David Padilla; he was not physically harmed, and withdrew from public life..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. 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
“Coup Topples Bolivia Chief but life goes on as usual,” November 25, 1978
New York Times
“Victory Margin in Bolivia Eludes all Eight Candidates,” July 3, 1979
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 →