Bolivia, 1979 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Bolivia on 11 October 1979 during the country's chaotic and short-lived return to civilian rule, when the fragile interim government of President Walter Guevara Arze, installed by Congress in August 1979 after inconclusive elections, was surrounded by restless and faction ridden armed forces impatient to reassert control. Bolivia in this period cycled through governments at dizzying speed. A coup attempt in October 1979 came within that instability and did not immediately end civilian rule, but the reprieve was brief.
On 1 November 1979 Colonel Alberto Natusch Busch seized power in a bloody coup that overthrew Guevara, only to be forced out days later by popular and congressional resistance, after which Lidia Gueiler Tejada became interim president. That government too fell, to the brutal July 1980 cocaine coup of General Luis Garcia Meza, before Bolivia finally achieved a durable return to democracy in 1982.
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
14510111979- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-145-1979-10-11
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Walter Guevara Arze survived the October 1979 plotting but was overthrown by Natusch Busch in November.
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
Powell and Thyne
Los Angeles Times
Irish Times
Boston Globe
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 →