Bolivia, 1981 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records a third attempted military coup in Bolivia on 27 June 1981, continuing the wave of revolts that battered the narco dictatorship of General Luis Garcia Meza through the middle of that year. By June 1981 Garcia Meza's grip was failing under the combined weight of international isolation, economic collapse, and the revulsion of large parts of the officer corps at the cocaine trafficking and brutality that defined his regime. The repeated coup attempts of May and June 1981 were manifestations of this internal military rebellion against a leader who had become a liability to the armed forces as an institution.
This June attempt, like the earlier ones, did not by itself topple Garcia Meza, but the relentless pressure achieved its end within weeks: in August 1981 he was forced to resign and hand power to a military junta led by General Celso Torrelio. Bolivia then passed through a final sequence of military governments before the armed forces, exhausted and discredited, restored civilian democratic rule in October 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
14506271981- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-145-1981-06-27-3
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Luis Garcia Meza survived the June 1981 coup attempt but resigned under military pressure in August.
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
Powell and Thyne
New York 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 →