On August 4, 1981 the Bolivian dictator Luis Garcia Meza was forced from power by his fellow military officers, ending the notorious cocaine coup regime after about thirteen months of extreme repression and international isolation, and he was replaced by General Celso Torrelio. Garcia Meza had seized power in the violent July 1980 coup, but his regime's brutality, its deep ties to cocaine trafficking, and its use of neo-fascist and Argentine paramilitary collaborators made it an international pariah; even the Reagan administration kept its distance. Facing repeated coup attempts within the military, a collapsing economy, and mounting international pressure over human rights and drug trafficking, Garcia Meza was pressured to resign on August 4, 1981.
He was succeeded by the less tainted but still repressive General Celso Torrelio. Garcia Meza later fled and was ultimately tried, convicted, and imprisoned.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: General Luis Garcia Meza, forced from power on August 4, 1981 by fellow officers; he later fled the country and was eventually extradited and imprisoned.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Luis Garcia Meza (dictator forced out)
Celso Torrelio (general who succeeded him)
Sources
Garcia Meza, who failed to gain support in the military, faced repeated coup attempts and was pressured to resign on August 4, 1981, and the ruthlessness, extreme corruption, and international isolation of his government made it a pariah.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, History of Bolivia (1964-1982)open source ↗
The Garcia Meza government's drug trafficking activities led to the complete isolation of the regime, and the international outcry was sufficiently strong to force Garcia Meza's resignation on 3 August 1981, after which he was succeeded by a less tainted but equally repressive general, Celso Torrelio.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Luis Garcia Mezaopen source ↗
Meza was forced to resign in August 1981 following intense international scrutiny over human rights violations and alleged drug trafficking by government forces, and was replaced by General Celso Torrelio, who ruled for less than a year before being replaced by General Guido Vildoso in July 1982.
SOURCE REVIEWEDCenter for Systemic Peace, Bolivia Polity reportopen source ↗
Garcia Meza left the country but was tried and convicted in absentia for the serious human rights violations committed by his regime, and on March 14, 1995 he was extradited to Bolivia from Brazil and given a 30-year prison sentence at the San Pedro penitentiary in La Paz.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Luis Garcia Mezaopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Arc link: this August 1981 removal is the fall of the Garcia Meza regime installed in the July 17, 1980 cocaine coup (enriched in batch 33); it was an internal military ouster of a dictator who had lost the support of his own armed forces and become an international pariah. Fate coding: the dataset codes fled the country; Garcia Meza left Bolivia and was later tried in absentia, extradited from Brazil in 1995, and imprisoned, so the fled fate fits his ultimate departure. Date nuance: sources give the resignation as August 3 or August 4, 1981 (the dataset date); both are recorded. Coding note: the dataset labels this a palace coup, accurately, as it was an internal military pressure that forced the dictator out and installed General Celso Torrelio. Context recorded: the regime's ties to cocaine trafficking, Argentine intelligence, and neo-fascist collaborators (including Klaus Barbie), and its roughly 1,000 killings over 13 months, are recorded as the documented backdrop to its international isolation and fall. Aftermath: Torrelio and then Vildoso followed before Bolivia returned to civilian rule in October 1982, later context.
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: General Luis Garcia Meza, forced from power on August 4, 1981 by fellow officers; he later fled the country and was eventually extradited and imprisoned..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. 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
“President of Bolivia Resigns in the Face of Revolt,” August 5, 1981
“Junta Takes Control in Bolivia,” August 6, 1981
“Around the World; Bolivian President Offers Resignation to Military,” July 17, 1982
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 →