Brazil, 1959 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 3 December 1959 a group of Brazilian Air Force officers led by Major Haroldo Veloso, the same figures behind the 1956 Jacareacanga revolt, staged the Aragarcas revolt against the government of President Juscelino Kubitschek, seizing the town of Aragarcas in Goias and briefly commandeering commercial aircraft in a bid to spark a wider anti-government rising. The revolt reflected the continuing hostility of a hardline anti-Kubitschek faction of officers who opposed his developmentalist government and his tolerance of the left. As in 1956, the rising found little support in the wider armed forces, collapsed quickly, and the rebels fled across the border into Bolivia and Paraguay.
Kubitschek, who had already amnestied the Jacareacanga rebels, again responded with leniency. He completed his term and handed power to the elected Janio Quadros in January 1961, and the Aragarcas plotters were later amnestied as well.
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
14012031959- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-140-1959-12-03
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Juscelino Kubitschek survived the Aragarcas revolt and completed his term, handing power to an elected successor in 1961.
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
New York Times
Washington Post
Hartford Courant
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 →