Chile, 1973 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 29 June 1973 elements of an armored regiment of the Chilean Army, led by Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Souper, staged a coup attempt known as El Tanquetazo against the Popular Unity government of the socialist president Salvador Allende. Souper's tanks surrounded and fired on the La Moneda presidential palace and the Defence Ministry in central Santiago, killing around 22 people. But the rising had no coordination with other units, and it was put down within hours by loyalist troops under the constitutionalist army commander in chief General Carlos Prats, who personally confronted the rebels; Souper surrendered.
Allende, who broadcast a call for workers to defend the government, survived. Though the Tanquetazo failed, it was a turning point that let the conspirators gauge loyalties and the weakness of pro-government forces, and it is seen as a rehearsal for the successful coup of 11 September 1973 in which General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Allende and ended Chilean democracy.
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
15506291973- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-155-1973-06-29
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Salvador Allende survived the Tanquetazo, which loyalist troops crushed, but he fell in the September 1973 coup.
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
Luttwak
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 →