On June 13, 1953, Lt. Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla led a bloodless coup that deposed Conservative President Laureano Gómez, whose four-year rule Encyclopaedia Britannica describes as "brutal and authoritarian.
" When Gómez attempted to reassert control that day, a coalition of moderate (Ospina-aligned) Conservatives, the Liberal Party, and the armed forces backed Rojas Pinilla, who assumed the presidency while Gómez was sent into exile. Rojas Pinilla was initially met with genuine popular enthusiasm, promising Colombians peace, justice, and liberty. His government subsequently grew increasingly authoritarian and corrupt — ruling by decree, silencing the press, and expanding the secret police — until united Conservative-Liberal opposition forced him from office; he appointed a military junta to succeed him and left for exile in the United States in May 1957.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Laureano Gómez, President of Colombia
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (coup leader, Army commander, became President)
Laureano Gómez (Conservative President deposed and exiled)
Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez (acting president 1951-1953, sidelined the same day)
Sources
On June 13, 1953, Lt. Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla came to power as President of Colombia by a bloodless coup d'état, sending President Laureano Gómez into exile.
SOURCE REVIEWEDOffice of the Historian, U.S. Department of State — Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Vol. VII, Document 467 (editorial note) (U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian)open source ↗
When Gómez tried to return to office in June 1953, a coalition of moderate (Ospina-aligned) Conservatives, the Liberal Party, and the armed forces deposed him and installed a military government.
SOURCE REVIEWEDonwar.com, "The Violencia in Colombia, 1948-1958" (the archived source cited by Wikipedia's 1953 Colombian coup d'état article)open source ↗
Rojas Pinilla, who had led the coup d'état, assumed the presidency.
SOURCE REVIEWEDonwar.com, "The Violencia in Colombia, 1948-1958"open source ↗
The coup followed four years of what Encyclopaedia Britannica calls the "brutal and authoritarian" regime of President Laureano Gómez, and Colombians initially welcomed Rojas Pinilla's seizure of power because he promised them peace, justice, and liberty.
Rojas Pinilla ruled by decree, silenced the opposition press, and made the secret police an ever-present institution; conservatives and liberals eventually jointly forced him into exile, and he left for the United States in May 1957 after appointing a military junta to rule in his place.
At the moment of the coup, Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez (acting president since November 1951 due to Gómez's illness) refused Rojas Pinilla's and the generals' request that he continue as acting president, after which Rojas Pinilla declared himself in charge of the presidency and mobilized troops nationwide.
Sources broadly agree on the core facts: bloodless coup, June 13, 1953, led by Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, ousting President Laureano Gómez, who went into exile. One nuance worth flagging: by the time of the coup Gómez was not the sitting acting head of government — Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez had been acting president since November 1951 due to Gómez's illness. English Wikipedia's article on Urdaneta (citing Arismendi Posada's 1983 book Gobernantes Colombianos, which I could not access directly, hence CHAIN) describes a same-day sequence in which Gómez tried to reclaim the presidency that morning, Urdaneta was removed from his post, and that afternoon Rojas Pinilla asked Urdaneta to continue as acting president; when Urdaneta declined, Rojas Pinilla declared himself in charge. Despite this complexity, the independent sources I could verify directly (U.S. State Department FRUS editorial note and Encyclopaedia Britannica) both consistently frame Laureano Gómez as the president deposed by the coup, so he is used as the target_leader. I was unable to access the English-language Wikipedia article on the "1953 Colombian coup d'état" directly (fetch failed with a cache error), so its content is not used here; instead I relied on the Wikipedia-cited primary source onwar.com (fetched directly) plus Britannica and the U.S. State Department historical documents site, all fetched directly this session. | All 5 VERIFIED facts were independently re-fetched and confirmed accurate: (1) history.state.gov FRUS Doc. 467 quote matches verbatim; (2)-(3) onwar.com quotes match verbatim; (4)-(5) Britannica quotes match verbatim (both drawn from the same live, accessible URL). The CHAIN fact also checks out on inspection: the English Wikipedia article "Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez" exists, is live, and does contain the described same-day sequence (Rojas Pinilla and generals asking Urdaneta to continue as acting president, his refusal, Rojas Pinilla declaring himself in charge, and troop mobilization in Bogotá and major cities), citing Arismendi Posada's Gobernantes Colombianos (1983) at pages 219-222 — this is a legitimate, plausible chain citation, not an invented one. It also independently confirmed Urdaneta was acting president from November 1951. The target_leader (Laureano Gómez) is well supported by both directly-fetched sources and is retained unchanged. The only issue found was in the free-text summary, which contained two claims not backed by any listed fact: (a) describing Rojas Pinilla as "Colombian army commander" (this detail appears only in the un-cited English Wikipedia "1953 Colombian coup d'état" article, which the researcher explicitly said they could not access and did not use as a source — so it should not appear in the summary), and (b) asserting that Gómez's rule "coincided with the intense partisan violence known as La Violencia" (this is not stated in any quoted fact; it can only be inferred from the onwar.com source's title, which is not the same as a sourced claim). Both were trimmed from the corrected summary while preserving all other content, which is fully traceable to the sourced facts. No fact required downgrading or removal; verdict is CORRECTED solely due to the summary edit.
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: Laureano Gómez, President of Colombia.
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
“Coup in Colombia Ousts President; Army Chief Rules,” June 14, 1953
“COLOMBIA EASES CONTROL Overthrown President Reported Coming to United States,” June 17, 1953
“Rojas Indicates He’ll keep post,” February 5, 1957
“Colombian Nominated,” February 8, 1957
“Rojas is Ousted: Colombia ruled by a 5 man Junta,” by Tad Szulc, May 11, 1957
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 →