Costa Rica, 1948 — rebel coup
Event Summary
On April 24, 1948, the government forces of Costa Rica surrendered to the rebel National Liberation Army led by Jose Figueres Ferrer, ending the roughly six-week Costa Rican Civil War, the country's bloodiest 20th-century conflict. The war had erupted in March after the Congress, controlled by outgoing President Teodoro Picado and his ally, former president Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia, annulled the February 1948 presidential election won by opposition candidate Otilio Ulate. Figueres, backing Ulate's victory, launched an armed uprising that defeated government and allied Communist forces.
Under the Pact of the Mexican Embassy, Picado's government stepped aside; Figueres headed a Founding Junta of the Second Republic for eighteen months, during which he abolished the army, before handing power to Ulate in 1949.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
09404251948
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Teodoro Picado Michalski, President of Costa Rica (government defeated; ceded power).
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
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
Chicago Tribune
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 →