Costa Rica, 1949 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
On 2 April 1949 Colonel Edgar Cardona, minister of public security of Costa Rica's Founding Junta and one of the distinguished commanders of the victorious 1948 revolutionary army, launched the armed rising known as the Cardonazo against junta president Jose Figueres Ferrer. The revolt was driven by conservative anger at the junta's most radical measures, above all Figueres's nationalization of the banks and a 10 percent wealth tax. The attempt collapsed within two days: on 4 April Figueres, surrounded by loyal men of the junta, arrived at the Bellavista Barracks where Cardona was defeated, and the junta continued in power.
It went on to complete the transition it had promised, overseeing the 1949 constitution and handing the presidency to Otilio Ulate in November 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
09404021949
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Junta president Jose Figueres Ferrer survived the Cardonazo unharmed and the junta handed power to Ulate on schedule.
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
Los Angeles Times
Washington Post
Wikipedia
Journal of Development Studies
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 →