Coup Atlas Research Database
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04009051957AttemptedMilitary coup

Cuba, 1957 — military coup attempt

Cuba (CUB)Caribbean, AmericasSeptember 5, 1957

Event Summary

On 5 September 1957 junior officers of the Cuban Navy at the Cienfuegos naval base rose against the government of President Fulgencio Batista, in a revolt organized in sympathy with the 26th of July Movement and originally meant to coincide with the seizure of warships in Havana harbor. The rising seized the base by early morning, and its roughly fifty original conspirators were joined by the base's 150 naval personnel and some two hundred armed 26th of July Movement supporters from the town, holding Cienfuegos for several hours. But the Havana part of the plot failed to materialize, leaving the Cienfuegos rebels isolated.

Government motorized infantry arrived from Santa Clara backed by American-supplied B-26 bombers, and after heavy fighting that killed more than a hundred people the revolt was crushed. Batista survived, and the navy was purged, but the uprising demonstrated the spread of anti-Batista sentiment into the armed forces.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Fulgencio Batista survived the Cienfuegos revolt unharmed and ruled until fleeing on 1 January 1959
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Fulgencio Batista (president of Cuba, target)
Junior Cuban Navy officers at Cienfuegos (rebels)
26th of July Movement supporters (joined the rising)

Sources

On 5 September 1957 elements of the Cuban navy at the Cienfuegos Naval Base staged a rising against the Batista regime, led by junior officers in sympathy with the 26th of July Movement and originally intended to coincide with the seizure of warships in Havana harbor.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Cuban Revolution open source ↗
By 5:30 am the base was in the hands of the mutineers, the 150 naval personnel joined the roughly fifty original conspirators, eighteen officers were arrested, and about two hundred 26th of July Movement members entered the base and were given weapons, holding Cienfuegos for several hours.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Cuban Revolution open source ↗
By the afternoon government motorized infantry had arrived from Santa Clara supported by B-26 bombers given by the United States.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Cuban Revolution open source ↗
An uprising in Cienfuegos on September 5, 1957 saw the city's naval station fall into the hands of rebel officers, and more than 100 people were killed when government forces retook the city.
SOURCE REVIEWED Britannica, Cuban Revolution open source ↗

Editorial Note

Exact date match, well documented. The third Cuba record in the dataset's 1953 to 1959 arc, after Moncada 1953 and the March 1957 palace attack, all leading to Batista's fall on 1 January 1959.

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
04009051957
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-40-1957-09-05

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Fulgencio Batista survived the Cienfuegos revolt unharmed and ruled until fleeing on 1 January 1959.

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

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
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

Wikipedia

New York Times

“Violence In Cuba: Navy Joins Revolt,”September 8,1957“Article 1–NoTitle,”September 28,1957

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 →

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