Dominican Republic, 1949 — popular revolt attempt
Event Summary
On 19 June 1949 Dominican exiles of the Caribbean Legion attempted an armed landing at the town of Luperon on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic as the spearhead of a plan to overthrow the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. The operation, planned from Guatemala with President Juan Jose Arevalo's support and staged by air with a Mexican refueling arrangement, fell apart when poor coordination and weather reduced the invasion to a single PBY Catalina flying boat carrying about 15 men, including three American crew members. Dominican forces destroyed the aircraft and killed or captured all aboard, the three Americans among the dead.
Trujillo used the trial of the survivors to denounce foreign intervention, and the failed landing, following the aborted 1947 Cayo Confites expedition, left his rule unshaken until his assassination in 1961.
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
04206211949
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Dictator Rafael Trujillo was unharmed and remained in power until his assassination in 1961.
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
New York Times
New York Herald Tribune
Daily Boston Globe
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 →