Coup Atlas Research Database
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04201191962SuccessfulDissident coup

Dominican Republic, 1962 — dissident coup

Dominican Republic (DOM)Caribbean, AmericasJanuary 19, 1962

Event Summary

The civilian military junta installed by General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria on January 16, 1962 lasted only days. Facing a renewed general strike led by the National Civic Union, crowds in the streets, and clear US support for restoring the Council of State, officers of Echavarria's own armed forces, prominently younger air force officers, arrested the general in a countercoup and freed the council members held under house arrest. The restored Council of State accepted Joaquin Balaguer's resignation and installed Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly as its president.

Sources date the countercoup across January 18 and 19, 1962; the dataset uses January 19, the date the old government returned under Bonnelly. The Bonnelly council governed for the rest of the year and delivered the December 1962 elections, the country's first free vote in decades, won by Juan Bosch. Echavarria was deported, and no one was reported physically harmed in the countercoup itself.

Researched Details

Researched

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

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria and his three day old civilian military junta were deposed; Echavarria was arrested by his own officers and deported, not physically harmed. The Council of State was restored under Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria (deposed junta leader, arrested and deported)
Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly (restored Council of State president)
Joaquin Balaguer (his resignation was formally accepted by the restored council)
Juan Bosch (winner of the December 1962 elections the council delivered)

Sources

Two days after seizing power, General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria was overthrown in a countercoup by his own officers, who freed the council of state members held under house arrest; the council's first act was to accept Balaguer's resignation, with Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly as his successor.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, January 1962 open source ↗
On January 19 a countercoup occurred in the Dominican Republic and the old government returned, except with Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly as the new president.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1962 open source ↗
With the US supporting the National Civic Union and a new national strike beginning immediately, Echavarria was arrested by other officers two days after his coup; the Council of State was restored under the leadership of Rafael Bonnelly.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Joaquin Balaguer open source ↗
After the resignation of President Balaguer on January 16, the council under President Rafael E. Bonnelly headed the Dominican government, OAS sanctions having been lifted January 4; Juan Bosch was inaugurated president in 1963 following the elections.
SOURCE REVIEWED US Department of State, Background Note: Dominican Republic (archive) open source ↗

Editorial Note

Date discrepancy: contemporaneous chronologies place the arrest of Echavarria on January 18 (two days after his coup) and the return of the old government under Bonnelly on January 19; the dataset uses January 19. Linked pair with the January 16 coup (id 04201161962), completing a junta then counterjunta arc within a single week. Accounts differ on whether one or several coups and countercoups should be counted in this week; the dataset codes exactly two.

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
04201191962

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

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria and his three day old civilian military junta were deposed; Echavarria was arrested by his own officers and deported, not physically harmed. The Council of State was restored under Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly..

Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; 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

Chicago Daily Tribune

“Dominican Coup is ‘Very Gratifying’ to State Dept.,” January 20, 1962

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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