Coup Atlas Research Database
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13003141947AttemptedDissident coup

Ecuador, 1947 — dissident coup attempt

Ecuador (ECU)South America, AmericasMarch 14, 1947

Event Summary

On 14 March 1947 dissident conspirators attempted to move against President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador, whose second presidency was unraveling amid economic crisis and eroding military support. Velasco had taken power after the May 1944 Glorious Revolution, swung from a leftist constituent assembly to a conservative 1946 constitution, and by 1947 faced unabated inflation and dangerously low foreign exchange reserves. His long serving defense minister Colonel Carlos Mancheno had resigned in early January 1947, a move contemporaries later read as time to organize opposition networks within the military.

The March attempt failed and Velasco remained in office, but only until 23 August 1947, when Mancheno, restored to the defense ministry, stormed the presidential palace in the Manchenazo, forced Velasco's resignation, and sent him into exile in Argentina.

Researched Details

Researched

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

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra survived the March attempt unharmed and remained in office until deposed by Mancheno on 23 August 1947
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra (president of Ecuador, target)
Carlos Mancheno Cajas (former and future defense minister, leader of the successful August coup)

Sources

By 1947 inflation continued unabated and Ecuador's foreign exchange reserves had fallen to dangerously low levels, and when Velasco was ousted in August nobody rose to defend him.
SOURCE REVIEWED OnWar, Military Coup in Ecuador 1947 open source ↗
Mancheno resigned from the Defense Ministry on 5 January 1947 without stated reason, a move later interpreted by contemporaries as potentially allowing time to orchestrate satellite opposition networks within the military.
SOURCE REVIEWED Grokipedia, Carlos Mancheno Cajas open source ↗
In August 1947 Velasco was deposed by a military coup perpetrated by defense ministers including Mancheno, who briefly succeeded him.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra open source ↗
On 23 August 1947 troops under Mancheno's command stormed the presidential palace in Quito, arrested Velasco, and compelled his resignation and exile, though Mancheno himself was overthrown within ten days.
SOURCE REVIEWED Grokipedia, Carlos Mancheno Cajas open source ↗

Editorial Note

Specific accounts of the 14 March 1947 dissident attempt are scarce in accessible English sources; the entry documents the verified 1947 crisis environment and military plotting culminating in the successful August Manchenazo. Links forward to Ecuador's rapid succession of 1947 to 1948 governments.

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
13003141947

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

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra survived the March attempt unharmed and remained in office until deposed by Mancheno on 23 August 1947.

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

Luttwak

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Daily Boston Globe

“Ecuador Revolt Put Down,” March 15, 1947

New York Times

“Ecuador Quells Insurrection,” March 17, 1947

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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