Ecuador, 1956 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Ecuador on 7 August 1956, at the very end of Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra's third presidency, which concluded on 31 August 1956, and on the eve of the handover to his elected successor Camilo Ponce Enriquez. That third term, from 1952, had been the only one of Velasco Ibarra's five presidencies to reach its constitutional end, a product of the banana boom stability and the unusual 1948 to 1960 run of peaceful Ecuadorian transitions. The 1956 election that Ponce won was closely contested and the transfer of power to a Conservative was politically charged, but any coup attempt in early August 1956 did not derail it.
Velasco Ibarra completed his term and Ponce took office, continuing the constitutional sequence before Velasco Ibarra returned for a fourth term in 1960.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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
13008071956- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-130-1956-08-08
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 and completed his third term on 31 August 1956, handing power to elected successor Camilo Ponce Enriquez.
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
Powell and Thyne
New York Times
Washington Post
Christian Science Monitor
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 →