On January 11, 1976 the Ecuadorean military high command deposed General Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, the head of the nationalist military government, replacing him with a three-member Supreme Council of Government in a bloodless internal coup. Rodriguez Lara had ruled since overthrowing President Velasco Ibarra in February 1972 and had pursued a nationalist, reformist course funded by Ecuador's oil boom, but by early 1976 he faced economic strain, business and political opposition, and pressure within the armed forces, and had survived a bloody attempted coup in 1975. On January 11, 1976 the commanders of the three service branches eased Rodriguez Lara out and installed a military triumvirate, the Supreme Council of Government, headed by the navy commander Vice Admiral Alfredo Poveda, alongside the army and air force commanders.
The junta pledged to move the country toward a return to constitutional civilian rule, a transition that culminated in elections and the handover to a civilian president in 1979. Rodriguez Lara was not physically harmed and retired.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: General Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, deposed on January 11, 1976 by the military high command; he was not physically harmed, and retired.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Guillermo Rodriguez Lara (military ruler deposed)
Alfredo Poveda (navy commander who headed the new junta)
The Supreme Council of Government (the three-member military triumvirate)
Sources
Guillermo Rodriguez Lara was the military dictator of Ecuador from February 15, 1972 to January 11, 1976, when the military removed him from power, ending the nationalist and revolutionary government he had led since overthrowing Velasco Ibarra.
On 11 January 1976 the armed forces high command replaced Rodriguez Lara with a three-man military junta, the Supreme Council of Government (Consejo Supremo de Gobierno) headed by Vice Admiral Alfredo Poveda with the army and air force commanders, which pledged to return Ecuador to constitutional civilian rule.
Rodriguez Lara, who had faced a significant attempted revolt in 1975 and mounting opposition from business and political sectors, was eased from power in the January 1976 internal military change and the new Supreme Council of Government began the process that led to the 1979 return to civilian rule.
The military removed Rodriguez Lara from power in January 1976, replacing his one-man rule with a triumvirate that oversaw a gradual transition, with drilling of the country's oil reserves having funded hospitals, schools, and roads during his tenure.
Arc closer: this January 1976 coup ends the rule of Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, connecting to his own February 15, 1972 coup that deposed and exiled Velasco Ibarra (enriched in batch 24); it is an internal military reshuffle from one-man rule to a triumvirate. Fate coding: Rodriguez Lara was eased out and not physically harmed, matching the dataset fate. Coding note: the dataset labels this a military coup; it was a bloodless internal change within the armed forces, installing the Supreme Council of Government under Vice Admiral Poveda. Arc forward: the Supreme Council oversaw the transition that returned Ecuador to civilian rule with the 1979 election of Jaime Roldos, a separate later event. Context: a bloody attempted coup against Rodriguez Lara in 1975 (the Poveda-era crisis) had preceded and weakened his position.
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:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, deposed on January 11, 1976 by the military high command; he was not physically harmed, and retired..
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
“Military in Ecuador Deposes President Appeal to Military,” January 12, 1976
“Ecuadorean S Voting for President Today,” by David Vidal, July 16, 1978
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 →