Ecuador, 1986 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 8 to 9 March 1986 General Frank Vargas Pazzos, the chief of the joint command of Ecuador's armed forces, mounted a military rebellion against President Leon Febres Cordero, in a dramatic confrontation that shook the country's young democracy. Vargas had publicly denounced corruption in the president's inner circle over the procurement of aircraft and demanded the resignation of the defense minister; when Febres Cordero ordered his arrest, Vargas flew to the Manta air base and, backed by air force officers there and later at the Taura base, defied the government and called for change. The president moved swiftly to rally the loyalty of the wider officer corps, portraying Vargas as unstable, and the rebellion failed to spread; Vargas was captured and imprisoned.
The affair had a violent sequel in January 1987, when air force commandos at Taura loyal to the jailed Vargas kidnapped President Febres Cordero himself and held him until he agreed to free Vargas. Febres Cordero survived both crises and served out his term, and Vargas was later amnestied and entered politics.
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
13003081986- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-130-1986-03-08
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Leon Febres Cordero put down General Vargas Pazzos's March 1986 rebellion and served out his term.
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
Chicago Tribune
Irish Times
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 →