El Salvador (SLV)Central America, AmericasMay 2, 1980
Event Summary
In early May 1980, right-wing former army major and ex-mayor Roberto d'Aubuisson, along with a network of active-duty military officers and financing from the Salvadoran oligarchy, conspired to overthrow the civil-military Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador. On May 7, 1980, Colonel Adolfo Majano, a member of the junta (and at that time its Chairman and armed-forces Commander-in-Chief), had roughly 23 plotters, including d'Aubuisson, arrested at a farm near San Salvador, uncovering evidence implicating both civilians and active-duty officers, including Vice Minister of Defense Nicolás Carranza. However, the military High Command released d'Aubuisson and the other detainees on procedural grounds, a move U.
S. Embassy officials believed was intended to prevent a trial that could expose the High Command's own complicity. The conspiracy thus failed to topple the junta but also went effectively unpunished, reflecting deep fractures within the Salvadoran armed forces on the eve of the civil war.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: The Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador (JRG II) — a five-member collegial civil-military body. At the time of the May 1980 coup plot, Colonel Adolfo Majano held the titles of Chairman of the Junta and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (he resigned these specific titles on May 14, 1980, about a week after the plot was uncovered, while remaining a junta member into December 1980); José Napoleón Duarte was one of three civilian junta members at the time.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Roberto d'Aubuisson
Colonel Adolfo Arnoldo Majano
Nicolás Carranza
José Napoleón Duarte
Sources
In early May 1980, a right-wing coup conspiracy against the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador was uncovered, led by ex-Mayor Roberto d'Aubuisson together with active-duty military officers.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume XV, Document 432 (Telegram from the Embassy in El Salvador, May 23, 1980, from Ambassador White)open source ↗
On May 7, 1980, Colonel Adolfo Majano ordered the arrest of approximately 23 coup plotters, including d'Aubuisson, at a farm near San Salvador.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume XV, Document 432 (Telegram from the Embassy in El Salvador, plus editorial footnote citing San Salvador telegram 2081 of May 8, 1980)open source ↗
The plotters had substantial evidence implicating both civilians and active military officers, including Vice Minister of Defense Nicolas Carranza, who was also linked to an earlier February 1980 coup attempt.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume XV, Document 432 (Telegram from the Embassy in El Salvador)open source ↗
The Salvadoran military High Command released d'Aubuisson and the other detained plotters, citing procedural violations by Majano, in what the U.S. Embassy assessed was done because a trial risked exposing the High Command's own involvement.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume XV, Document 432 (Telegram from the Embassy in El Salvador)open source ↗
The coup plot was reportedly financed by elements of the Salvadoran oligarchy, with over one million dollars provided upfront and twenty million dollars more promised to participants if the coup succeeded.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume XV, Document 432 (Telegram from the Embassy in El Salvador)open source ↗
Editorial Note
The Cline Center dataset codes the conspiracy's date as May 2, 1980, but the primary source found (FRUS Document 432) documents the arrests of the plotters as occurring on May 7, 1980; the plotting/conspiracy activity was underway in the preceding days, consistent with a May 2 dataset start-date. No independently accessible source pinpointing May 2 specifically was found; the discrepancy is noted rather than silently resolved. | All 5 VERIFIED facts were re-fetched from history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v15/d432, a real, live FRUS telegram (No. 3677, dated May 23, 1980, from Ambassador White to the Department of State). All 5 facts are fairly and accurately summarized by the document's text/footnotes; none needed downgrading. Caveats found but not disqualifying: (1) the "quote" fields in facts 1-3 are paraphrases/composites rather than exact verbatim strings from the cable (fact 4 and 5 are close to verbatim) — content is accurate, just not literal quotation; (2) the document's main body says "Twenty-three people...were captured" (matching the entry's "23"), but an editorial footnote citing a separate May 8, 1980 telegram (San Salvador 2081) says "seventeen coup plotters" were arrested — an internal inconsistency in the historical record itself, not a fabrication by the entry; (3) a footnote in the same document also states the coup "was scheduled to begin May 1" per a captured draft manifesto, which is useful uncorroborated context for the Cline Center's May 2 dataset date that the original entry's notes did not surface. The one substantive problem was target_leader: it was labeled VERIFIED against FRUS Doc. 432, but that document does not actually support "headed by Majano" (it calls him merely "a Junta member" and, at its own May 23 writing date, names Gutierrez as "Junta strongman" instead) nor does it identify Duarte as a junta member at all. I downgraded target_leader to CHAIN and re-sourced it to Wikipedia, and correspondingly softened the summary's junta-leadership phrasing. I also trimmed one unsourced sentence from the summary ("D'Aubuisson would go on to found the ARENA party...") since no fact in the entry supports it.
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:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador (JRG II) — a five-member collegial civil-military body. At the time of the May 1980 coup plot, Colonel Adolfo Majano held the titles of Chairman of the Junta and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (he resigned these specific titles on May 14, 1980, about a week after the plot was uncovered, while remaining a junta member into December 1980); José Napoleón Duarte was one of three civilian junta members at the time..
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. 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
“Troops call for release of major: San Salvador, May 9,” May 10, 1980 “Senators ’backed coup bid’: San Salvador, May 10,” May 11, 1980
New York Times
“Former Salvador Leader and Aides Failed in a Coup Effort, Junta Says,” May 3, 1980
“Rightist Leader Is Arrested By Junta in El Salvador,” May 9, 1980
Boston Globe
“El Salvador Plot Suspect is Freed,” May 15, 1980
Washington Post
“Salvador Holds Rightist Colonel, Raising Prospect Of Coup Attempt,”May 9,1980“Salvadoran Junta Reportedly Puts Down Attempted Coup,” May 3, 1980
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 →