Guatemala, 1946 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 26 June 1946 military conspirators attempted a coup against President Juan Jose Arevalo of Guatemala, one of the earliest of the roughly twenty five coup attempts he survived during his 1945 to 1951 presidency. Arevalo, a reformist elected with 85 percent of the vote in Guatemala's first democratic election after the 1944 revolution that toppled the Ubico dictatorship, faced constant plotting from conservative military officers who had grown powerful under Ubico, from right-wing politicians, and from clergy and landowners alarmed by his labor reforms and his constitution's provisions on property. The June 1946 attempt failed like nearly all the others, the armed forces majority and the mobilized public standing by the elected government.
Arevalo completed his full term and handed power to Jacobo Arbenz after the 1950 election, the first transfer between democratically elected leaders in Guatemalan history.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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
09006261946
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Juan Jose Arevalo survived the attempt unharmed and completed his full term in 1951.
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
New York Times
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 →