Guatemala, 1955 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
The dataset records an event coded as a military and dissident coup conspiracy in Guatemala on 18 May 1955, during the first year of the US-installed dictatorship of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, who had taken power after the June 1954 CIA-backed overthrow of the reformist president Jacobo Arbenz. The Castillo Armas regime was beset by plots: soon after taking power he faced a revolt by young army cadets unhappy with the army's capitulation, suppressed with dozens of casualties, and in January 1955 his administration proclaimed it had unearthed a pseudo-communist plot being planned by regular army officers, responding with drastic measures including the execution of six of the men and the banishment of several leading officers. The regime was also near fiscal collapse, its foreign reserves having fallen from 42 million to 3.
4 million dollars by April 1955. The coded May 1955 conspiracy fits this pattern of anti-Castillo-Armas military plotting and the regime's harsh countermeasures.
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
09005181955
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Castillo Armas suppressed the plotting but was assassinated by his own guard in 1957.
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
Baseline Source-Document Entries
New York Times
Washington Post and Times Herald
Chicago Daily Tribune
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 →