Guatemala, 1962 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Guatemala on 25 November 1962, during the increasingly embattled government of President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, whose corruption scandals and accommodation of United States interests, including the training of Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs on Guatemalan soil, had provoked the November 1960 army revolt that sparked the civil war. By late 1962 Ydigoras faced a nascent guerrilla insurgency from the survivors of that revolt organized as the MR 13, urban unrest, and continued plotting from officers who wanted him gone. Any coup attempt in November 1962 came within that turbulence and did not unseat Ydigoras at that time.
His government limped on until March 1963, when his own defense minister Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia overthrew him in a coup, partly to prevent the former president Juan Jose Arevalo from returning to win the scheduled elections.
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
09011251962- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-90-1962-11-25
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes survived the November 1962 pressure but was overthrown by his defense minister in March 1963.
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
Christian Science Monitor
Hartford Courant
Minneapolis Star
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 →