Guatemala, 1988 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Guatemala on 11 May 1988, the first of two coup attempts against President Vinicio Cerezo, the Christian Democrat who in 1986 had become the country's first elected civilian president in decades, ending a long era of brutal military rule. Cerezo governed under the shadow of a still powerful army that retained enormous autonomy and continued to wage a savage counterinsurgency, and his fragile democratic experiment was resented by hardline officers opposed to any dilution of military prerogatives or to negotiations with the leftist insurgency. On 11 May 1988 a faction of the armed forces mounted a coup attempt against Cerezo, which was suppressed with the support of loyalist commanders.
Cerezo survived this and a second attempt in May 1989, managing against considerable odds to complete his term and hand power to an elected successor in 1991, a milestone in Guatemala's slow and violent transition from military dominance, though the army retained decisive influence and the civil war ground on until peace accords in 1996.
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
09005111988- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-90-1988-05-11
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Vinicio Cerezo survived the May 1988 coup attempt and completed his term, handing power to a successor in 1991.
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
CSP
Wikipedia
New York 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 →