Coup Atlas Research Database
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09110211956SuccessfulMilitary coup

Honduras, 1956 — military coup

Honduras (HND)Central America, AmericasOctober 21, 1956

Event Summary

On October 21, 1956, the Honduran armed forces removed the unpopular de facto president Julio Lozano Diaz and installed a three-man military junta, an event recorded as the first modern coup d'etat in Honduras. Lozano had taken power in 1954 after the stalemated presidential election in which the Liberal Ramon Villeda Morales won a plurality but was denied the presidency; Lozano then dissolved the legislature, declared himself chief of state, ruled by decree, and forced Villeda Morales into exile. His attempt to legitimize himself through a Constituent Assembly election on October 7, 1956, which his party won by a margin the opposition condemned as fraudulent, provoked the military to act.

The junta of General Roque J. Rodriguez, Colonel Hector Caraccioli, and Major Roberto Galvez Barnes declared an amnesty, allowed exiles to return, and organized 1957 elections that made Villeda Morales president. The coup marked the emergence of the Honduran military as an autonomous political institution.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Julio Lozano Diaz, de facto President of Honduras (overthrown by a military junta; forced to resign, not physically harmed)
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Julio Lozano Diaz (deposed de facto president)
Roque J. Rodriguez (junta general)
Hector Caraccioli (junta colonel)
Roberto Galvez Barnes (junta major)
Ramon Villeda Morales (Liberal leader who became president in 1957)

Sources

The 1956 Honduran coup occurred when the military removed acting President Julio Lozano Diaz on 21 October 1956; the junta of General Roque J. Rodriguez, Colonel Hector Caraccioli, and Major Roberto Galvez Barnes governed until 1957 elections.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, "1956 Honduran coup d'etat" open source ↗
The coup represented the armed forces' first modern intervention in national governance, a major turning point after the military had previously served as an appendage of whichever faction held power; the junta held Constituent Assembly elections in September 1957.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, "1956 Honduran coup d'etat" open source ↗
Generally unpopular and in ill health, Lozano was forced to resign by the military; he had won a 1956 election whose result was deemed illegitimate and annulled by the military junta.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, "Julio Lozano Diaz" open source ↗
The three opposition parties declared the 7 October election fraudulent, and on 21 October members of the Honduran military led by General Roque J. Rodriguez brought down the Lozano Diaz dictatorship and established a military junta.
SOURCE REVIEWED Encyclopedia.com, "Lozano Diaz, Julio (1885-1957)" open source ↗

Editorial Note

Sources agree the military removed Lozano Diaz on 21 October 1956 (the Cline dataset date) after a fraudulent election, matching the leader fate of a leader forced out but not physically harmed. The junta comprised Rodriguez, Caraccioli, and Galvez Barnes. Two Wikipedia articles and Encyclopedia.com were read directly. This is widely cited as the first modern coup in Honduras and the start of the military's institutional political role, leading to the 1957 election of Villeda Morales.

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
09110211956
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-91-1956-10-21-2

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Julio Lozano Diaz, de facto President of Honduras (overthrown by a military junta; forced to resign, not physically harmed).

Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; 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
Open dataset DOI ↗
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Luttwak

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Lozano_D%C3%ADaz

New York Times

“Honduran Military Junta Ousts Lozano in Bloodless Revolution,” October 22, 1956
“Army Ousts Member of Honduran Junta,” July 7, 1957

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 →

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