Honduras, 1959 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted dissident coup in Honduras on 12 July 1959, during the constitutional government of President Ramon Villeda Morales, the Liberal reformer who had taken office in 1957 after a period of military and provisional rule. Villeda Morales governed amid the regional ferment that followed the Cuban Revolution and faced repeated conspiracies from conservative and military quarters uneasy at his social reforms and his creation of a rural constabulary. A significant armed rising against his government occurred in 1959, mounted by disaffected officers and put down with the help of forces loyal to the president.
Any coup attempt in July 1959 came within that turbulence and did not unseat Villeda Morales, who served until he was finally overthrown by the military under Colonel Oswaldo Lopez Arellano in a coup in October 1963, shortly before 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
09107121959- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-91-1959-07-12
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Ramon Villeda Morales survived and governed until the October 1963 military coup.
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
New York Times
Irish Times
Times of India
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 →