On December 4, 1972 General Oswaldo Lopez Arellano seized power in Honduras for the second time, overthrowing the elected president Ramon Ernesto Cruz in a bloodless coup that ended a brief eighteen-month experiment in civilian rule and restored military government. Cruz, a National Party politician, had taken office in 1971 under a power-sharing arrangement between the National and Liberal parties intended to stabilize Honduran politics, but the pact broke down amid partisan deadlock. Lopez Arellano, who had ruled Honduras after his first coup in 1963 and had stepped back into a formal role, moved against Cruz on the stated grounds that the president's rejection of the two-party power-sharing agreement threatened national stability.
On December 4, 1972 the military placed Cruz under house arrest and Lopez Arellano assumed the leadership of the country once again. He pursued a somewhat reformist, populist course, including a 1975 agrarian reform, but was himself ousted in 1975 amid the Bananagate bribery scandal, in which the United Brands company was found to have paid a bribe to Honduran officials.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Ramon Ernesto Cruz, overthrown on December 4, 1972 and placed under house arrest; he was not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Ramon Ernesto Cruz (elected president overthrown)
Oswaldo Lopez Arellano (general who staged his second coup)
Juan Alberto Melgar Castro (colonel who later replaced Lopez Arellano)
Sources
The 1972 Honduran coup was a successful bloodless coup of the Ramon Ernesto Cruz administration by the Honduran military led by General Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, marking the end of the brief interregnum of civilian rule from 1971 to 1972 and the continuation of military rule; on December 2, 1972 Lopez Arellano staged a second coup, placing President Cruz under house arrest and assuming leadership of the country once again.
The primary stated motive behind the coup according to military officials was President Cruz's rejection of the power-sharing agreement between the country's two major parties, the National Party of Honduras and the Liberal Party of Honduras, which threatened national stability, justifying military intervention to prevent potential political instability.
A list of coups records that on December 4, 1972 Oswaldo Lopez Arellano led his second military coup, ousting Ramon Ernesto Cruz, following his first coup of October 3, 1963 that had ousted Ramon Villeda Morales.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, List of coups and coup attempts by countryopen source ↗
Due to corruption scandals Lopez Arellano was later ousted from government and replaced by Colonel Juan Alberto Melgar Castro, ending his second period of rule that had begun with the December 1972 coup against Cruz.
Fate coding: Cruz was placed under house arrest and not physically harmed, matching the dataset fate. Date nuance: sources give the coup as December 2 (the action) and December 4, 1972 (the dataset's date); both are recorded. Arc note: this is Lopez Arellano's second coup, following his first in October 1963 against Villeda Morales (a distinct earlier dataset event); he was himself removed in 1975 amid the Bananagate United Brands bribery scandal and replaced by Melgar Castro, a later event. Context: the coup ended a short-lived civilian power-sharing experiment between the National and Liberal parties.
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:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Ramon Ernesto Cruz, overthrown on December 4, 1972 and placed under house arrest; he was 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
“Honduran Army Ousts Leader Named in Bribery Case in U.S. HONDURAN CHIEF OUSTED BY ARMY,” by Alan Riding, April 23, 1975
Chicago Tribune
“Honduras Chief is Ousted,” April 23, 1975
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 →