Honduras, 1977 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Honduras on 21 October 1977 during the military government of General Juan Alberto Melgar Castro, who had taken power in 1975 within the reformist armed forces regime that had governed Honduras since the early 1970s. Melgar Castro presided over a period of tension between reformist and conservative factions in the military, amid controversy over agrarian reform, corruption scandals, and the influence of business elites. Rivalries within the officer corps produced plotting during this period.
A coup attempt in October 1977 came within that context and did not immediately unseat Melgar Castro, though his position was weakening. In August 1978 he was removed from power, not by this attempt but by a bloodless move of the Superior Council of the Armed Forces, which replaced him with a three-man junta led by General Policarpo Paz Garcia. Honduras remained under military rule until the transition to elected civilian government at the start of the 1980s.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
09110211977
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Juan Alberto Melgar Castro survived the October 1977 plotting but was removed by the military in 1978.
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
Luttwak
Los Angeles Times
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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 →