Mexico, 1961 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an event coded as an attempted dissident coup in Mexico on 15 September 1961, during the stable single party rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party under President Adolfo Lopez Mateos. Mexico in this period was governed by the dominant PRI, which had held uninterrupted power since the 1920s and faced no serious threat of a military coup, the armed forces having been subordinated to civilian party control decades earlier. The Lopez Mateos years saw labor unrest, the imprisonment of the muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros and railway leaders, and left-wing agitation influenced by the Cuban Revolution, as well as the founding of the opposition Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional.
No widely documented coup attempt in Mexico on this date appears in accessible English sources, and the PRI government was not seriously challenged; Lopez Mateos completed his term and handed power to his PRI successor Gustavo Diaz Ordaz in 1964.
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
07009151961
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Adolfo Lopez Mateos and the PRI government retained power and completed the term, handing power to a PRI successor in 1964.
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
Chicago Daily Tribune
LA Times
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 →