Panama, 1951 — palace coup
Event Summary
On May 10, 1951, Panama's twice-elected populist president Arnulfo Arias Madrid was overthrown by the militarized National Police under Colonel Jose Antonio Remon, the same power broker who had installed Arias only eighteen months earlier. The crisis began on May 7, when Arias abolished the 1946 constitution, restored the more authoritarian 1941 charter, dissolved the National Assembly, and suspended the Supreme Court to expand his powers. The Assembly responded by impeaching him, crowds surrounded the presidential palace, and after a gun battle in which two police officers were killed, Arias surrendered on May 10 and was arrested.
The Assembly installed Vice President Alcibiades Arosemena in his place. The episode confirmed the National Police as the decisive force in Panamanian politics and set the stage for Remon's own presidency in 1952.
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
09505091951
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Arnulfo Arias Madrid, President of Panama (overthrown, arrested).
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; arrested or jailed. 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
Powell and Thyne
Wikipedia
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 →