Panama, 1959 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
In late April 1959 a Cuban-backed force of some 80 to 90 fighters landed on the Caribbean coast of Panama in a failed attempt to spark a revolution against the government of President Ernesto de la Guardia, the first effort by Fidel Castro's newly victorious Cuba to export its revolution by guerrilla warfare. The expedition, coordinated with a coup plot by the Panamanian diplomat Roberto Tito Arias, husband of the British ballerina Margot Fonteyn, landed near Nombre de Dios on 24 to 25 April after Arias's own plot collapsed. The invaders, mostly Cubans led by Panamanians, found no local uprising, and the Panamanian National Guard, aided by an Organization of American States committee and pressure that led Castro to publicly disavow the venture, contained them.
On 1 May 1959 the surviving invaders surrendered, and de la Guardia's government emerged intact.
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
09504261959
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Ernesto de la Guardia survived the invasion attempt and completed his term.
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
Wikipedia
Newsday
The Observer
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 →