On June 12, 1976 the Uruguayan armed forces removed President Juan Maria Bordaberry from office, ending the tenure of the civilian figurehead who had opened the country's civic-military dictatorship, after he pushed a plan for a permanent corporatist state that went further than the military itself wanted. Bordaberry had dissolved parliament in his June 1973 self-coup and ruled by decree alongside the military, but over the following three years he grew even more authoritarian than his uniformed partners. In 1976 he proposed a new corporatist constitution that would have permanently abolished the traditional political parties and codified a permanent institutional role for the military with himself as president.
The military, unwilling to close off the parties entirely and wary of his openly authoritarian design, forced him out on June 12, 1976. Vice President Alberto Demicheli, head of the Council of State, was sworn in as interim president and promptly cancelled the elections due that year; when he refused to sign a decree stripping thousands of politicians of their rights, he was replaced in September by Aparicio Mendez. Bordaberry was not physically harmed and returned to ranching.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Juan Maria Bordaberry, removed by the military on June 12, 1976; he was not physically harmed, and returned to private life.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Juan Maria Bordaberry (president removed)
Alberto Demicheli (vice president sworn in as interim president)
Aparicio Mendez (appointed president that September)
Sources
A US State Department report recorded that the dispute between President Bordaberry and the Uruguayan military over the future political process was resolved June 12 by Bordaberry's removal from office, with Vice President and President of the Council of State Alberto Demicheli sworn in as interim President, and that Bordaberry's ouster was peaceful.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, E-11 Part 2, Document 352open source ↗
Bordaberry gradually became even more authoritarian than the military commanders, and in June 1976 he proposed a new corporatist constitution that would have permanently shuttered the parties and codified a permanent role for the military, which was further than even the military wanted to go and forced him to resign, after which he was succeeded by Alberto Demicheli, who cancelled the elections that were supposed to take place in 1976.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguayopen source ↗
Economic conditions continued to worsen and Bordaberry was ousted by the military on June 12, 1976, after which he returned to the ranching business, drawing little public notice until 2006 when he was arrested and charged with involvement in human rights violations.
SOURCE REVIEWEDBritannica, Juan Maria Bordaberry Arocenaopen source ↗
In June 1976 Bordaberry was forced to resign after submitting a proposal to the military calling for the elimination of political parties and the creation of a permanent dictatorship with himself as president, and was replaced by Alberto Demichelli, president of the Council of State, who through Institutional Act No. 1 decreed the suspension of elections.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGlobalSecurity.org, Uruguay: Military Government 1973-85open source ↗
Editorial Note
Arc closer: this June 1976 removal ends the presidency of Juan Maria Bordaberry, connecting to the paired Uruguay records enriched in batch 25, the February 1973 Boiso Lanza quasi-coup (1973-02-10) and his own June 1973 self-coup dissolving parliament (1973-06-27); the military that he had empowered now discarded him. Coding note: the dataset labels this a military coup with a not-physically-harmed fate; the armed forces forced out the civilian president when his corporatist plan exceeded what they wanted, replacing him with interim president Demicheli and then Aparicio Mendez in September 1976. Fate coding: Bordaberry was not physically harmed and returned to ranching, matching the dataset fate. Irony noted: Bordaberry had become more authoritarian than the military, wanting to abolish the parties permanently. Later accountability: he was convicted in 2010 for killings and the 1973 coup, recorded as later context. The civic-military dictatorship continued until 1985.
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 Juan Maria Bordaberry, removed by the military on June 12, 1976; he was not physically harmed, and returned to private life..
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
“Military in Uruguay Ousts President over Policy Differences,” June 13, 1976
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 →