Venezuela, 1946 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 16 September 1946 military conspirators attempted a coup against Venezuela's Revolutionary Government Junta headed by Romulo Betancourt, part of a wave of counterrevolutionary plotting during the trienio that followed the October 1945 overthrow of President Isaias Medina Angarita. The junta, formed with Betancourt as provisional president and Major Carlos Delgado Chalbaud as defense minister, was pushing sweeping electoral and constitutional changes and a 50 50 oil profit split that enraged displaced conservative and medinista officers. The September plot failed and the junta remained in power; six weeks later Accion Democratica won the October 1946 Constituent Assembly election with an overwhelming majority.
Among the officers later identified as conspiring against the Betancourt regime in 1946 was Jesus Maria Castro Leon, who resurfaced in later Venezuelan coup politics. The democratic experiment survived until the November 1948 coup ended the trienio.
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
10109161946
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Junta president Romulo Betancourt survived the attempt unharmed and the junta remained in power.
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
New York Times
South China Morning Post & the Hongkong Telegraph
Daily Boston Globe
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 →