On January 23, 1958, the dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez was overthrown in a civic-military uprising that ended a decade of military rule in Venezuela and opened the way to durable democracy. Perez Jimenez had staged a fraudulent plebiscite in December 1957 to extend his rule, which fractured the armed forces and galvanized a broad opposition coordinated by the clandestine Junta Patriotica. A failed air force revolt on January 1, 1958, exposed the regime's weakness, and a general strike on January 21 paralyzed the country as military units defected.
In the early hours of January 23, with rebel forces closing in, Perez Jimenez abandoned the Miraflores Palace and flew to the Dominican Republic. Jubilant crowds filled the streets, and a provisional junta under Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal took power, restoring civil liberties and organizing the December 1958 elections that brought Romulo Betancourt to the presidency.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Marcos Perez Jimenez, President of Venezuela (overthrown, fled the country)
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Marcos Perez Jimenez (deposed dictator)
Wolfgang Larrazabal (admiral who headed the provisional junta)
Romulo Betancourt (elected president later in 1958)
Sources
The 1958 Venezuelan coup took place on 23 January 1958, when the dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez was overthrown and a transition government under Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal was put in place until the December 1958 elections.
In the early hours of 23 January, despite support from an important sector of the armed forces, Perez Jimenez abandoned the Miraflores Palace and moved to La Carlota Airport to board a plane to the Dominican Republic.
A fraudulent December 1957 plebiscite to extend his term, a failed air force revolt on 1 January 1958, and a general strike on 21 January eroded military loyalty; Perez Jimenez fled to the Dominican Republic on the morning of 23 January.
SOURCE REVIEWEDChoose Democracy, "Case Study: Venezuela, January 1958"open source ↗
After the overthrow a provisional military junta chaired by Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, with four army colonels, took control, committed to restoring democracy, and organized elections won that December by Romulo Betancourt.
Sources agree Perez Jimenez was overthrown and fled to the Dominican Republic on 23 January 1958 (the Cline dataset date), matching the leader fate of fleeing the country. Two Wikipedia sections, Choose Democracy, and Grokipedia were read directly. This closes the arc of the Venezuela records in this dataset (the 1948 coup that brought the junta to power and the 1952 auto-coup by which Perez Jimenez seized the presidency), and it began the era of Venezuelan democracy under the Punto Fijo pact.
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: Marcos Perez Jimenez, President of Venezuela (overthrown, fled the country).
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. 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
“Civic Groups Overthrows Government,” January 23, 1958
New York Times
“VENEZUELA RULED BY 7-MANJUNTA; Holdouts Yield Military And Civilian Group Pledges Free Elections–Guarantees Investments Secret Police Routed Their 9-Hour Fight Futile–Ousted Dictator Flies to Dominican Republic VENEZUELA RULED BY 7-MAN JUNTA,” January 24, 1958
“Venezuela Plans Elections in 1958,” by Tad Szulc, January 28, 1958
“Larazabal to Quit as Caracas Ruler,” October 21, 1958
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 →