Coup Atlas Research Database
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10107221958AttemptedMilitary coup

Venezuela, 1958 — military coup attempt

Venezuela (VEN)South America, AmericasJuly 22, 1958

Event Summary

The dataset records an attempted military coup in Venezuela on 22 July 1958, during the fragile transitional government that followed the 23 January 1958 overthrow of dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez. The provisional junta under Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal was steering the country toward the December 1958 elections while managing deep divisions within the armed forces between officers committed to the democratic transition and hardliners uneasy at the return to civilian rule and the legalization of parties including the communists. The interim government survived two coup attempts during 1958, both thwarted because enough officers backed the junta.

Any coup attempt on 22 July 1958 came within that turbulence and did not derail the transition, which proceeded to the December election that brought Democratic Action's Romulo Betancourt to the presidency in February 1959.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: The provisional junta under Wolfgang Larrazabal survived and completed the transition to elected civilian government in 1959
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Wolfgang Larrazabal (head of the provisional junta, target)
Hardline anti-transition officers (plotters)
Romulo Betancourt (incoming elected president)

Sources

The 1958 Venezuelan coup on 23 January overthrew Perez Jimenez and put in place a transition government under first Admiral Wolfgang Larrazabal, leading to December 1958 elections won by Democratic Action candidate Romulo Betancourt.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1958 Venezuelan coup d'etat open source ↗
The interim government survived two coup attempts, both thwarted because enough officers supported the junta, even after it had legalized the Venezuelan Communist Party.
SOURCE REVIEWED Caracas Chronicles, The Tense Birth of Venezuela's Democratic Era open source ↗
Many hardliners from the Perez Jimenez era rejected Larrazabal's vision of a virtuous army that retained political influence, creating divisions within the armed forces during the transition.
SOURCE REVIEWED Caracas Chronicles, The Tense Birth of Venezuela's Democratic Era open source ↗
Betancourt won the December 1958 election with 49 percent of the vote, securing a mandate for civilian rule and taking office on 13 February 1959.
SOURCE REVIEWED Caracas Chronicles, The Tense Birth of Venezuela's Democratic Era open source ↗

Editorial Note

No discrete documentation of a coup attempt precisely on 22 July 1958 was found in accessible English sources this session; the entry records the dataset's coding and the verified context of the two coup attempts against the 1958 provisional junta, with the specific 22 July event unconfirmed, flagged. One of the transitional junta attempts, paired with the September 1958 record in this batch.

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:

Cline Center id
10107221958
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-101-1958-07-21-3

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The provisional junta under Wolfgang Larrazabal survived and completed the transition to elected civilian government in 1959.

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
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
Open dataset DOI ↗
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

Powell and Thyne

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

New York Times

“Venezuela Stops a Coup,” July 24, 1958

Chicago Tribune

“COUP ATTEMPT IN VENEZUELA MEETS DEFEAT,” July 24, 1958

Atlanta Constitution

“Mob of 100,000 Halts Venezuela Army Coup,” July 24, 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 →

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Related Records

Venezuela — Military coup, 19581958-01-01AttemptedSouth AmericaVenezuela — Military coup, 19581958-09-07AttemptedSouth AmericaVenezuela — Military coup, 19601960-04-20AttemptedSouth America