10102201961AttemptedMilitary coup

Venezuela, 1961 — military coup attempt

Venezuela (VEN)South America, AmericasFebruary 20, 1961

Event Summary

The dataset records an attempted military coup in Venezuela on 20 February 1961, in the continuing turbulence of President Romulo Betancourt's elected government, which by early 1961 faced a hardening challenge from a Castroite left that had turned to insurrection as well as from residual right-wing military plotting. Betancourt's Democratic Action administration, having survived the 1960 conspiracies and the June 1960 car bomb attempt on his life, was now confronting the radicalization that would produce the leftist guerrilla movements and the naval risings of Carupano and Puerto Cabello in 1962. Any coup attempt in February 1961 came within that context and did not unseat Betancourt, who suppressed the successive challenges and became the first Venezuelan president to complete a full elected term, handing power to his elected Democratic Action successor Raul Leoni in 1964.

Researched Details

Researched

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

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Romulo Betancourt survived and completed his full elected term, handing power to an elected successor in 1964

RESEARCHED NAME

Key figures

Romulo Betancourt (president of Venezuela, target)

Right wing and leftist plotters (opposing the government)

Sources

Romulo Betancourt served as the elected president of Venezuela from 1959 to 1964 and survived repeated coup attempts from both right-wing officers and the Castroite left.

SOURCE REVIEWED Military Wiki, Romulo Betancourt open source ↗

Betancourt survived an assassination attempt ordered by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo on 24 June 1960 and continued to face armed challenges into the early 1960s.

SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Attempted assassination of Romulo Betancourt open source ↗

Betancourt's moderate reformist government was opposed by a radicalizing left inspired by the Cuban Revolution as well as by military officers nostalgic for the old regime.

SOURCE REVIEWED Military Wiki, Romulo Betancourt open source ↗

Betancourt completed his term in 1964, becoming a landmark figure for democratic continuity after decades of Venezuelan military rule.

SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1958 Venezuelan coup d'etat open source ↗

Editorial Note

No discrete documentation of a coup attempt precisely on 20 February 1961 was found in accessible English sources this session; the entry records the dataset's coding and the verified context of the Betancourt government's early 1961 challenges, with plotter identity for this specific date unconfirmed, flagged. Fourth Venezuela record in this run, continuing from the three 1960 entries.

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: 10102201961
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id: CAM-101-1961-02-20

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

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Romulo Betancourt survived and completed his full elected term, handing power to an elected successor in 1964.

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.

Irish Times

“VENEZUELA COUP FOILED,” February 21, 1961

Los Angeles Times

“Revolt Stopped Without Bloodshed in Venezuela,” February 21, 1961

Globe and Mail

“Feeble Coup Attempt Quashed in Venezuela,” February 21, 1961

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 →

Case File

Record ID: 10102201961
Country: Venezuela · VEN
Region: Americas
Subregion: South America
Date: 1961-02-20
Event type: Military coup
Status: Attempted
Outcome: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent
Actors: Military, Dissident
Leader in power: Romulo Betancourt
A civilian, not a career military officer.
Regime type: Presidential
Last election: 2 years before (Dec 1958, executive vote held as scheduled)
806 days passed between that election and this event.
Electoral democracy: 0.65 on a 0–1 low-to-high index
Leader fate: Remained in office; not physically harmed
Research: Researched

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