10106261961AttemptedMilitary coup

Venezuela, 1961 — military coup attempt

Venezuela (VEN)South America, AmericasJune 26, 1961

Event Summary

The dataset records an attempted military coup in Venezuela on 26 June 1961, one of the many challenges to President Romulo Betancourt's elected government during a period of intense pressure from both the extreme right and the Castroite left. Betancourt's Democratic Action administration, having survived the 1960 conspiracies and the June 1960 car bomb attempt on his life ordered by Trujillo, faced a mounting insurgency as the radical left turned to armed struggle and disaffected officers plotted risings. This year would culminate in the naval and garrison revolts of Carupano and Puerto Cabello in 1962.

Any coup attempt in June 1961 came within that turbulence and did not unseat Betancourt, whose firm suppression of the successive challenges allowed him to become 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)

Disaffected military officers and leftist insurgents (plotters)

Sources

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

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, a landmark 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 26 June 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 many 1961 challenges, with plotter identity for this specific date unconfirmed, flagged. Continues the Venezuela Betancourt run from batch 62.

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: 10106261961
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id: CAM-101-1961-06-26-2

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.

New York Times

“Flare-Up in Venezuela,” June 27, 1961

Irish Times

“REVOLT CRUSHED IN VENEZUELA,” June 27, 1961

Hartford Courant

“Venezuela Nips Revolt; 13 Killed,” June 27, 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: 10106261961
Country: Venezuela · VEN
Region: Americas
Subregion: South America
Date: 1961-06-26
Event type: Military coup
Status: Attempted
Outcome: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent
Actors: Military
Leader in power: Romulo Betancourt
A civilian, not a career military officer.
Regime type: Presidential
Last election: 3 years before (Dec 1958, executive vote held as scheduled)
932 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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