1861 Venezuelan coup d'état
The 1861 Venezuelan coup d'état was a coup d'état carried out by former president José Antonio Páez against the interim government of Pedro Gual from within his own Conservative Party during the Federal War.
History
After the fall of the government of Julián Castro during the Federal War, Pedro Gual and Manuel Felipe de Tovar briefly assumed the presidency of the country. The Conservative Party was divided between those who supported a civilian direction and those who supported a military direction for the nation.[1] José Antonio Páez returned to Venezuela in March 1861;[1] President Tovar resigned and Pedro Gual assumed office again.
On August 19, 1861, a movement of Páez supporters rose up in Valencia against the government of Gual.[2][1] Colonel Manuel Echezuría then took Caracas with this armed movement and placed President Gual under arrest on the 29th of that month,[2][3][1] thus consummating a coup d'état.[4][5]
After these events, Páez agreed to assume his third government as supreme civil and military chief of Venezuela,[2] governing until 1863.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Harwich Vallenilla, Nikita. "Guerra Federal". Fundación Empresas Polar (in Spanish). Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- ^ a b c "1861 - Cronología de historia de Venezuela". Fundación Empresas Polar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- ^ Lucca, Rafael Arráiz (2021-10-10). "José Antonio Páez: guerrero, pacifista y republicano (y III Parte)". La Gran Aldea (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- ^ "La trompeta de la guerra en la voz de Juan Vicente González" (in Spanish).
- ^ Madrid, Raúl L. (2025). The Birth of Democracy in South America. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-63381-9.