1927 Salvadoran coup attempt

Attempted overthrow of President Pío Romero Bosque June 2025 June 2025 1927 Salvadoran coup attempt 310 infobox Dr Pio Romero Bosque, président de Salvador (Pacific) - btv1b532073706 (cropped).jpg A back-and-white portrait photograph of Pío Romero Bosque Jorge Melendez, Pres't. Salvador LCCN2014708770 (cropped).jpg A back-and-white portrait photograph of Jorge Meléndez President Pío Romero Bosque (left) and coup leader and former president Jorge Meléndez (right) 6 December 1927 San Salvador, El Salvador Coup failure Salvadoran government Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty Pío Romero Bosque Enrique Leitzelar Jorge Meléndez Alfonso Quiñónez Molina Federico Kreitz Juan Enrique Aberle Manuel Alfaro Noguera Carlos Carmona Unknown 500 militiamen None 100+ arrested2+ executed On 6 December 1927, the Meléndez–Quiñónez political dynasty of El Salvador attempted to overthrow the government of President Pío Romero Bosque. Former presidents Jorge Meléndez and Alfonso Quiñónez Molina and former chief of police Federico Guillermo Kreitz attempted to overthrow Romero's government in an attempt to restore the political dynasty's power after Romero distanced himself from the dynasty's rule. On 6 December, Colonel Juan Aberle and Major Manuel Noguera attempted to inform both Romero and police chief Colonel Enrique Leitzelar that a military junta had deposed Romero and elected Aberle as president. Both Romero and Leitzelar rejected this information and Romero had Aberle and Noguera arrested, court-martialed, and executed by firing squad. Hundreds of conspirators were arrested while Meléndez, the coup's chief plotter, fled El Salvador for exile. 3 Background From 1913 to 1927, the Meléndez–Quiñónez political dynasty controlled the government of El Salvador.Ching 1997 2Castellanos 2001 52 The political dynasty alternated control of the presidency between family members.Leistenschneider Leistenschneider 1980 171–179The presidents of the Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty were Carlos Meléndez (1913–1914, 1915–1918), Alfonso Quiñónez Molina (1914–1915, 1918–1919, 1923–1927), and Jorge Meléndez (1919–1923).Leistenschneider Leistenschneider 1980 171–179 In 1927, President Alfonso Quiñónez Molina was constitutionally term-limited. As there were no more family members that were willing the assume the presidency, Quiñónez selected Pío Romero Bosque, his Vice President and personal friend, to succeed him.Ching 1997 305 Romero won the 1927 presidential election unanimouslyChing 1997 286 and became President on 1 March 1927.Cortez Tejada 2023 139–140 Quiñónez planned to continue ruling El Salvador from behind the scenesChing 1997 290 and intended Romero to serve as merely a puppet ruler,White 1973 95 but Romero broke with the Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty. He forced two of Quiñónez's appointees—Undersecretary of Promotion Marcos A. Letona and Undersecretary of Public Instruction Salvador Rivas Vides—to resign as an effort to remove Quiñónez's influence from government.Ching 1997 305 In April, Romero lifted a state of siege implemented during Quiñónez's presidency that allowed for freedom of the press and public demonstrations. Soon afterwards, University of El Salvador students organized protests against Quiñónez's appointment as the first presidential designate by the Legislative Assembly that placed him second in the line of succession to the presidency after Vice President Gustavo Vides. Quiñónez resigned from the position in June and left El Salvador for exile in France after the Legislative Assembly began a debate regarding the issue.Ching 1997 305–306 With Quiñónez out of the country, Romero implemented democratic reforms ahead of the 1927 legislative and municipal elections. He dissolved the ruling National Democratic Party (PND) and banned candidates from running under its banner in the election.Ching 1997 312–314 Interior minister Manuel Vicente Mendoza assured that the government did not favor or back any candidates during the election,Ching 1997 314–315 a break with prior practices where candidates were government sponsored.Ching 1997 256–257 Coup attempt Plotting 310 General Carlos Carmona Tadey.png A back-and-white portrait photograph of General Carlos Carmona Tadey Federico Guillermo Kreitz.png A back-and-white portrait photograph of Federico Guillermo Kreitz General Carlos Carmona Tadey (left) and Federico Guillermo Kreitz (right) In late 1927, Quiñónez and Jorge Meléndez, another former president of the Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty, began plotting a coup against Romero's government to preserve the dynasty's influence.Ching 1997 308 Meléndez was the coup's primary organizer and financier. He recruited several of his and Quiñónez's allies to support the coup including Federico Guillermo Kreitz (Quiñónez's chief of the National Police), Colonel Juan Aberle (chief of the Salvadoran Army machine shop), and Major Manuel Noguera (deputy chief of the National Police). Meléndez and Kreitz recruited 500 laborers to serve as militiamen to support the coup. Aberle and Noguera were tasked with capturing the 1st Infantry Brigade's barracks and the National Police headquarters in San Salvador. They would then quietly depose Romero while the 500 militiamen would march into San Salvador from Meléndez's hacienda to cause a "diversionary disturbance".Ching 1997 309–310Castellanos 2001 58 Execution On the morning of 6 December, Aberle and Noguera informed Colonel Enrique Leitzelar, the chief of the National Police, that a military junta had elected Aberle as El Salvador's president and appointed Noguera as the new chief of the National Police. Upon hearing this, Leitzelar demanded confirmation of this information from General Carlos Carmona Tadey, the commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade's barracks and the chief of the Salvadoran Air Fleet. Carmona supported the coup, but when Leitzelar demanded confirmation, Carmona denied any knowledge of the coup or of any military junta. Aberle and Noguera surrendered to Leitzelar after Carmona's denial.Ching 1997 310 Leitzelar presented Aberle and Noguera to Romero later that day at the National Palace. There, Aberle told Romero himself that a military junta had deposed him from the presidency, elected Aberle as president, and offered him and his family safe passage out of El Salvador. In response, Romero ordered Aberle and Noguera's arrest. The 500 militiamen never moved to San Salvador to cause the planned "diversionary disturbance".Ching 1997 310 Aftermath Aberle and Noguera were court-martialed and executed by firing squad 48 hours after their arrest.Ching 1997 310 Over 100 conspirators were arrested for their involvement in the coup. Among those arrested were Kreitz, CarmonaChing 1997 310 (who was also fired from his military positions),Cornejo Escobar other military and government officials, and many militiamen.Ching 1997 310 Meléndez evaded arrest. After the United States embassy rejected his asylum request, Meléndez fled El Salvador to Honduras and later Costa Rica where he settled in exile.Ching 1997 310–311 Quiñónez remained in France during the coup. In a February 1928 interview with former US fr chargé d'affaires Montgomery Schuyler Jr., Quiñónez did not admit involvement but did express sympathies for the coup. He particularly condemned the executions of Aberle and Noguera. He remarked that he and Romero were no longer friends and "have nothing to do with each other now".Ching 1997 311 Romero promoted Leitzelar to brigadier general as a reward for helping stop the coup.Ching 1997 335 Romero continued his democratic reforms in the aftermath of the coup. In 1930, he allowed for new political parties to form,Wilson Lucero 2024 81 and in 1931, El Salvador held a presidential election where no candidate was officially selected by Romero as his successor,Racine 1997 234 a tradition that had occurred in every election since 1903.Ching 1997 220 Romero's democratic reforms were short-lived as a coup d'état later that year overthrew Romero's successor, Arturo Araujo, and began nearly five-decades of military dictatorship.Ching 1997 2–3 See also List of Salvadoran coup d'états Notes References Citations Bibliography 20em Books 35em yes Castellanos Juan Mario 2001 El Salvador, 1930–1960: Antecendentes Históricos de la Guerra Civil https://www.scribd.com/document/580711859/El-Salvador-1930-1960-Antecedentes-histo-ricos-de-la-guerra-civil-Juan-Mario-Castellanos-z-lib-org El Salvador, 1930–1960: Historical Background of the Civil War es San Salvador, El Salvador Dirección de Publicaciones e Impresos 9789992300480 759775114 9 June 2025 Ching Erik K. 1997 From Clientelism to Militarism: The State, Politics and Authoritarianism in El Salvador, 1840–1940 https://www.proquest.com/docview/304330235 en Santa Barbara, California University of California, Santa Barbara 39326756 9 June 2025 304330235 Leistenschneider María Leistenschneider Freddy 1980 Gobernantes de El Salvador: Biografías Governors of El Salvador: Biographies https://www.scribd.com/document/589275475/Gobernantes-de-El-Salvador es Ministry of the Interior 7876291 9 June 2025 amp Wilson Michael Steven Lucero José Antonio 2024 El Salvador: The Roads to Sonsonate and Damascus Chapel Hill, North Carolina What Side Are You On?: A Tohono O'odham Life Across Borders en Critical Indigeneities amp University of North Carolina Press 62–90 9781469675572 10.5149/9781469675602_wilson.8 free 2024005598 1402812000 White Alastair 1973 El Salvador https://archive.org/details/elsalvador0000whit/mode/2up en Nations of the Modern World Ernest Benn Limited London and Tonbridge 0510395236 73175341 1391406624 31 January 2026 Journals 35em yes Cortez Tejada Carlos Ernesto 9 November 2023 La Fiscalidad en El Salvador Durante el Gobierno de Pío Romero Bosque (1927–1931) Taxation in El Salvador During the Government of Pío Romero Bosque (1927–1931) Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities en Dr. Luis Alonso Aparicio Pedagogical University of El Salvador 1 2 137–162 10.5377/csh.v1i2.16906 2958-1729 10332766778 https://camjol.info/index.php/CSH/article/view/16906 9 June 2025 free Racine Karen October 1997 Alberto Masferrer and the Vital Minimum: The Life and Thought of a Salvadoran Journalist, 1868–1932 The Americas en Cambridge University Press 54 2 209–237 10.2307/1007742 0003-1615 1007742 8271929877 Web sources 35em yes https://www.fas.gob.sv/historiadiv.html Historia de la Aviación de El Salvador History of Aviation of El Salvador es 31 January 2026 Salvadoran Air Force Douglas Alcides Cornejo Escobar El Salvador Politics Category:1920s coups d'état Category:1927 in El Salvador Category:1927 in politics Category:1927 conflicts Category:December 1927 in North America Category:Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty Category:Coups d'état in El Salvador