PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) — Desi Bouterse, a military strongman who led a coup in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in 1980 and then returned to power in elections three decades later despite charges of drug trafficking and murder, has died. He was 79.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) — Desi Bouterse, a military strongman who led a coup in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in 1980 and then returned to power in elections three decades later despite charges of drug trafficking and murder, has died. He was 79.
Surinamese Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Bouterse’s life “has had a lasting impact on our country and that his efforts will not be forgotten.” The cause of death was not immediately known.
Bouterse was praised by supporters for his charisma and populist social programs. To his opponents, he was a ruthless dictator convicted of drug trafficking and extrajudicial killings.
December 2023Bouterse was sentenced to twenty years in prison because of the murders of 15 opponents of the then military government i In December 1982, a historic 16-year legal process came to an end. He then disappeared and, despite the conviction, was never jailed.
“There is no one who has shaped the history of Suriname since independence as much as Desi Bouterse,” says Dutch historian Pepijn Reeser, who wrote a biography about Bouterse in 2015.
The Associated Press