At the age of 79, Desi Bouterse, a military dictator who launched a coup in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in 1980 and was elected back to power three decades later despite accusations of drug smuggling and murder, passed away.
Bouterse’s “life had a lasting impact on our country and his efforts will not be forgotten,” Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk of Suriname posted on Facebook on December 25, 2024. At first, the reason for death was unknown.
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Bouterse’s personality and populist social policies won him praise from his fans. In the eyes of his opponents, he was a brutal autocrat guilty of extrajudicial executions and drug trafficking.
A historic 16-year court procedure culminated in Bouterse’s 20-year prison term in December 2023 for the killings of 15 opponents of the military regime in December 1982. After that, he disappeared and never went to jail, even though he was sentenced.
“There is nobody who has shaped the history of Suriname since its independence like Desi Bouterse,” stated Pepijn Reeser, a Dutch historian who penned a biography of Bouterse in 2015.
According to him, Bouterse was the first to transcend the glaring socioeconomic gap that had characterized Suriname.
Reeser stated, “Before the coup, it was unthinkable somebody from the lower class could become the most powerful man of the country. But he was also the first post-colonial leader to resort to political violence, and the first to use Suriname as a transshipment point for illegal narcotics.”
Decades of admirers recently gathered with tears in their eyes outside Bouterse’s wife’s house. Many wore purple, which is the color of his political party.
