He took power in a military coup in 1980 and later served as the country’s president. He was also convicted of ordering the murder of 15 political opponents.
Reporting from Amsterdam
Desi Bouterse, the brutal former dictator turned populist president of Suriname who was convicted of murdering some of his political opponents, has died. He was 79.
Ronnie Brunswijk, the country’s vice president, who was Mr. Bouterse’s former bodyguard and later his rival, confirmed the death in a post on Facebook. The post said Mr. Bouterse had died on Tuesday, but did not say where or give a cause. News media in Suriname, a small South American nation, reported that Mr. Bouterse had been suffering from an undisclosed illness.
Mr. Bouterse was a divisive figure in the former Dutch colony of Suriname: a national hero to some and a brutal dictator to others.
Born to a poor family in Suriname’s sugar belt on Oct. 13, 1945, he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Dutch Army.
Mr. Bouterse seized power in a military coup in 1980 — five years after the country’s independence from the Netherlands — and ruled Suriname through terror. In 1982, fearing a countercoup, he ordered his soldiers to round up, torture and execute 15 prominent dissidents. The victims included journalists, professors, lawyers and others.
The killings, which have become known as the “December Murders,” traumatized the country and prompted the Netherlands to suspend economic and military cooperation with its former colony.
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