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Desi Bouterse

leader of Suriname (1980–1987, 2010–2020)

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Dési Bouterse is a political and military leader who ruled Suriname during two separate periods: from 1980 to 1987 and again from 2010 to 2020. He is a significant but controversial figure in Surinamese history due to his long influence over the country's governance during these decades.

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Desiré "Desi" Delano Bouterse (13 October 1945 – 23 December 2024) was a Surinamese military officer, politician, and convicted drug trafficker, who served as the eighth president of Suriname from 2010 to 2020, having previously led the country twice after a coup as a military dictator from 1980 to 1987 and again from 1990 to 1991. He was the founding president of the National Democratic Party (NDP) from 1987 to 2024.

Bouterse was a controversial figure, held responsible by some for numerous human rights violations committed during his military rule in the 1980s. Most notable were the December murders in 1982. He was prosecuted for the murders, and a trial was initiated, but the National Assembly extended amnesty to him in 2012. After the trial was forced to continue, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on 29 November 2019. He was also suspected of having directed the Moiwana massacre in 1986 against a village of Maroons during the Surinamese Interior War which pitted his government first against the maroon guerrilla group Jungle Commando, led by his former bodyguard, Ronnie Brunswijk, and then against the indigenous group Tucayana Amazonas.