The government will offer condolences for the death of Bouterse, a former leader who was found guilty of killing freedom fighters in 1982.
Desi BouterseSuriname's former president, who fled authorities to avoid prison after being convicted of killing activists in the 1980s, has died at the age of 79, the government said.
“Waiting for more detailed and reliable information from the official channels, we want to express our condolences to the wife, children and other family members who are left behind because of this loss,” President Chan Santokhi said on Wednesday, referring to Bouterse.
Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk wrote on Facebook that “Bouterse's life touched our country and his efforts will never be forgotten”.
What killed him was not immediately known, and the government did not say where Bouterse died Tuesday.
Bouterse, who was divisive, was praised by supporters for his charisma and populist programs but was seen by his critics as a dictator convicted of drug trafficking and extrajudicial killings.
He dominated politics in the small northeastern South American country for decades, leading a coup in 1980 and finally stepping down in 2020.
In 2019, he and six others were convicted for their role in the 1982 assassination of 15 government officials, including lawyers, journalists, union leaders, soldiers and university professors.
Bouterse said the men killed were linked to an earlier attack on the Dutch state.
In December last year, Bouterse was he was sentenced to 20 years in prison murder, 16-year prison term.
Then he disappeared and never went to jail.
“No one has made Suriname's history since independence like Desi Bouterse,” said Dutch historian Pepijn Reeser, who wrote a biography of Bouterse in 2015.
He said Bouterse was the first to tackle the sectarian divide that defined Suriname.
“Before the conspiracy, it was not possible for someone from a lower caste to become the most powerful person in the country. But he was also the first post-colonial leader to engage in political violence and the first to use Suriname as a transit point for illegal drugs,” Reeser said.
In 1999, a Dutch court ruled that Bouterse did not serve 11 years in prison for smuggling more than 453kg (1,000lb) of drugs into the Netherlands. The absence of an international extradition treaty meant that he did not spend time in prison.
In the early hours of Wednesday, many supporters gathered outside Bouterse's home, where his wife lives, in tears.
Many were wearing purple, the color of his political party.
