Alleged CIA plot to overthrow Surinam government 1983
By FERNAND DEROOY
June 30, 1983
PARAMARIBO, Surinam — Protesters chanting ‘Reagan Murderer’ Thursday demonstrated against an alleged CIA plot to overthrow military leader Lt. Col. Desi Bouterse, who announced plans to triple the size of Surinam’s army in response.
‘This bloodbath that was planned by the CIA had to be prevented. We will never be good friends with imperialism,’ said Bouterse, speaking to a crowd in Sranang Tango, a local dialect.
Despite government-organized transport and ‘Anti-Intervention Committees’ to spur attendance at the so-called ‘National Day of Embrace,’ U.S. Embassy officials and witnesses estimated less than 10,000 turned out in the capital.
Some 300 protesters marching to the beat of a Caribbean band converged on the U.S. and Dutch embassies to present petitions denouncing the alleged CIA plot against Surinam, a former Dutch colony on the northeast coast of South America.
‘The embassy had full police protection and (the protest had) a carnival atmosphere,’ said U.S. Ambassador Robert Duemling.
He said protesters chanted ‘Reagan murderer’ and carried ‘very large photographs … one of Bouterse, one of Che Guevarra and one of a local popular hero … the demonstration lasted about 15 minutes.’
News reports reaching Paramaribo from Washington said congressional intelligence committee members balked at a CIA plan to overthrow the Bouterse regime that would have used exiled activists living in the Netherlands.
Bouterse has run the country as armed forces commander and leader of the National Policy Center since he and a small group of non-commissioned soldiers toppled the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Henck Arron Feb. 25, 1980.
In his address, Bouterse vowed to form a political party named the 25th of February United Movement in honor of the day in 1980 when he seized control of Surinam.
He also vowed to ‘defend the revolution’ by tripling the size of the army to 10,000 men, doubling the police force to 10,000, forming a Cuban-style ‘youth brigade’ with 50,000 members as well as women’s and farmers’ organizations.
‘We will have to school and arm the masses,’ Bouterse said, attacking the Dutch government for suspending a multimillion-dollar aid package to protest the December killings of 15 prominent civic leaders who demanded democratic reforms.
Bouterse defended the slayings, charging the 15 were part of a CIA plot to topple his regime. ‘The people let itself be manipulated by the CIA in a masterly way,’ Bouterse said.
‘We are choosing our own friends and the people who are making revolutions elsewhere will have our support,’ said the bearded Bouterse from a red-draped platform opposite the colonial-style presidential palace.
Source:
Link:
Internal Link: