The Americas

Modern Surinam / Suriname
AD 1975 - Present Day
Incorporating Heads of State (1975-2026)

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Located at the 'top' of South America, Suriname borders Guyana to its west, the open Atlantic Ocean to the north, French Guiana to the east, and Brazil to the south. Its capital is Paramiribo on the River Suriname, about fifteen kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean coast.

Originally a plantation colony of the Netherlands which was usually referred to as Dutch Guiana, the country became independent on 25 November 1975. Initially it was known as Surinam, without the 'e'', but that changed in 1978. Dutch remains the majority language in the country.

Native groups here included large numbers of Arawak and Carib peoples. The Surinen who gave their name to the modern state were also some of the area's earliest-known inhabitants. By the sixteenth century they had either been driven out by other indigenous groups or had migrated to other parts of the Guianas.

The name 'Guyana' is derived 'The Guianas', a colonial description for a larger region which included today's Guyana (British Guiana), Suriname (Dutch Guiana), French Guiana, the 'Guayana Region' in Venezuela (Spanish Guiana), and Amapá in Brazil (Portuguese Guiana). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name 'Guyana' originates in an indigenous Amerindian language with a meaning of 'land of many waters'.

Europeans learned of Suriname and the rest of the Guianas from Christopher Columbus, who sighted its coast in 1498. A Spanish expedition under Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda sailed along the coast of Suriname in 1499, and Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón visited the region in 1500.

Settlements were attempted by the Spanish, Dutch, British, and French during the first half of the seventeenth century but these all failed, in part due to resistance by the indigenous population. Eventual settlement took place mainly along the Atlantic coastal region alone.

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(Information by Peter Kessler and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from Anglo-American Rivalries and the Venezuela Crisis of 1895, R A Humphreys (Presidential Address to the Royal Historical Society, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 17, 1966), from Colonial Latin America, Mark A Burkholder & Lyman L Johnson (Tenth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2018), from Historical Atlas of the World, R R Palmer (Ed, Chicago, 1963), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, New Jersey, 1979), from Obituary: Suriname Labor Activist Fred Derby (Washington Post, 21 May 2001), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Suriname (Flags of the World), and Suriname (Rulers.org), and Suriname (Zárate's Political Collections (ZPC)), and History of the United Nations, and Rare royal visit to Suriname (The Guardian), and Suriname's Armed Forces, Manohar Parrikar (Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses).)

1975 - 1980

President, ex-Dutch Guiana. No party.

1975 - 1978

Having graduated from its colonial identity as Dutch Guiana, the independent nation state of Surinam joins the United Nations on 4 December 1975, with the organisation having been set up in 1945. Three years later, in 1978, the country changes the spelling of its name to Suriname.

Shown here is Trelawney Town the later chief settlement of the Accompong Maroons on Jamaica, a group which was created out of Spanish interference and then the sudden removal of Spanish authority over the island

1980

Lieutenant-Colonel Dési Bouterse seizes power in a coup which is launched on 25 February 1980. Prime Minister Henck Arron is removed from office and Bouterse appoints himself chairman of a military junta (the 'National Military Council'). He remains the ultimate authority in Suriname until 1988.

1980

National army commander.

1980 - 1982

Puppet president (15 Aug-4 Feb). PNR. Removed.

1982 - 1988

National army commander and head of state.

1982 - 1988

Acting president. No party. Removed.

1986

The 'Surinamese Liberation Army' or SLA forms as a guerrilla group which is better known as the 'Jungle Commando'. Its membership consists mainly of Maroons who have the aim of overthrowing the standing government.

In retaliation the national army carries out raids on Maroon villages. The killing and detaining of numbers of Maroons results in the flight of many to French Guiana.

Contaminated slurry is discharged into the River Maroni from a mining site on the Surinamese side of the border, an ongoing problem for French Guiana's authorities in the twenty-first century

1987 - 1988

Under the terms of a new constitution in 1987, legislative power is exercised by the popularly elected fifty-one-member unicameral national assembly which, in turn, elects a president and vice-president. All holders of these offices serve five-year terms.

Dési Bouterse is deposed as dictator in 1988 and Misier is removed as president so that elections can take place to return the county to a free and fair democratic process.

1988 - 1990

President. Progressive Reform Party (VHP). Deposed.

1990

National army commander (24-29 Dec only).

1990 - 1991

President (29 Dec on). FDO / NPS.

1991 - 1996

President. New Front ([NF]/NPS).

1992

A formal peace agreement is reached with the 'Jungle Commando'. Most of the self-exiled Maroons return to Suriname where they now control economic activity on their lands.

A slow transition to democracy began in 1987, with full multi-party democracy finally restored in 1991, and with support from Brazil and Venezuela making it possible for the civilian government to neutralise the political power of the military in 1993 with the removal of the last of the officers from the era of military dictatorship

1996

Dési Bouterse has returned to power behind the scenes in the 1990s. He steps down so that, in 1996, his ally Jules Wijdenbosch can become president. Wijdenbosch finds his governance is extremely opposed so he steps down early to allow fresh elections - which he then loses.

1996 - 2000

President. National Democratic Party (NDP).

2000 - 2010

President for the second time. NF/NPS.

2010 - 2020

President. Mega Combination ([MC]/NDP).

2020 - 2025

Former police officer. President. VHP.

2025 - On

First female president. NDP.

2025

As with her predecessor in the office, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons faces no opposition in the general elections which assure her the position of Suriname's president.

The king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander or William IV, in 2025 meet representatives of descendants of enslaved people and indigenous communities in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname

In the same year, and for the first time in nearly five decades by a monarch of his country, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands arrives on Monday 1 December 2025 for a three day visit. He vows not to avoid the topic of slavery in a land in which the practice had been ended a century and-a-half beforehand.