Suriname ex-President, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, who probed 1982 political killings, dies at 67

Suriname’s former President, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, an ex-police commissioner who investigated the 1982 killings of greater than a dozen political opponents that deeply scarred the South American nation, has died. He was 67.

Santokhi, who was often known as “Chan,” led the troubled nation as President from 2020 to 2025, and beforehand served as Minister of Justice and Police from 2005 to 2010.

Suriname President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons confirmed Santokhi’s demise in a press release on social media, writing that “his years of service in varied public capabilities will probably be remembered.” The reason for demise was not instantly identified.

Rob Jetten, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, wrote on X that he was “grieved and shocked by the sudden passing” of the previous President: “As President, and in his different roles, he meant an important deal to Suriname. He additionally tirelessly labored to strengthen the ties between the Netherlands and Suriname.” Suriname is a former Dutch colony.

Santokhi took over a bankrupt Suriname from his predecessor, former dictator Desi Bouterse, and led the nation to financial stability, partly supported by an Worldwide Financial Fund program.

Nevertheless, austere measures carried out to adjust to this system translated into large sacrifices for the Surinamese individuals, together with the phasing out of gas, water and electrical energy subsidies.

In February 2023, a whole lot of demonstrators stormed Suriname’s Parliament to protest excessive gas and electrical energy costs as they demanded Santokhi’s resignation.

Voters denied Santokhi a second time period following the Might 2025 common election.

Earlier, as Minister of Justice and Police, Santokhi cracked down on drug trafficking and different crimes, incomes him the nickname “The Sheriff.” Earlier than coming into politics, Santokhi was a police commissioner, main the investigation into the so-called “December killings,” by which 15 political opponents of the navy regime led by Bouterse have been shot and killed in December 1982.

Bouterse confronted a prison trial that started in 2007, a quarter-century after the killings passed off. He was finally sentenced to twenty years in jail after being convicted twice within the killings however remained a fugitive up till his demise in late 2024.

Bouterse had accepted “political duty” for the killings however at all times denied he was current for them.

Even earlier than the trial started, Bouterse accused Santokhi of desirous to imprison and kill him. The 2 have been fierce political opponents.

Santokhi’s success as a police officer and later as a Minister paved the best way for him to assert the chairmanship of the Progressive Reform Celebration in 2011 following the resignation of then-chairman Ramdien Sardjoe.