Surinam, 1981 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Suriname on 15 March 1981 during the period of intense factional struggle within the military regime that had ruled since the February 1980 Sergeants' Coup, as the emerging strongman Desi Bouterse consolidated power against rivals. In this era Suriname's National Military Council was riven by ideological and personal conflicts among the officers who had made the coup, and there were repeated plots and countermoves as more radical leftist officers and more moderate figures vied for control. A coup attempt in March 1981 came within that context and did not unseat the ruling council.
Bouterse steadily eliminated his rivals; the internal power struggles culminated first in the suppression of plots by figures such as Sergeant Wilfred Hawker, who was involved in a failed countercoup and later executed, and then in the notorious December Murders of 1982, when fifteen prominent opponents were killed, cementing Bouterse's dictatorship over Suriname.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
11503151981
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The Bouterse led military council survived the March 1981 plotting amid the regime's internal power struggles.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Wikipedia
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →