Surinam, 1986 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 28 July 1986, at the outbreak of the Surinamese Interior War, the armed rebellion led by Ronnie Brunswijk against the military regime of Desi Bouterse. Brunswijk, a Maroon who had served as Bouterse's personal bodyguard in the early 1980s before being discharged in 1984, formed the Surinamese Liberation Army, better known as the Jungle Commando, to seek recognition and rights for the marginalized Maroon population of the interior. The conflict began in the pre-dawn hours of 22 July 1986 at Stolkertsijver, where twelve soldiers guarding a checkpoint were captured by the Jungle Commando, followed the same night by a coordinated attack on the army barracks at Albina; by 26 July it was assumed that Brunswijk was behind the attacks.
This grew into the 1986 to 1992 Surinamese Interior War, marked by the November 1986 Moiwana massacre of at least 35 Maroon villagers and the flight of thousands of refugees to French Guiana. The 28 July 1986 coding sits at this late-July 1986 outbreak of the Brunswijk insurgency against Bouterse.
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
11507281986
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Bouterse retained army command through the war, which ended in a 1992 peace treaty.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. 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
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)
Chicago Tribune
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 →