After the discovery of oil in Suriname’s territorial waters in January 2020, the government in the capital Paramaribo pitched its hopes on an oil boom matching that of neighboring Guyana. You see, decades of economic mismanagement, excessive spending, and corruption wreaked havoc on the former Dutch colony’s economy. Over the last decade, gross domestic product (GDP) collapsed, plunging by over 10%, hitting Suriname’s population of over 600,000 particularly hard. This exploded in violence during February 2023, with protestors…