Wily survivor who famously piloted Algeria for two decades dies at 84
ALGIERS: Former Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who fought for independence from France in the 1950s and 1960s and was ousted amid pro-democracy protests in 2019 after 20 years in power, has died at age 84, state television announced Friday. The report on ENTV, citing a statement from the office of current President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, did not provide the cause of death or information about funeral arrangements.
Bouteflika had suffered a stroke in 2013 that badly weakened him. Concerns about his state of health, kept secret from the Algerian public, helped feed public frustration with his rule that erupted in mass public protests in 2019 that led to his departure.
Earlier in his life, Bouteflika fought for independence from colonial ruler France, successfully negotiated with the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal to free oil ministers taken hostage in a 1975 attack on OPEC headquarters, and helped reconcile Algerian citizens with each other after a decade of civil war between radical Muslim militants and Algeria’s security forces.
Bouteflika had been known as a wily survivor ever since he fought for independence from France.
He became foreign minister as just age 25, and stood up to the likes of Henry Kissinger in the height of the Cold War. At the time Algeria was a model of doctrinaire socialism tethered to the former Soviet Union and the capital, Algiers, was nicknamed “Moscow on the Med.”
In 20 years as president, however, his firebrand past dissolved as age and illness took its toll on the once-charismatic figure. Corruption scandals over infrastructure and hydrocarbon projects also dogged him for years and tarnished many of his closest associates. Many are now in prison. Born on March 2, 1937 in the town of Oujda near the Morocco border, Bouteflika was among Algeria’s most enduring politicians.