Algeria: A Legacy Gone and A Government In Disarray
In Algeria, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika died at the age of 84 on September 17th of 2021. He has served the country for two decades and was thinking about running for a fifth term.
That would have never happened since he stepped down from his position in April of 2019 due to the mass protests around the country and even the army did not support him anymore.
Boteflika’s supporters have often called him a national hero since he is a veteran of the Algerian War, which he indeed fought hard, along with many others with France so that they would be an independent nation in 1962.
Bouteflika then went on to become, “Algeria’s first foreign minister and an influential figure in the Non-Aligned Movement,” (Aljazeera). He even was the president of the UN General Assembly. Even though these things are all good, there is always another side of the story.
He had some corruption charges against him in the 1980s, although these were dropped later. He even went into exile in Dubai after the death of former President Houari Boumediene, but still managed to win the next presidential election in 1999 and allowed the country to be peaceful with a truce with the Islamists.
Riots then began in 2011 and, “his government responded by creating thousands of small businesses, (Aljazeera). Many people have said that Alegria is not necessarily full of democracy and that the creation of small business did not exactly help the overall economy flourish.
There was always one main group of people who ruled the nation. Bouteflika even changed the constitution to run for a third and fourth term to keep himself in power over the many years. Many of these people were born after the independence from France and see more of the bad qualities of the government as it is in modern day.
Even at Bourteflika’s funeral, many prior leaders have added that he was, “buried at El Alia cemetery without fanfare and official mourning period,” (Aljazeera). He got buried without honors which is most likely from his corruption cases over the years.
Former President Abdelaziz Bourteflika’s own brother was sentenced to prison for 15 years, along with two other leaders. In a private meeting, “they allegedly discussed imposing a state of emergency and firing army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah as a last-ditch effort to preserve the rule of the former president,” (Aljazeera). The country was in array due to the resignation imposed by the military.
In the end, Borteflika passed away at the age of 84 and is leaving the government in some kind of array. There will be a leader who will stand up who is now President Abdelmadjid Tebboune who won the general election back in December of 2019.
