Suriname - SR - SUR - SUR - South America

a transit country for South American cocaine en route to Europe; illicit drugs are smuggled in cargo containers, commercial and private air transport and human couriers

Suriname is a pluralistic society consisting primarily of Creoles (persons of mixed African and European heritage), the descendants of escaped African slaves known as Maroons, and the descendants of Indian and Javanese (Indonesian) contract workers. The country overall is in full, post-industrial demographic transition, with a low fertility rate, a moderate mortality rate, and a rising life expectancy. However, the Maroon population of the rural interior lags behind because of lower educational attainment and contraceptive use, higher malnutrition, and significantly less access to electricity, potable water, sanitation, infrastructure, and health care.

Some 350,000 people of Surinamese descent live in the Netherlands, Suriname's former colonial ruler. In the 19th century, better-educated, largely Dutch-speaking Surinamese began emigrating to the Netherlands. World War II interrupted the outflow, but it resumed after the war when Dutch labor demands grew - emigrants included all segments of the Creole population. Suriname still is strongly influenced by the Netherlands because most Surinamese have relatives living there and it is the largest supplier of development aid. Other emigration destinations include French Guiana and the United States. Suriname's immigration rules are flexible, and the country is easy to enter illegally because rainforests obscure its borders. Since the mid-1980s, Brazilians have settled in Suriname's capital, Paramaribo, or eastern Suriname, where they mine gold. This immigration is likely to slowly re-orient Suriname toward its Latin American roots.

Suriname-France (French Guiana): in March 2021, Suriname and France signed an agreement to establish their border along the Maroni River and its tributary the Lawa River and to cooperate in combatting illegal gold mining; however, the area further south between the Litani and Marouini Rivers is still disputed, with Suriname claiming the border is along the Marouini to the east and France arguing it is along the Litani River to the west

Suriname-Guyana: the two countries dispute the territory between two rivers, known as the New River Triangle, with Suriname contending that the New River (also called the Upper Corentyne) to the west marks their common border, while Guyana asserts that the Kutari River to the east forms the border; each side claims that their river is the source of the Corentyne River that forms a border further north between the two countries; the Permanent Court of Arbitration settled the maritime boundary between Suriname and Guyana in 2007 in an area with potentially substantial oil reserves