These attacks led to the jungle commandos' possessing primary control over the Marowijne, Lawa, and Tapanahoni rivers. This control over the local waterways eventually resulted in many hijackings. The first of which took place that September when the jungle commando ceased control over an engined Cessna at Apetina. Nearing the end of November 1986, the Jungle Commando would be responsible for the destruction of two bridges on the east–west highway into Moengo, leading to their inevitable takeover of the area. Soon after, on December 1, the Surinamese government would issue a state of emergency for the area, and on the following day, the Jungle Commando would be driven out of Moengo. In late December, the Jungle Commando would kidnap the son of Granman Belfon Aboikoni to signal that they were still in the area and had only moved up river toward central Suriname. In January 1987, the Jungle Commando bombed multiple power lines, causing an aluminum refinery to shut down and a citywide blackout to occur in Paramaribo because of the Afobaka dam losing power. The next month, in February, the Moengo powerhouse would be destroyed, as well as a palm oil plantation in Patamacca. This caused the village of Pokigron to request military support to help ward off the Jungle Commandos as the area was now in economic disarray. In May 1987, the Jungle Commandos continued to attack Moengo and Albina until military forces secured the area. Over the next two years, the military presence would dwindle again and the Jungle Commando would return to take over Moengo for a second time in October 1989, this time with the help of a splinter group headed by Kofi Ajomopong. Interactions with new government In September 1987, a referendum was held in which the government approved a new draft of the Constitution, paving the way for democracy in the Republic of Suriname. On November 25, elections were held in which forty of the fifty-one seats were filled by members of the traditional party. This would lead to little change as the government continued to undermine its citizens and commit human rights violations one after the other. In their continual pursuit of the head of the Jungle Commando, the military continued capturing locals they claimed were rebels and executing them. These killings would continue until 1989, when the Jungle Commandos' prevalence in the area began to rise in retaliation. The village of