Rafael Simon Urbina was a Venezuelan political figure with a talent for armed adventurism. His 1929 assault on Fort Amsterdam, the colonial fortress that had guarded Curacao's harbor since the 17th century, was less an invasion than a provocation - but it exposed how thin Dutch defenses in the Caribbean actually were. The Netherlands responded by establishing a permanent Marine Corps presence on the ABC islands: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Suffisant Naval Barracks became the hub of that presence, housing the infantry company known as 31 INFCIE. The base was built to project Dutch sovereignty in a region where Venezuela, just 65 kilometers to the south, cast a long shadow. For 80 years, Dutch marines served here, training, patrolling, and maintaining a military footprint in waters that were strategically important long before oil was discovered beneath them.

World War II transformed Suffisant from a colonial outpost into a genuine military hub. Curacao's oil refineries, which processed Venezuelan crude, were critical to the Allied war effort - German U-boats prowled the Caribbean specifically to disrupt this supply chain. Local conscripts from across the Dutch Caribbean trained alongside Dutch marines at Suffisant, learning to defend the islands against a submarine threat that felt very real. The base expanded to become the largest on Curacao, and Dutch forces worked closely with American units stationed nearby. It was a period that cemented the base's significance and forged a tradition of local military service that would outlast the war by decades.

On 16 June 2009, after 80 years on the island, the 31 INFCIE was officially disbanded. The Marine Corps withdrew its infantry presence from Curacao, leaving behind only a small training cadre. The base could have been shuttered. Instead, it was reimagined. Suffisant became the home of a conscription program unlike any other in the Dutch Kingdom. Young Curacaoans - the miliciens, as they are called - enlist for a year. The first six months are traditional military training: discipline, physical fitness, structure. The second six months are devoted to education. Conscripts study for diplomas, gaining qualifications they might not have obtained otherwise. The program is as much social intervention as military service, designed to give young people from disadvantaged backgrounds a path forward. The Royal Marechaussee, the Dutch military police, also maintains a brigade on the base.

Suffisant's history tracks neatly with Curacao's own arc. Colonial defense, wartime mobilization, Cold War presence, and now a post-military reinvention focused on education and social development - the base has adapted to each era. In March 2013, the Dutch Minister of Defence Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Chief of Defence Tom Middendorp visited the barracks to inspect the miliciens, a signal that the program carried weight in The Hague. That same year, the base made headlines for a grimmer reason: from June to September 2013, a suspect in the murder of Curacao politician Helmin Wiels was detained in the Royal Marechaussee building on the grounds, and the base was barricaded during the detention. It was a reminder that Suffisant still sits at the intersection of military and civilian life on an island where those two worlds have never been far apart.