Bouteflika nevertheless remained in power, ruling by written directive and occasionally receiving foreign dignitaries.
Bouteflika would run for a fifth term in elections scheduled for April 18.
Bouteflika was appointed minister of youth and sports in the government of Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria’s first elected president.
He headed Algerian delegations to negotiations with the French in 1963 and was appointed foreign minister that year.
Bouteflika remained in charge of the Foreign Ministry until Mr.
He was a talented and dashing foreign minister, who led a policy of anti-colonialism and noninterference and brought Algeria to prominence as a leader of the nonaligned movement and a founding member of the African Union.
Bouteflika won three more elections after that, the last one in April 2014, after the Constitution was amended to allow him to run without term limits.