In order:-
... Yyyyyyyeah. I haven't really done many Civs from South America. Leugi and sundry others rather have them on lockdown. =]
On the Palmarista: Well, the reason it has all those promotions is because it has a markedly lower Combat Strength than your Marine, on account of it being available so much earlier. They're not going to be of much use when your opponent's kicking around with Riflemen, Cavalry, and the like. However, you're right in that I tend to overdesign stuff - I want my designs to feel unique, and yeah, that can lead to overcomplicated units and buildings. I just personally prefer that to underdesigned units that end up not doing anything well cough cough Mohawk Warrior cough splutter.
Suriname's names are a bit abstruse, yeah, but I tried to make them fitting. "Kupali Yumi" (tree of ancestors in the Carib dialect) was where the Caribs first settled in Suriname, and I wanted that as the name because it felt awesome. The "Amara Plantation" comes from the plant Quassia amara, an indigenous medicinal plant named after Graman Quassi, a famous freedman; it's a Hospital replacement because the plant is antimalarial and an organic pesticide, which works for a Food building. Incidentally, Broos (the leader) is also a freedman, a Maroon who led his kin during the Maroon Wars and freed a lot of slaves. Finally, "Bushinengue" is another name for the Maroons, as is "Bakabusi" from the unique Promotion. The "Cockpit" UI is so named because of the names for the freedmen's hideouts in the jungle - as in, a pit for making cockerels fight each other, rather than them living in aeroplanes (which might get a bit cramped). I hope that was informative. =]