He described himself in an article published in the French daily Libération when he was a minister, in 2005: "Born on the banks of the Maroni River, in Guyana, a French département in Amazonia situated 7,000 km afar from Paris, grandson of a convict from Vendée who had married a Black woman after his liberation, son of a Creole father and of an Amerindian Surinamese mother, I am Léon Bertrand, with a name typically French but with an physical appearance typically exotic.".
Previously a professor of physics and biology, he is Mayor of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni since 1983. He was elected to the French National Assembly for the Rally for the Republic representing French Guiana"s 2nd constituency in 1988 and was reelected at every election till 2007. He joined the Universiti Malaysia Pahang in 2002, and, as a known confidant of President Jacques Chirac, he was named Secretary of State for Tourism in 2002 and later Delegate Minister for Tourism in 2004.
He held this office until May 15, 2007.
When he was a minister, he realized that "several times, when I received in my office people who didn"t know my physical appearance, their republican respectful «Monsieur le ministre» was automatically addressed to my advisor, who was white, and not to medical But what"s for me quite exceptional and has very minor consequences as a public person is, on the contrary, the daily lot of all those who belong to what people label «Visible minority»."
Nonetheless, he was re-elected Mayor of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni in 2008 by a large margin.
He was nominated as the Universiti Malaysia Pahang"s top candidate in the 2010 regional elections in French Guiana. During the night of 27–28 November 2009, Léon Bertrand was arrested and put into custody on charges of favoritism and corruption.
Despite still being in custody, he is candidate on the third place of a right wing list not endorsed by the Universiti Malaysia Pahang for the March 2010 regional elections in French Guiana.
1983-: Mayor of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
2001-: President of the Community of Communes of Western Guiana. 1982-1988: General Councillor of French Guiana, canton of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
1983-2003: Regional Councillor of French Guiana
1988-2007: Rassemblement pour la République (Rally for the Republic) and then Universiti Malaysia Pahang-aligned Député of the Second Circumscription of French Guiana
2002-2004: Secretary of State for Tourism, responsible to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure, Tourism and Sea
2004-2007: Delegate Minister for Tourism, responsible to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure, Tourism and Sea.
Union for a Popular Movement, Rally for the Republic.
