Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (born June 5, 1942) has been the President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979.
Born into the Esangui clan in Acoacán, Obiang joined the military during the colonial period, and attended the Generalissimo Francisco Franco Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain. He achieved the rank of lieutenant upon his uncle Francisco Macías Nguema's election.
Obiang was shuffled through various jobs, including governor of Bioko, head of the infamous Black Beach Prison, and as leader of the National Guard.
He deposed his uncle on August 3, 1979 in a violent coup d'état, supported by 600 mercenaries licenced from Hassan II of Morocco
Obiang declared that the new government would make a fresh start from the repressive measures taken by his uncle's administration. He inherited a country with an empty treasury and a population that had dropped to a third of its 1968 level, when about 50% of the former 1.2 million inhabitants moved either to Spain or to neighbouring African countries. He formally assumed the presidency in October 1979, after mercenaries had killed the previous president.
A new constitution was adopted in 1982; at the same time, Obiang was elected to a seven-year term as president. He was reelected in 1989 as the only candidate.
Obiang seized control of this small, oil-rich West African nation by executing the previous dictator—his uncle. In July 2003, state radio announced that Obiang “is in permanent contact with The Almighty” and that he “can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to Hell.” Obiang himself told his citizenry that he felt compelled to take full control of the national treasury in order to prevent civil servants from being tempted to engage in corrupt practices. To avoid this corruption, Obiang deposited more than half a billion dollars into accounts controlled by Obiang and his family at a bank in Washington, D.C., leading a U.S. federal court to fine the bank $16 million [More]
Source: wikipedia.org |
