Did some one say oil? Where theres oil, the u.s can be found....
The grounding of a mystery plane, allegedly carrying mercenaries, has focused attention on the West African state of Equatorial Guinea and its despotic leader. Declan Walsh reports on a would-be coup that sounds like a plot from 'Dallas'
16 March 2004
On the steamy shores of West Africa, oil seldom brings good tidings. Equatorial Guinea, the nugget-sized nation at the heart of last week's bungled apparent coup attempt, is no exception. A despotic leader, his playboy-rapper son, scheming relatives and thousands of American oil men are the characters of a twisted plot that reads like Dallas set in equatorial Africa. And although attention has focused on 67 alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe, a far greater intrigue swirls around the dictatorial regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Mr Obiang, who came to power by overthrowing his uncle and shooting him, has survived 25 years in power by stuffing the government with relatives, torturing opponents and rigging elections. His would be a perfect banana republic, if it had bananas. Instead it has oil - lots of it.
Mr Obiang's iron fist turned to gold in the mid 1990s when US oil firms made massive offshore discoveries. Overnight, the former Spanish colony shot from poverty-stricken obscurity to fabulous wealth, becoming known as the "Kuwait of Africa". Large oil companies, led by ExxonMobil, invested $6bn (£3.3bn) in operations that now pump 350,000 barrels of oil a day.
More than 3,000 US oil workers are manning the pumps, and business is so brisk there are direct flights from Houston to the island's capital, Malabo.
Equatorial Guinea has become Africa's third-largest oil producer, after Nigeria and Angola, and its fastest growing economy.
"The oil has been for us like the manna that the Jews ate in the desert," Mr Obiang told CBS last year.
The vast majority of Guineans, however, have yet to taste that sweet bread.
The majority of the vast state oil revenues - up to $700m this year - has been salted into foreign bank accounts. Many are controlled by Mr Obiang. Most of the country's 500,000 people scrape by on $2 a day, and human development indicators have barely budged since oil was struck. "There is no evidence that any of the oil wealth has gone to the people," said Sarah Wykes of the lobby group Global Witness, which later this month will release a report linking the Obiang regime to large-scale corruption and drug trafficking.
Rest of article can be found HERE
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The grounding of a mystery plane, allegedly carrying mercenaries, has focused attention on the West African state of Equatorial Guinea and its despotic leader. Declan Walsh reports on a would-be coup that sounds like a plot from 'Dallas'
16 March 2004
On the steamy shores of West Africa, oil seldom brings good tidings. Equatorial Guinea, the nugget-sized nation at the heart of last week's bungled apparent coup attempt, is no exception. A despotic leader, his playboy-rapper son, scheming relatives and thousands of American oil men are the characters of a twisted plot that reads like Dallas set in equatorial Africa. And although attention has focused on 67 alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe, a far greater intrigue swirls around the dictatorial regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Mr Obiang, who came to power by overthrowing his uncle and shooting him, has survived 25 years in power by stuffing the government with relatives, torturing opponents and rigging elections. His would be a perfect banana republic, if it had bananas. Instead it has oil - lots of it.
Mr Obiang's iron fist turned to gold in the mid 1990s when US oil firms made massive offshore discoveries. Overnight, the former Spanish colony shot from poverty-stricken obscurity to fabulous wealth, becoming known as the "Kuwait of Africa". Large oil companies, led by ExxonMobil, invested $6bn (£3.3bn) in operations that now pump 350,000 barrels of oil a day.
More than 3,000 US oil workers are manning the pumps, and business is so brisk there are direct flights from Houston to the island's capital, Malabo.
Equatorial Guinea has become Africa's third-largest oil producer, after Nigeria and Angola, and its fastest growing economy.
"The oil has been for us like the manna that the Jews ate in the desert," Mr Obiang told CBS last year.
The vast majority of Guineans, however, have yet to taste that sweet bread.
The majority of the vast state oil revenues - up to $700m this year - has been salted into foreign bank accounts. Many are controlled by Mr Obiang. Most of the country's 500,000 people scrape by on $2 a day, and human development indicators have barely budged since oil was struck. "There is no evidence that any of the oil wealth has gone to the people," said Sarah Wykes of the lobby group Global Witness, which later this month will release a report linking the Obiang regime to large-scale corruption and drug trafficking.
Rest of article can be found HERE
Related article
Obiang 'will eat my testicles'
