Sport in Equatorial Guinea - Politics

Politics

The current president of Equatorial Guinea is Teodoro Obiang. The 1982 constitution of Equatorial Guinea, written with help from the UN, gives Obiang extensive powers, including naming and dismissing members of the cabinet, making laws by decree, dissolving the Chamber of Representatives, negotiating and ratifying treaties and serving as commander in chief of the armed forces. The Prime Minister, Vicente Ehate Tomi was appointed by Obiang and operates under powers designated by the President.

During the three decades of his rule, Obiang has shown little tolerance for opposition. While the country is nominally a multiparty democracy, elections have generally been considered a sham. According to Human Rights Watch, the dictatorship under President Obiang has used an oil boom to entrench and enrich itself further at the expense of the country's people. Since August 1979 some 12 real and perceived unsuccessful coup attempts have occurred. The 'real' coup attempts were often perpetrated in an attempt by rival elites to seize the state's economic resources. According to a March 2004 BBC profile, politics within the country are currently dominated by tensions between Obiang's son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, and other close relatives with powerful positions in the security forces. The tension may be rooted in a power shift arising from the dramatic increase in oil production which has occurred since 1997.

Equatorial Guinea hit the headlines in 2004 when a plane load of suspected mercenaries was intercepted in Zimbabwe while allegedly on the way to overthrow Obiang. A November 2004 report named Mark Thatcher as a financial backer of the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt organized by Simon Mann. Various accounts also named the United Kingdom's MI6, the United States' CIA, and Spain as having been tacit supporters of the coup attempt. Nevertheless, the Amnesty International report released in June 2005 on the ensuing trial of those allegedly involved highlighted the prosecution's failure to produce conclusive evidence that a coup attempt had actually taken place. Simon Mann was released from prison on 3 November 2009 for humanitarian reasons.

A 2004 US Senate investigation into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found that President Obiang's family had received huge payments from US oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Amerada Hess. Since 2005, Military Professional Resources Inc., a US-based international private military company, has worked in Equatorial Guinea to train police forces in appropriate human rights practices. In 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed Obiang as a "good friend" despite repeated criticism of his human rights and civil liberties record. The U.S. Agency for International Development entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Obiang, in April 2006, to establish a Social Development Fund in the country, implementing projects in the areas of health, education, women's affairs and the environment.

In 2006, Obiang signed an anti-torture decree to ban all forms of abuse and improper treatment in Equatorial Guinea and he commissioned the renovation and modernization of Black Beach prison in 2007 to ensure the humane treatment of prisoners, However, human rights abuses have continued. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International among other non-governmental organizations have documented severe human rights abuses in prisons, including torture, beatings, unexplained deaths and illegal detention.

The corruption watchdog Transparency International has put Equatorial Guinea in the top 12 of its list of most corrupt states. Resisting calls for more transparency, Obiang has for long held that oil revenues are a state secret. In 2008 the country became a candidate of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – an international project meant to promote openness about government oil revenues – but failed to qualify by an April 2010 deadline. The advocacy group Global Witness has been lobbying the United States to act against Obiang's son, Teodorin, who is vice-president and a government minister. It says there is credible evidence that he spent millions buying a Malibu, California mansion and private jet using corruptly acquired funds – grounds for denying him a visa. In February 2010, Equatorial Guinea signed a contract with the MPRI subsidiary of the US defense corporation, L3 Communications for coastal surveillance and maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.

Obiang was re-elected to serve an additional term in 2009 in an election deemed by the African Union as “in line with electoral law”. Obiang re-appointed Prime Minister Ignacio Milam Tang in 2010.

Under Obiang, the basic infrastructure of Equatorial Guinea has improved. Asphalt now covers more than 80% of the national roads and ports and airports are being built across the entire country. However, when a British parliamentary and press entourage toured the country as guests of the president in 2011, the The Guardian newspaper reported that very few of Equatorial Guinea's citizens seem to be benefiting from improvements, with reports of empty three lane highways and many empty buildings.

The Obiang regime is an ally of the USA. During a meeting on the sidelines of the recent United Nations General Assembly, Obiang urged the US to strengthen the cooperation between the United States and Africa. President Barack Obama posed for an official photograph with President Obiang at a New York reception.