Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (born June 5, 1942) is a politician who has been Equatoguinean President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He deposed his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, in a military coup in August 1979 and has overseen the emergence of Equatorial Guinea as an important oil producer, began in the 1990s. Obiang is the Chairman of the African Union of January 31, 2011 until January 29, 2012.


Early life

Born into a clan Esangui in Acoacán, Obiang joined the military during the colonial period, and attended the Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain. He achieved the rank of lieutenant after his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, was elected first president of the country. Under Macias, Obiang held various jobs, including governor of Bioko and also head of the leader of the National Guard.He Black Beach Prison, which is notorious for subjecting prisoners to severe torture.


Presidency

After Macias ordered the murder of several family members, including his own brother Obiang Obiang and others in the circle in Macias' fear of the president is insane. Obiang overthrew his uncle on August 3, 1979 in a bloody coup d'état.


Macias was placed on trial for his activities during the previous decade and was sentenced to death. Its activities include the genocide of the Bubi. He was executed on September 29, 1979 by firing squad.


Obiang declared that the new government will make a fresh start from the regime of Macias' brutal and repressive. He granted amnesty to political prisoners and an end to forced labor system of the previous regime. However, almost no mention of his own role in the cruelty of his uncle's reign.


The new constitution


A new constitution was adopted in 1982. At the same time, Obiang was elected for a term of seven years as president, he is the only candidate. He was reelected in 1989, again as a candidate only. Once the other party is allowed to set, he was reelected in 1996 and 2002 with 98 percent of the vote in elections condemned as fraudulent by international observers.In 2002, for example, at least one policeman was recorded as Obiang gave 103 percent of the vote.
He was re-elected to fourth term in 2009 with 97% of the vote, once again amid allegations of fraud and intimidation, defeating opposition leader Placido Mico Abogo.
Although the government initially considered more humane than his uncle, by most accounts it has become more brutal over the years. Most observers consider his regime domestically and internationally to be one of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and undemocratic in the world. Equatorial Guinea is now essentially a single-party state, dominated by the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea Obiang (PDGE). Constitution, while slightly less authoritarian than its predecessor, still grants Obiang wide powers, including powers to rule by decree. Although opposition parties legalized in 1992, 99 100-seat parliament either PDGE member or aligned with it, and there is little opposition to the president's decision.


The opposition is barely tolerated, indeed, a 2006 article in Der Spiegel quoted Obiang as asking, "What right opposition criticized the government's actions do not have this opposition is hampered by the lack of free press as a vehicle? Their views No newspapers. And all media broadcasting are either owned directly by the government or controlled by his allies.