By Michel ArseneaultPosted on 04-08-2019Modified on 04-08-2019 at 06:05

In the aftermath of the coup of August 3, 1979, the leader of the putschists has no words too hard to describe the "real torture" that his predecessor, Francisco Macías Nguema, inflicted on Equatorial Guinea. Lieutenant-Colonel Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who chairs the ruling junta, says he will do much better, especially in the area of ​​human rights. In the cables he sends to the Quai d'Orsay, the French ambassador in Malabo tries to pin down the man and his ideas.

His putsch, the day before, is not only a palace revolution, a simple change of the guard, but the coup d'etat of " la Libertad ". On August 4, 1979, Teodoro Obiang sought to convince diplomats accredited to Malabo, including the French Hubert Cornet, the only Western ambassador posted in Equatorial Guinea .

The latter is familiar with the officer who was previously deputy defense minister and, in fact, the " number two " of the regime. Originally from Mongomo district, the lieutenant-colonel studied with Salesian missionaries in Bata before winning a scholarship to attend the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain, the former colonial power.

Attentive to the subject and the tone, Hubert Cornet listens and observes him in the manner of a reporter. He remarks that the new strong man, usually calm and reserved, now expresses himself " with some emotion, " " a certain solemnity ": " Lieutenant-Colonel Obiang seemed to me resolute, but exhausted by the events and uncomfortable in his new role. Rather reserved, it seems to have been pushed to the front of the stage. You have to wait to see if he will get insurance. "

In front of the ambassadors, Teodoro Obiang draws a catastrophic assessment of his predecessor. " Assassinations, disappearances, imprisonment, exile, ill-treatment, confiscation of private property. Among others. The new master of Malabo is committed to the " scrupulous " respect of human rights, rights that his predecessor, a champion of African identity, assimilated to a form of " intellectual colonialism ".

Hard to imagine two men more different from each other, in the opinion of Ambassador Cornet. Francisco Macías is " an old leader disappointed, more and more folded on his fantasies (...) tired, embittered and probably believing no more to the success of the mission ". Teodoro Obiang is " a young head of state, inexperienced (...) but enthusiastic and considering himself " predestined " to make happiness and freedom to his people, strengthened in his conviction by the adherence of his people and strangers to his "coup d'etat".

The putsch: a family quarrel that went wrong

The diplomat is under no illusions about the renewal announced by the man who will become the most senior president in office in the world. Most military officials of the new regime participated in the " excesses " of the old, he notes. Teodoro Obiang even ran the Black Beach prison, whose only name makes him shudder as he is synonymous with abuse and death.

" The soldiers who took power and the civilians who collaborate with them are the very ones who executed the policy they disavow today, " notes Hubert Cornet. The new junta has emptied the prisons of their political prisoners, but it is working to replace them with its own " nonconformists ", he says.

There is no doubt that Teodoro Obiang is a fine strategist. Several months before he came to power, the ambassador already spoke to the deputy defense minister of a tendency to " voluntarily " exaggerate the threat of invasion in order to increase his " own importance and his authority over the civil power ". . It is true, the diplomat nuanced, that the country lived " in a permanent atmosphere of conspiracy and coup d'etat ".

According to Hubert Cornet, a family feud within the presidential clan, two months earlier, was behind the overthrow of Francisco Macías: " Some soldiers in his custody, poorly paid or unpaid, would have violently reproached him for their state of deprivation, his greed, his megalomania and his unpopularity. What could have remained a big family discomfort turned to drama. The head of state immediately thought that there was a coup in the air, and taking measures out of proportion to the irritation of some of his relatives, triggered the process that was to lead to its elimination. "

A " very severe repression ," the diplomat said, had touched the presidential " camarilla ", including Teodoro Obiang's immediate family. The brother of the latter, an officer like him, who had had the temerity to claim arrears of salary (eight months), had been assassinated. Like four other officers of the Guardia Nacional. The ambassador does not see in the coup d'etat a conspiracy long premeditated, but a collective awareness by the presidential entourage that his situation was " dead end ".

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