Little is known about the dire human rights situation in African Equatorial Guinea—where Teodoro Obiang has ruthlessly ruled for nearly thirty years. Obiang has been called the worst dictator in Africa, but since vast oil and natural gas reserves were discovered in the mid-1990s, he has become a close US ally. Since oil was found there, the U.S. government has looked the other way, ignoring brutal human rights abuses, in order to allow access to oil and gas.
Here is what Parade Magazine says about Obiang:
"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."
For more see: Dictators and Slate
