1979: Francisco Macías Nguema, President for Life
September 29th, 2008 Headsman
In the early afternoon this date, Equatorial Guinea’s former President for Life was sentenced to death with six aides at the end of a four-day trial for murder, treason, embezzlement, and genocide.
That evening, the seven were shot at Malabo’s Blabich Prison.
Nguema Biyoto Masie, nee Francisco Macías Nguema, rose from the Spanish colonial bureaucracy to win the first post-independence presidency of the minuscule African state.
He quickly created a one-party state and increasingly nutty cult of personality, answering to such horror-comic nicknames as “Unique Miracle”.
Nguema’s Unique Miracle for Equatorial Guinea was a Pol Pot-style catastrophe, killing or driving out most of the population (including Nguema’s own wife), eviscerating the economy, and getting into military brinksmanship with neighboring Nigeria.*
His nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, overthrew him a few weeks before this date. Despite the speedy resolution of the case, international observers on the scene considered it a fair enough trial and the dictator’s guilt duly established; procedurally, the execution happened immediately because he was tried by the highest court in the land and there was nowhere to appeal.
Francisco Macias Nguema during his trial.
Still, the shooting itself was handled by hired Moroccan troops, rather than citizens of Equatorial Guinea: Nguema had convinced quite a lot of people that he had magic powers, and the locals weren’t eager to be the ones to test the proposition.
Bloody but necessary first step to parliamentary democracy?
Not quite. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, one of the worst dictators you’ve never heard of, still runs Equatorial Guinea in much the manner of his predecessor to this day.
Did we mention that Equatorial Guinea has oil?
* Francisco Macias Nguema’s daughter, “Empress Bella Syttam Macias”, lives in Utah and defends her dad. She seems to have been too young to have been personally involved in anything unsavory in the 70’s.
On this day..
- 1832: William Hodkin, child rapist - 2020
- 1995: Navarat Maykha, accidental smuggler - 2019
- 1972: Helenira Rezende, Brazil guerrilla - 2018
- 1848: Harris Bell - 2017
- 1554: A false coiner and a masked dummy - 2016
- 1891: Ed Leeper and James Powell - 2015
- 1469: Humphrey and Charles Neville, Lancastrians - 2014
- 1893: Scuffletonians in Mt. Vernon, Georgia - 2013
- 1939: Pete Catalina and Angelo Agnes, Colorado murderers - 2012
- 1915: Thomas and Meeks Griffin, ancestors of Tom Joyner - 2011
- 1941: Babi Yar massacre begins - 2010
- 1503: Anacaona and the caciques of Xaragua - 2009
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Crimes Against Humanity,Death Penalty,Equatorial Guinea,Execution,Heads of State,History,Infamous,Mass Executions,Murder,Notable Jurisprudence,Politicians,Shot,The Worm Turns,Theft,Treason
Tags: 1979, bilbach prison, dictators, empress bella syttam macias, francisco macias nguema, malabo, nguema biyoto masie, oil, september 29, teodoro obiang nguema mbasogo
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