Human-rights summit a mockery
When Africa’s longest-serving dictator, Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, faced his first election in 1996, he won with 98 percent of the vote. His percentages in subsequent elections would never reach that high, dropping to 97 percent by the time of his fourth electoral contest, in 2009. Not to worry — the elections were monitored by the Institute for Democratic Strategies and the International Foundation for Election Systems, observer groups that later were found to include Washington lobbyists on the regime’s payroll.
Mr. Obiang first came to power in 1979 after overthrowing his uncle and executing him by firing squad. Since the discovery of oil in the country in the 1990s, his remaining family members have spent the revenues like Saudi sheiks.… Seguir leyendo »