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khaosworksCoup topples Sao Tome government
Wednesday, July 16, 2003 Posted: 1131 GMT ( 7:31 PM HKT)
LISBON, Portugal (Reuters) -- Soldiers toppled the government of tiny West African nation Sao Tome and Principe at dawn on Wednesday while the president of the potentially oil-rich island state was out of the country, residents said.But a little digging shows that it's pretty obvious. Oil is the key, after all.
Machinegun fire crackled and grenades boomed around the capital of the former Portuguese colony at about 3 a.m. (0300 GMT), but the shooting did not last long.
By morning light in the equatorial country, soldiers wielding machineguns patrolled the streets, having taken control of the television station, the airport and the central bank.
Soldiers said they had detained Prime Minister Maria das Neves, who suffers from a heart condition, and other ministers including Public Works Minister Joaquim Rafael Branco.
Branco is responsible for the vital oil reserves that will determine the country's future, in a region taking on increasing strategic significance as the United States tries to secure new oil sources and decrease its dependency on Middle Eastern crude.
It was not immediately clear why the military seized power in Africa's smallest independent state after the Seychelles, and residents of the capital ventured out in the relative calm.
According to the BBC, Sao Tome is sitting on potentially four billion barrels of bubblin' crude. This is of course, in addition to its extremely lucrative renting of its phone lines to phone sex businesses. Even Taiwan pays it $10 mil a year in aid for Sao Tome to recognize its statehood and sever relations with China. Hell, even I'd like a piece of that.
President Fradique de Menezes - from this moment to be known as "They did what when I was in the bathroom?!" - has already been whoring, uh, opening bids for oil licenses. Environmental Remediation Holding Corp (a Texas company that has since been taken over by a Nigerian holding company, Chrome Energy LLC) has had rights to two offshore fields since 1997 as well as rights to a significant deposit in an area jointly controlled by Sao Tome and Nigeria.
Since this incredible deal essentially gave ERHC the right to rape Sao Tome's financial future, they were accused of either taking advantage of Sao Tome's inexperience in oil or outright bribing de Menezes, of which of course ERHC denied. De Menezes, however, admitted to receiving $100,000 from ERHC's chairman, but insisted it was a campaign contribution. Sure, Fradique. We believe you.
De Menezes, when he took power, vowed to revoke the agreements, but after ERHC threatened to take legal action, he agreed to "re-negotiations". As quoted in the BBC article:
"He was thought to have benefited from the re-negotiations of oil contracts," Manuel Paulo from the Royal Institute of International Affairs told BBC News Online. "He had also distanced himself from the family of his predecessor who was key in his succession." President de Menezes came to power in an election controlled by Sao Tome's former leader Miguel Trovoada.De Menezes was a member of Trovoada's Independent Democratic Alliance - and came to power in the 2001 election which, although election observers from Angola, Taiwan, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria declared the vote free and fair, was a bit of a surprise because the other candidate, Manuel Pinto da Costa, was expected to win. Da Costa was Sao Tome's former President, a Marxist administration which ran the country from 1975 to 1991 (Trovoada had been President from 1991 to 2001). De Menezes polled 56% to da Costa's 38%.
One will note, however, that ERHC still has its headquarters in Houston (although it's only manned by one guy). ERHC is now controlled by Emeka Offor, a Nigerian businessman who owns a cargo airline, a bank, a newspaper and major telecommunications interests (source: LA Times). The major shareholder is Offor's sometimes business partner, Phil Nugent, a Houston-based oil and gas consultant.
The State Department describes relations between Sao Tome and the US as excellent. Now, to just put on my conspiracy theorist hat for a moment - might the military be concerned that De Menezes is getting too cozy with foreign nations like the US while separating himself from the populist movement that brought him into power, just when the Sao Tome economy might be blasting off into the stratosphere with the oil reserves about to pop? Perhaps the coup is to stop De Menezes from selling out the country to foreign interests, and for them to "re-negotiate" or void entirely the ERHC agreement. But of course that's just me speculating.
Time will tell, as will the US's reaction to this coup.
