Margaret Thatcher’s son Sir Mark has been refused a visa to enter the USA to join his wife and children in Texas. The “Sir” is an inherited title from his father, given at the request of his mother whose body sometimes crawls into the House of Lords to join the ranks of the Tory undead.
Thatcher Junior plea bargained a suspended sentence and large fine in South Africa for his part in an abortive coup in Equatorial Guinea last year. That conviction led to this ban. Mark now plans to set up home “In Europe but not in the UK” with his wife. Their kids will remain at school in th USA.
Just like the time he got lost in the Sahara Dessert when a “rally driver”, Junior had to be bailed out by the Great White Handbag Swinger. She posted 2 million Rand ($334,000) bail for him prior to his trial.
Equatorial Guinea has been run by President Obiang since a 1979 coup when he siezed power from his uncle. There are widespread allegations of human rights abuses, political oppression and corruption. The US Sentate is investigating the bank accounts held by his faimily which contain hundreds of millions of dollars.
Although the President is fairly unpleasant, the coup seems to be intended as a sort of old fashioned colonial expedition with the plotters allegedly planning to set up a private fiefdom. Obiang alleges the coup was supported by mulitnationals and foreign governments.
Thatcher has had a mixed career but seems to have done a “Dubbya” and become rich despite a series of failed businesses. His wife has inherited money
In case you were wondering, yes it is about oil, the country has very large undeveloped reserves.
I remember reading a bit about this attempted coup, and thinking it was the craziest thing ever. I can’t imagine how they thought, if successful, that they would get away with it?
Well, I just went and looked up parts of the story again, and answered my own question. Seems likely that some Western and Aficaan governments were aware of the plot long before it came to light and gave at least tacit approval (how dare those people live on top of our oil, and all that).
Sigh, sometimes I think I’m too cynical. Then, I’m forced to realize that I’m not nearly cynical enough.
Still, it’s odd that they would deny a visa to Thatcher’s son, even with all that, considering the people who are allowed in.
8 March – Authorities in Equatorial Guinea arrest 15 foreign mercenaries who allegedly came to prepare ground for a coup against president Obiang Nguema.
17 March – Men held in Zimbabwe are charged with conspiring to murder President Nguema.
23 August – Fourteen foreign mercenaries (and five local men) go on trial in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, accused of being an advanced party for the 70 mercenaries held in Zimbabwe.
25 August – Sir Mark, 51, is arrested at home by South African police in an early morning raid.
He appears at court where he is charged with violating South Africa’s anti-mercenary law in connection with an alleged plot to topple the government of Equatorial Guinea.
Sir Mark is later placed under house arrest and protests he is “innocent of all charges” made against him.
27 August – It emerges that the government of Equatorial Guinea has asked for South Africa to extradite Sir Mark.
28 August – Equatorial Guinea says it is seeking international arrest warrants for Sir Mark and other Britons also implicated in the alleged plot.
31 August – The court in Equatorial Guinea suspends proceedings on prosecutors’ requests for more information about the alleged role of Mark Thatcher and other British financiers.
1 September – Baroness Thatcher is reported to have posted the two million rand ($334,000) bail for her son who remains under house arrest in Cape Town.
3 September – Sir Mark is freed from house arrest after the bail bond is paid.
6 September – South African authorities approve a request by Equatorial Guinea to question Sir Mark.
Equatorial Guinea’s authorities say they could ask for Sir Mark’s extradition from South Africa.
10 September – Harare court sentences British former special services officer Simon Mann to seven years in prison.
The court also hands 16 month sentences to the two pilots of a plane that landed in Zimbabwe carrying the suspected mercenaries. The 65 men who were on the plane, convicted of immigration offences, are given 12 month sentences
14 November – Equatorial Guinea demands further explanation following UK Home Secretary Jack Straw’s parliamentary answer that the UK government had known about the coup plot “in late January 2004”.
16 November – South African Nick du Toit trial starts in Malabo.
18 November – Equatorial Guinea confirms it has charged Sir Mark in connection with the alleged coup plot.
The African nation also reiterates it is seeking his extradition from South Africa.
Sir Mark is accused of having helped finance the coup attempt, according to the country’s Attorney General Jose Olo Obono.
24 November – A Cape Town judge rules that Sir Mark will have to answer questions from Equatorial Guinea investigators.
In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine the businessman says he is being “destroyed” by the charges.
He says: “I will never be able to do business again. Who will deal with me?”
25 November – Sir Mark’s trial, on charges that he helped finance the failed alleged coup, is due to start but is postponed until April.
26 November – A hearing which will see Sir Mark answer questions from Equatorial Guinea investigators is postponed to give his lawyers time to appeal against the ruling requiring him to speak to the officials.
2005
13 January – Sir Mark appears in court in South Africa where he pleads guilty over his part in the alleged plot.
The businessman, who denies any knowledge of the plot, admits breaking anti-mercenary legislation in South Africa by agreeing to charter a helicopter and agrees a plea bargain with prosecutors.
He is fined three million rand.
Simon Mann’s lawyer says his client’s sentence has been reduced from seven to four years on appeal.
I’ve was wondering when he was going to show up here. Quite frankly, I’m very surprised he was denied. There is more on the coup in here.
The people involved have a history of mercenary activity in Africa. Simon Mann was deeply involved with Executive Outcomes, as was Nick du Toit, and Crause Steyl. It was Steyl’s airline Thatcher invested in. Steyl had run Ibis Air for EO in the nineties, taking care of many logistical necessities. Thatcher knew who he was giving money to.
Also, a company with contracts from the British gov’t to work in Iraq, Meteoric Tactical Solutions, saw two of the three owner/operators arrested on the tarmac in Zimbabwe. The coup attempt in EG was the hump of the beast breaking the water. The modern PMC trade is filled with ex-Aparthied soldiers, poor mercenaries from the northern S. Africa desert (Battalion 32), and wealthy “first-worlders” looking for profit.
And yes, Obiang is a horrible ruler, however, they wanted him out, not because of that, but because they feared he would die soon and his son, who is feared to be mentally unstable, would take over, and be harder to rid than Obiang. Nobody would have cared if they had not discovered oil off their shores at the end of the last century.
Good.
Period.
Ditto.