{"id":5309,"date":"2011-07-12T12:06:43","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T16:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/?p=5309"},"modified":"2021-09-07T10:15:37","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T14:15:37","slug":"once-upon-a-coup-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/once-upon-a-coup-introduction\/5309\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>\u201cA cracking good adventure yarn&#8230;.<\/em><\/strong><strong><em><br \/>\nIt\u2019s wonderfully made \u2013 crisp, fast, thrilling from start to finish \u2013<br \/>\nbut it\u2019s also thoughtful and thought provoking, in the spirit of the best documentaries&#8230;.<br \/>\n<\/em>Once Upon a Coup<em> is as exciting as any Hollywood movie.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/em>\u2013Canwest News Service<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>\u201cA big and intriguing documentary\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n\u2013TV America<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>\u201cSounds like a John le Carr\u00e9 thriller, but is anchored in fact\u201d<br \/>\n<\/em>\u2013Globe and Mail<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A failed coup attempt&#8230;a British mercenary in a notorious African prison&#8230;a dictator suspicious of Western powers&#8230;and beneath it all, a spectacular underwater oil reserve that the world&#8217;s major powers would love to get their hands on.<\/p>\n<p>It may sound like the latest John LeCarr\u00e9 bestseller, but in fact it&#8217;s the real-life intrigue of <em>Once Upon a Coup<\/em>, WIDE ANGLE&#8217;s penetrating look at the mysterious goings-on in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation newly rich with oil and infamous for corruption. The story begins in 2004, when a group of mercenaries, including a British ex-special forces officer named Simon Mann, is arrested in Zimbabwe. Equatorial Guinea&#8217;s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, accuses them of plotting a coup against him. When Mann is sentenced to 34 years in Equatorial Guinea&#8217;s notorious Black Beach prison, he claims to be only one piece of an international plot to control the country&#8217;s vast oil resources. <em>Once Upon a Coup<\/em> travels the globe to unravel that plot, which stretches from Africa to the U.K., from a prime minister&#8217;s son to Zimbabwean arms dealers, from South Africa to Spain.<\/p>\n<p>But as this all plays out, another actor is bidding for a share of the oil: China. The Chinese government has showered the country with glittering new buildings and a new administrative capital. If President Obiang has grown skeptical of Western intentions, he has welcomed China as a new business partner. Starting with a small West African nation and stretching around the globe, <em>Once Upon a Coup<\/em> sheds light on the uncomfortable realities of oil politics in the 21st century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cA cracking good adventure yarn&#8230;. It\u2019s wonderfully made \u2013 crisp, fast, thrilling from start to finish \u2013 but it\u2019s also thoughtful and thought provoking, in the spirit of the best documentaries&#8230;. Once Upon a Coup is as exciting as any Hollywood movie.\u201d \u2013Canwest News Service \u201cA big and intriguing documentary\u201d \u2013TV America \u201cSounds like a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,18,22,532,1],"tags":[5983,4256,5982,5984,5981,6714],"class_list":["post-5309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-conflict-resolution","category-human-rights","category-podcast","category-uncategorized","tag-black-beach-prison","tag-equatorial-guinea","tag-gulf-of-guinea","tag-mark-thatcher","tag-simon-mann","tag-teodoro-obiang"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Once Upon a Coup ~ Introduction | Wide Angle | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/wideangle\/uncategorized\/once-upon-a-coup-introduction\/5309\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Once Upon a Coup ~ Introduction | Wide Angle | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cA cracking good adventure yarn&#8230;. 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