Latin America
Related: About this forumMargaret Thatcher 'gave her approval' to her son Mark's failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea
Margaret Thatcher 'gave her approval' to her son Mark's failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea
Unpublished version of memoir by former SAS officer Simon Mann records Baroness Thatcher's endorsement of plan to depose oil-rich country's president
Daniel Boffey
The Observer, Saturday 13 April 2013
Margaret Thatcher approved of a failed attempt to use an army of mercenaries to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea, according to the unpublished memoirs of the chief protagonist of the bid, former SAS officer Simon Mann.
The former prime minister, whose son, Sir Mark, was convicted in a South African court of involvement in the attempted 2004 coup, allegedly told Mann at a meeting at her Belgravia home: "I'm sure it's going to work".
It is claimed that Thatcher likened the need for radical change in the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea to the way London's Docklands had been redeveloped during the 1980s.
She is also alleged to have encouraged Mann to talk to a group seeking to overthrow the then president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, with the words: "We must always look after our friends, Simon
as I'm sure you know."
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/14/thatcher-knew-of-equatorial-giunea-coup-attempt
rdharma
(6,057 posts)..... thanks for the reminder, Judi.
He got a slap on the wrist for that one......
ocpagu
(1,954 posts)What a sick woman Thatcher was. She knew no limits, in the worst possible way. But, again, no surprise that she would like Chávez to be deposed. Considering she said Pinochet brought democracy to Chile, that probably made a lot of sense in the twisted reality she was living in. As for her son and his mercenaries from South Africa plotting coups and destabilization... well, we can clearly see that she passed her rotten "values" to her offspring.
I will never understand the existence of people whose only goal in life is spreading evil worldwide.