He ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup and has overseen Equatorial Guinea's emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s.
On je došao na vlast svrgnuvši svog strica, Francisca Macíasa Nguemu, u kolovozu 1979. vojnim udarom te je nadgledao nastanak svoje države kao važnog proizvođača nafte, s početkom u 1990-tima.