[5] A member of the Fang people, Macías Nguema held numerous official positions under Spanish colonial rule before being elected the first president of the soon-to-be independent country in 1968.

Due to his dictatorship's severe human rights abuses and economic mismanagement, tens of thousands of people fled the country to avoid persecution.

[14] During his adolescence, he worked as a servant for some wealthy Spanish settlers, being described as helpful and obedient, which earned him ridicule and mistreatment by other non-Christianized Fang, and showed an inferiority complex with respect to the Spaniards.

At the time, Macías Nguema generally displayed no anti-Spanish sentiment and collaborated with the authorities, preferring to work towards eventual independence within the existing system.

He became assistant interpreter,[19] mayor of Mongomo,[5] minister of public works, and finally deputy president of the Governing Council within a single year in the 1960s after Spanish Guinea was transformed from a colony to a province of Spain.

In a conference to discuss the future independence of Equatorial Guinea at Madrid, he suddenly began an "incoherent eulogy of the Nazis", claiming that Adolf Hitler had wanted to save Africans from colonialism and only got "confused", causing him to attempt to conquer Europe.

[19] At one point he declared himself a "Hitlerian-Marxist"[23][better source needed] In 1964, Macías Nguema was named deputy prime minister of the autonomous transition government established the prior year.

[5] Despite these concerns, Macías Nguema ran for president of the soon-to-be independent country against Prime Minister Bonifacio Ondó Edú on a strongly nationalist platform in 1968.

[26] After assuming power, Macías Nguema initially maintained a moderate policy[clarification needed] and good relations with Spain,[27] but within a year began to hold inflammatory, anti-European speeches and claimed that there were plots to overthrow him.

[28] In March 1969, Macías Nguema arrested his own foreign minister and political rival, Atanasio Ndongo Miyone, on treason charges, and killed him by defenestrating him.

[34][35][36] The Spanish government subsequently organized the evacuation of all its citizens (roughly 7,500)[37][38] and all its Civil Guard forces,[39] while the British ambassador described the Equatoguinean capital as being in a state of total chaos.

Although little was known about what advice the Spanish expert gave Macías Nguema, Kenyon argued that the treatment appeared to have failed, considering the president's subsequent development.

[40][41] A commonly circulated claim that these mass executions were performed by executioners dressed up as Santa Claus is almost certainly a fabrication, as this sensational detail does not appear in any primary sources about the incident.

He allowed the Soviets to channel weapons through Equatorial Guinea to the MPLA in Angola, while repeatedly threatening to terminate this alliance in order to blackmail the Eastern Bloc into providing him with money.

Soviet military assistance by 1975 amounted to small arms, eight patrol boats, twenty armored vehicles, and an An-24 passenger aircraft, although the latter quickly fell into disrepair.

In 1977, Macías Nguema took a trip to East Asia in hopes of shoring up support from China and North Korea in the face of increased Soviet and Cuban frustration.

[47] These relations sharply declined as increasing numbers of refugees from Rio Muni poured into Cameroon, many coming to be employed in Cameroonian industrial plantations, which Macías Nguema claimed was a form of exploitation of his nationals.

[48][46] Starting in the early 1970s, Macías Nguema began repressing the non-Fang ethnic groups in the country, such as the Bubi people of Santa Isabel, whom he associated with relative wealth and education, and the Annobónese, due to what he felt was too much affection for Spain.

In the decade preceding independence, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco had actively promoted Bubi nationalism on Fernando Po in hopes of gaining leverage over mainland Fang leaders, in an unsuccessful bid to extend Spanish rule.

[56] In a plebiscite held on 29 July 1973, the 1968 Constitution was replaced with a new document that gave Macías Nguema absolute power and formally made his party the only one legally permitted.

[30] The President mostly filled his inner circle with family members such as Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who was his nephew and served as military governor of Bioko and Vice-Minister of the Armed Forces.

[60] Macías Nguema developed an extreme cult of personality, and assigned himself titles such as the "Unique Miracle" and "Grand Master of Education, Science, and Culture".

[4] Intellectuals and skilled professionals were a particular target, with human rights researcher Robert af Klinteberg describing Macías Nguema's policy as "deliberate cultural regression".

[12] The president's paranoid actions included mandating the death of those who wore glasses,[59] banning use of the word "intellectual" and destroying boats to stop his people fleeing from his rule.

[64] When there was a trial at all, dissidents faced kangaroo courts organized by the JMM militia,[65] as almost all judges in the country fled or were jailed during Macías Nguema's rule.

[67] Among the few people who could still convince Macías Nguema to spare suspected dissidents were his relatives, such as Raimundo Ela Nve Senior, though his circle of confidants grew ever smaller.

When the director of the Equatorial Guinea Institute of Statistics, Saturnin Antonio Ndongo, published demographic data considered too low by Macías, he was dismembered to "help him learn to count".

Only Macías Nguema, the army, and the police were able to receive a regular salary during this time, with others sometimes going months without getting paid, eventually leading to the economy regressing to a subsistence barter system and government services shrinking to only cover internal security.

[87] To prevent people from escaping, Macías Nguema had the only road out of the country mined,[72] and camouflaged ditches with spikes constructed along the mainland border.

[95] At this point, the government had mostly ceased to function, as most minister posts were vacant, officials were no longer paid, and the National Assembly was effectively defunct, while the JMM militia ran amok across Equatorial Guinea, drunkenly murdering civilians.