Is the resource curse contagious?

The resource course, that countries possessing large quantities of oil or other valuable natural resources, tend to have poor governance is well known.  We know far less about whether the curse is contagious.  Ian Urbina’s article in the New York Times about Equatorial Guinea, a paradigmatic example of how oil wealth leads to corruption and repression, suggests the curse can be contagious and is infecting the United States.  US law forbids foreign officials from visiting the US if there is credible evidence they are involved in corrupt activities.  This apparently does not apply to Equatorial Guinea, the 9th most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International.  The government official in question is Teodoro Nguema Obiang, son of the country’s long-serving dictator and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.

The evidence against the minister is quite strong.  The Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and the US Senate have produced numerous reports documenting that Minister Obiang has illegally funneled at least $73 million into the US. Yet, he is still allowed to visit the US.

Why the special treatment?

State Department officials said that Equatorial Guinea’s close ties to the American oil industry were the reason for the lax enforcement of the law…“Of course it’s because of oil,” said John Bennett, the United States ambassador to Equatorial Guinea from 1991 to 1994, adding that Washington has always turned a blind eye to the Obiangs’ corruption and repression because of its dependence on the country for natural resources.

The US imports a lot of oil from Equatorial Guinea, a country run by a corrupt dictator.  As a result, the US Government fails to enforce laws forbidding the country’s corrupt government officials from visiting the US.  Looks like the resource curse can apply not only to countries that produce a lot of oil, but those that rely heavily on it as well.  Yet another good reason to get off the fossil fuel.