Black Beach was overthrown in a 1979 coup d'état. Black Beach holds a number of foreign prisoners sentenced for participating in a 2004 coup d'état attempt against the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. These included Simon Mann, the alleged ringleader, until his presidential pardon on 2 November 2009 on humanitarian grounds, and more recently Ramón Esono Ebalé (released in March 2018). Black Beach Black Beach (), located on the island of Bioko, in the capital city of Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, is one of Africa's most notorious prisons. It has a reputation for systematically neglecting and brutalising inmates. Medical
Equatorial Guinea–Spain relations relations with Equatorial Guinea due to repression by President Nguema and his verbal attacks against the Spanish government. By 1978, Spain was prepared to send troops to the nation to intervene and evacuate its citizens if they were particularly targeted by President Nguema. In August 1979, a coup d'état was led by Lieutenant Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the nephew of President Nguema. That same month, Lieutenant Obiang formerly asked the Spanish government for military assistant, however, it was refused. That same month, President Nguema was captured by opposition forces and executed. Lieutenant Obiang became the second President of Equatorial Guinea.