"It's offensive that these old diplomats are now making money off their former positions," he said. "They want American companies to invest here, and to help that happen they try to say that everything here is fine. That has political consequences."
A Turnaround in Ties
There is little dispute that oil has fortified Angola's ties with the United States for the foreseeable future. At a construction site in Luanda's Miramar section, offering a sweeping view of the Atlantic Ocean, work is proceeding on a huge, expanded U.S. Embassy.
Yet until a decade ago, the United States and Angola were ideological enemies.
After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola declared itself a Marxist state and allied itself with the Soviet Union. Dos Santos, 61, took power four years later and has held it ever since. The CIA supported an insurgency by rebels known as UNITA until the early 1990s.
In mid-1993, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Angola's embrace of capitalism, the Clinton administration recognized the government and cut military aid to UNITA. But the civil war ended only after rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was killed in combat in 2002.
The fighting left an estimated 1 million people dead. At the height of the conflict, 4 million people were driven from their homes. In some provinces, most of the infrastructure -- from roads and bridges to houses and schools -- was destroyed.
Dos Santos swapped the uniform he often wore for portraits during the socialist era for tailored suits. He and the ruling party dominate the parliament, other political institutions and the media.
Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil producer after Nigeria, with oil accounting for about 90% of its export earnings. ChevronTexaco produces about two-thirds of Angola's daily output of about 900,000 barrels, and approximately one-third of the total is sold to the United States. The country's output is expected to double by 2008.
Despite billions of dollars from oil revenue, the country ranks 164th among 175 nations on a United Nations index that measures citizens' quality of life.
"Most of the country's wealth remained concentrated in a few hands," the State Department said in a report this year.
The ExxonMobil housing estate is one example of how the benefits of oil development have enriched Angola's wealthiest citizens. ExxonMobil declined to comment on who built the compound. The company said the property was "leased from a private corporation in compliance with all applicable laws" but would not identify the corporation's owner.
