The Vice President, along with his mother, are suspected of pushing away anyone who threatens his path to the presidency, including Gabriel Obiang Lima (another son of President Obiang from another wife), who served as oil minister for 10 years before moving to secondary role of the government.
Members of the elite are believed to know things about each other that they would rather not make public, and in the past the videos have been used to humiliate and discredit a political opponent.
Accusations of preparing a coup d’état are also often heard, which fuels paranoia even more.
But Mr. Cruz also claims that the authorities want to use the scandal as an excuse to crack down on social media, which provides a lot of information about what is really happening in the country.
In July, the authorities temporarily suspended the Internet after protests broke out on Annabon Island.
It was no surprise to him that a high-ranking official engaged in sex outside of marriage, as it was part of the decadent lifestyle of the country’s elite.
The vice president, who himself has been convicted of corruption in France and had his wealth of assets seized in various countries, wants to be seen as someone who is fighting bribery and crime at home.
Last year, for example, he ordered the arrest of his half-brother he allegedly sold an aircraft owned by a state-owned airline.
But in this case, despite the vice president’s efforts to stop the distribution of the clips, they continue to be viewed.
This week he tried to appear more assertive, calling for CCTV cameras to be installed in public institutions “to combat indecent and illegal activities”. This was reported by the official news agency, external.
Saying that the scandal had “tarnished the image of the country”, he ordered the suspension of all officials involved in sexual acts at work, as it was a “gross violation of the code of conduct”.
He was not wrong that the story attracted a lot of interest from outside.
According to Google, searches involving the country’s name have risen sharply since the beginning of this week.
On Monday, the X term “Equatorial Guinea” was one of the most popular terms in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – sometimes surpassing interest in the US election.
This frustrated some activists who were trying to tell the world what was really happening in the country.
“Equatorial Guinea has much bigger problems than this sex scandal,” said Mr. Cruz, who works for a human rights organization called GE Nuestra.
“For us, this sex scandal is just a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself. It just shows how corrupt the system is.”
Additional reporting by BBC Verify’s Peter Mwai.
