SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The friend of the son of a prominent Congolese opposition leader says he turned down a six-figure offer to travel there from the U.S. as part of the family’s security, in what turned out to be a failed coup attempt.
Marcel Malanga, the 21-year-old son of eccentric coup leader Christian Malanga, was detained by Congolese forces on Sunday morning, along with a former classmate from his hometown of West Jordan, Utah, after his father was killed in a shooting while resisting arrest. . Your high school football teammate, Tyler Thompson21, was one of the other two Americans arrested after an ill-fated attack on the presidential palace in Kinshasa.
Six people died and dozens were arrested, including the three Americans, following that attack and another at the home of an ally near President Félix Tshisekedi, Congolese army spokesman Brig. General Sylvain Ekenge said.
Daniel Gonzalez, a former teammate of the two Utah residents caught up in the botched coup, told the Associated Press that Marcel offered him between $50,000 and $100,000 to spend four months in Congo as bodyguard for his politician father. The 22-year-old FedEx employee strongly considered the idea but said it lacked concrete details. He finally turned it down so he could spend the summer with his girlfriend.
“I’m really sad for Tyler and Marcel, but at the end of the day, I can just be grateful that I didn’t go because I would have been stuck in the same scary situation,” Gonzalez said.
Marcel’s lucrative offer to Gonzalez sheds light on how he may have convinced Thompson to join him on what his stepmother, Miranda, said would be a vacation.
It was one of many proposals that the coup leader’s American son made to his former football teammates, in what many described as a desperate effort to bring someone with him to Congo. He presented the trip to some as a family vacation and to still others as a service trip to build wells in drought-stricken communities.
While it’s unclear whether Thompson was offered money, several teammates told the AP that he had alluded to such incentives, telling a friend that the trip could be a “great financial opportunity.”
Thompson’s family insists he is a political pawn who was drawn into an international conflict under false pretenses. They have not had direct communication with their son since the coup and are worried about his safety, his stepmother said.
Marcel’s mother, Brittney Sawyer, said her son is innocent and followed his father.
Christian Malanga, the murdered leader of the Congolese opposition political party, considered himself president of a parallel government in exile, which he called “New Zaire.” He described himself on his website as a refugee who settled in Salt Lake City with his family. in the 1990s, pursuing business opportunities in gold mining and selling used cars, before eventually returning to Congo to fight for political reforms.
While campaigning for the Congolese Parliament, he claimed he was arrested and suffered torturous beatings. He later published a manifesto detailing plans to reform Congo’s security services and described his movement as an effort to organize fellow émigrés against the “current Congolese dictatorship government regime.”
“Marcel was very secretive about his father. He didn’t even know him well until he spent last summer in Africa,” Gonzalez said. “There is no way Marcel would have had any idea what he would be getting us into or he would never have offered. He is one of the best friends a person could have.”
In the early hours of Sunday, Christian Malanga began broadcasting live videos on social media from inside the palace. He is seen with his armed son, who hastily pulls a gaiter over his face, looking around with wide eyes. Congolese authorities have not commented on how the attackers gained entry.
Gonzalez, of Herriman, Utah, said he communicated with Marcel about the financial offer via Snapchat, in messages that have since disappeared, in the months leading up to the attempted scam. He was shocked to learn how the trip went.
Marcel had told Gonzalez that his father would let him hire a friend so he could have company during his summer abroad. He seemed excited to be able to offer such a substantial amount of money to a close friend in need, Gonzalez explained.
The Malangas promised practical training, full coverage of travel expenses and the opportunity to explore a new part of the world while earning income, he said. Marcel repeatedly insisted he was safe, but did not share details about his father’s story.
Neither Gonzalez nor his mother thought the trip would be unsafe, he said, despite the U.S. State Department strongly discouraging travel to Congo – but he refused when his girlfriend asked him not to go out for four months.
He later saw private Snapchat videos filmed by Marcel that showed Thompson looking scared as armed Congolese soldiers surrounded his vehicle. In Gonzalez’s last Snapchat exchange with his friend before his capture, he asked if Thompson was okay and encouraged them to stay safe.
Marcel assured him that he would.
Other former football teammates, including Luke Barbee and Jaden Lalor, heard different pitches about the trip and wondered why Marcel seemed so desperate to bring someone along. None of them could imagine the possible involvement of their friends in a violent attack.
“I consider Marcel a brother to me and Tyler a friend, and I truly believe that Marcel’s father must have pressured them for his own desires,” Lalor said. “I just want them back safely.”
