Miguel Facussé Barjum (August 14, 1924 – June 23, 2015) was a Honduran businessman and landowner. He was Executive President of Corporación Dinant, a consumer products manufacturing company he founded in Honduras in 1960. Dinant sells its products throughout Central America and the Dominican Republic, and also exports to global markets. A 2006 study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation named Facussé one of the three "most powerful men in Honduras". Facussé was the chief economic advisor to President Roberto Suazo Córdova during his term in office from 1982 to 1986 and vice-president of APROH, a "right-wing grouping of business interests and members of the armed forces" from the early 1980s to at least 2001. Facussé was married and had nine children. His nephew, Carlos Roberto Flores, was President of Honduras from 1998 to 2002. His son-in-law, Fredy Nasser, is a prominent Honduran businessman. In May 2009, Facussé was awarded the Orden Mérito a la Democracia en el Grado de Gran Caballero by the Senate of Colombia. In August 2014, he was awarded the CEAL Founders' Award for his pioneering role in promoting business between Latin American nations.
Early life and education
Miguel Facussé was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1924, the seventh of nine children of Nicholás and María Barjum de Facussé. He is a second-generation Palestinian, from Bethlehem.
Facussé earned a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1944 at the University of Notre Dame. Facussé hosted Notre Dame University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC during a visit to Honduras in 1960 and Rev. Edward "Monk" Malloy, CSC in 2003.
Career
Costa Rica
In 1944, Facussé moved to Costa Rica, where he converted warplanes into commercial cargo airliners. He quickly became general manager of a multinational corporation that reconstructed and maintained wartime aircraft from all over the world.
1960s
After returning to Tegucigalpa, Facussé worked in his brother's textile company. Facussé set up Químicas Dinant de Centroamérica SA in July 1960. In the late 1960s, Facussé won contracts with Procter & Gamble to produce and distribute its products in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
In 1969, Facussé was president of both the Honduras Industrial Association and the Central American Industrial Association. At the time, Facussé owned Químicas Dinant, a company that made soaps and detergents.
1970s
In the 1970s, Facussé created a small factory making detergents and soaps for Químicas Dinant. He did so with support from the private international banking sector and credit from the Corporación Nacional de Inversiones (CONADI), created by the state in 1974 as part of the strategy to consolidate the new Industrial Model for Substituting Imports (ISI).
1980s
In the early 1980s, Facussé was the chief economic advisor to President Roberto Suazo Córdova (in office 1982 to 1986). During this time Facussé helped his nephew, Carlos Roberto Flores, (who later went on to become president of Honduras) become a political advisor to Suazo.
In the 1980s, Facussé was also vice-president of the Asociación para el Progreso de Honduras (APROH), an organization officially founded in January 1983 linking business leaders and military personnel (head of the armed forces Gustavo Álvarez Martínez was elected its first president). A "widely publicised memorandum" by Facussé "argued that the only way out of the national crisis was to 'sell Honduras to the foreign investor'". Facussé was still listed as Vice-President of APROH in 2001.
1990s
Facussé was president of the Cressida Corporation, which in the 1990s received a $55m investment loan from the World Bank. In 2000 Facussé sold Cressida, which had subsidiaries throughout Central America and was at the time described as "the biggest food and cleaning products manufacturer in Honduras" to Unilever for $322m for an estimated net profit to Facussé of $120m. Facussé had previously sold the brand Magia Blanca and others to Procter & Gamble for over $25m.