Latin America

Judi Lynn

(160,708 posts) Wed Jun 24, 2015, 11:24 PM Jun 2015

Honduras: Miguel Facussé, "Palm Plantation Owner of Death," Dies at 90

Honduras: Miguel Facussé, "Palm Plantation Owner of Death," Dies at 90

In Honduras, Miguel Facussé, dubbed "the palm plantation owner of death," and one of Honduras’ wealthiest and most powerful figures, has died at the age of 90. Facussé and private security guards with his company, Dinant, were accused of taking part in violent land grabs and dozens of murders of campesino land activists in Honduras’ Aguán Valley as he sought to expand his palm oil fortune. Diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks showed the United States knew of Facussé’s role in cocaine trafficking but continued funding Honduras’ military and police, who reportedly worked closely with Facussé’s guards. Facussé backed the 2009 coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya; his personal airplane was used to fly Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas out of Honduras against her will, a story Rodas later told through a translator on Democracy Now!

Patricia Rodas: "I was expelled from my country by the military. They came to my house. I was taken prisoner by the air force of Honduras. And then, later, they deported me at midnight, and they transferred me in the airplane. Apparently, this airplane belonged to Miguel Facussé, the plane in which I was transferred."

In response to Facussé’s death, Chuck Kaufman of the Alliance for Global Justice told Colorado radio station KGNU, "A prince of darkness has returned to hell."

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/6/24/headlines

(Short article, no more at link.)

Only 70 years too late.

[center]

Miguel Facussé, on the left, next to the previous Honduran President, Porfirio Lobo. [/center]
Dinant Corporation Biofuels & the Death Squads of Honduras

By Stephen Lendman / MathabaJune 10th, 2013

The World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Central American Bank for Economic Integration, and other international lending organizations are complicit. They finance Dinant Corporation. Miguel Facusse owns it. He controls three large African palm oil plantations. He employs Orion Private Security Organization thugs. They’re hired guns. They terrorize and kill. They target campesinos, human rights workers and unionists. They’ve got plenty of blood on their hands. They remain unaccountable.

. . .

[center]

For more images, and information, see "Miguel Facussé" + peasants + murders in google images:

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSND_enUS566US566&q=%22Miguel+Facuss%C3%A9%22+%2B+peasants+%2B+murders&tbm=isch&gws_rd=ssl[/center]

More:
http://www.constantinereport.com/the-dinant-corp-the-cia-honduran-death-squads/

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Honduras: Miguel Facussé, "Palm Plantation Owner of Death," Dies at 90 (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jun 2015 OP

Miguel Facusse dies at 90; colorful, ruthless Honduran tycoon Judi Lynn Jun 2015 #1

Judi Lynn

(160,708 posts)

1. Miguel Facusse dies at 90; colorful, ruthless Honduran tycoon

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Jun 25, 2015, 12:05 AM

Jun 2015

Miguel Facusse dies at 90; colorful, ruthless Honduran tycoon

June 23, 2015, 5:39 PM

. . .

And as Honduras in recent years descended into widespread deadly violence, political chaos and social disaster, Facusse and his security guards were repeatedly accused by human rights groups of responsibility in brutal land grabs and clashes with peasants. Scores of people have been reported killed in the vast Lower Aguan Valley in northeastern Honduras, much of it controlled by Facusse and Dinant.

The violence and his possible role in it cost Facusse numerous World Bank loans and other international financing that he said had helped build his business empire.Born Aug. 14, 1924, in Tegucigalpa, Facusse was the son of Bethlehem-born Palestinian Christians who came to Central America in the early 1900s. Educated at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, he worked in the aviation industry in various Central American countries before returning to Honduras to launch the business that would make him millions manufacturing and marketing snack products, detergents and, most recently, biofuels such as African palm oil.

. . .

He confirmed assertions made in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables that small planes transporting cocaine for Mexican and Colombian drug traffickers were landing on his farmland. But he said he was working to stop it.

The human rights lawyer whom Facusse denied killing was Antonio Trejo, who was locked in numerous legal battles with Dinant on behalf of peasant farming cooperatives. Also an evangelical preacher, Trejo was cut down by six bullets in September 2012 as he left a Tegucigalpa church. He had received death threats and had publicly stated that if anything ever happened to him, Facusse would be responsible.

Former U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman took the unusual step of singling out Facusse in a 2012 letter to then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging that aid be cut to human rights abusers in Honduras.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-miguel-facusse-20150624-story.html

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