Mexico: The president of Mexico finally sells his unwanted luxury jet to Tajikistan
By Ahmad Hadizat Omayoza, MAMOS Nigeria
The luxury presidential jet that Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador once described as an “insult” to the people has finally found a buyer: the public authority of Tajikistan.
According to López Obrador, the agreed-upon sale price for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that Enrique Pea Nieto, his predecessor, used but never bought was approximately $92 million, or 1.66 billion pesos.
The late-night announcement on Thursday appeared to bring an end to a political saga that the president, who is more commonly referred to as Amlo, had repeatedly used to criticize the excesses of his predecessors.
The president said in a video that went along with the post that the sale showed how Mexican politics had changed under his leadership.
He spoke from a high leather-backed seat flanked by officials, “It’s important that everyone knows how people thought and how the authorities acted, like little pharaohs.” No more.”
Next week, additional information regarding the plane’s sale to the central Asian nation, including what he described as the aircraft’s exorbitant maintenance costs, will be made public.
Jorge Mendoza, head of the national development bank Banobras and one of the president’s officials, stated that the Tajikistan state council that purchased the plane has approximately ten days to take possession of it.
The populist leftist, who has railed against political elite corruption for decades, had previously stated that he hoped to sell the aircraft for at least $150 million, down from its 2012 purchase price of $218 million.
Amlo announced plans to sell the plane shortly after assuming office at the end of 2018. The plane had multiple flat-screen monitors, marble touches, and official government seals emblazoned on the walls.
However, years passed without a sale, and the prudent Mexican leader, who has advocated budget austerity throughout his more than four years in office, made a proposal to raffle the aircraft.
When he does travel, Amlo takes commercial flights. He said the money from the sale would be used to build two public hospitals with 80 beds in Guerrero and Oaxaca states’ southern regions, which are among the poorest in the country.
He added, “They will be inaugurated before my term ends and will be built by military engineers.”
