AMLO fulfills campaign promise and sells presidential plane to Tajikistan
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Thursday the sale of the country’s presidential plane to the government of Tajikistan for 92 million dollars, finally fulfilling an old campaign promise and his preaching of austerity.
“After a long time we managed to sell this plane,” said the president – known as AMLO by his initials – in a video posted on his social networks, where he appears seated inside the luxurious aircraft.
“We never used it ourselves, but I would have been ashamed (ashamed), I say it sincerely, to use this plane,” added López Obrador, insisting that its expensive maintenance “contradicts the republican austerity” that he exhibits as a pillar of his government.
The transaction was sealed for 1,659 million pesos, an amount in accordance with the official appraisal, and was carried out between the development bank Banobras and the state investment committee of the former Soviet republic, informed the bank’s director, Jorge Mendoza, who accompanies López Obrador in the video.
“The transaction is already closed, we have already received the resources in their entirety,” added the official, who explained that the Tajikistan government has approximately 10 days as of Thursday to take the aircraft.
López Obrador recalled that the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 was acquired towards the end of the administration of former President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), but delivered during the mandate of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), the only one who used it in his numerous international tours.
“It is important to know how people used to think, how the authorities acted, like little pharaohs, that should no longer be allowed,” he added.
The leftist president announced that the money from the sale will be used to build two hospitals in the southern towns of Tlapa (Guerrero state) and Tuxtepec (Oaxaca), two of the poorest areas of Mexico.
The aircraft, originally purchased for $218 million, was for sale and flying only for maintenance purposes since López Obrador took office in 2018.
It was offered to countries such as Argentina and some private buyers, but negotiations failed because, according to the president, it was a “very extravagant and very luxurious” aircraft.
López Obrador even offered to raffle it in 2021 by putting lottery tickets on sale, although in the end the prize consisted of an amount equivalent to the price of the plane.