On Friday, Mexico’s presidential jet was sold to Tajikistan, ending a political story that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador exploited to criticize his predecessors.
Lopez Obrador tweeted that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner used by his predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto, but never by him, was sold for 1.66 billion pesos, or $92 million.
The president said the transaction showed how his leadership has altered Mexican politics in a video.
“It’s important that everyone knows how people thought before, how the authorities acted, like little pharaohs,” he added, sitting in a high leather-backed chair with officials.
“Not anymore.”
He said the plane’s high maintenance expenditures would be revealed next week.
Jorge Mendoza, CEO of Banobras, said the Tajikistan state council that bought the jet has ten days to take ownership of it.
The populist lefty, who has long denounced political class corruption, had indicated he wanted to sell the aircraft for at least $150 million, down from its 2012 purchase price of $218 million.
After taking power in late 2018, Lopez Obrador declared plans to sell the jet with marble inlays, government seals on the walls, and many flat-screen monitors.
After years without a sale, the frugal Mexican leader, who has advocated budget discipline for more than four years, suggested raffling off the aircraft.
Lopez Obrador traveled by commercial flight and said the sale’s earnings would create two 80-bed public hospitals in southern Guerrero and Oaxaca provinces, two of Mexico’s poorest.
“They will be built by military engineers and inaugurated before my term ends,” he continued.
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