Mexican leader sells controversial luxury executive plane

Mexico’s left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced that the presidential plane, which has long caused controversy in the country, has been sold to Tajikistan.

In 2012, the purchase of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, commissioned by former President Felipe Calderón, was announced for 218.7 million dollars. Obrador, who came to power in 2018, announced that he would sell the plane that he described as “luxury”, and his waiting for hours for a scheduled flight at the airport made noise in the country.

Obrador, who won the elections with the promise of savings in the state administration and used scheduled planes on his visits abroad, said: “I would be ashamed to board a luxury plane in a country where there is so much poverty. Enough of this nonsense. The power of politicians who act arrogantly will not last long,” he said.

The Mexican leader announced that they are selling the luxury plane to Tajikistan, with a video taken from inside the plane, which he shared on Twitter today. Explaining that Tajikistan paid around $92 million for the plane, Obrador said they would use that money to build two 80-bed hospitals in southern Mexico.

In the video he shared, Obrador said: “Now Mexican politics have changed. Everyone knows that the authorities used to act like pharaohs. It won’t be like that anymore,” he said.