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For Just $25, You Could Win the Mexican Presidential Jet in a Raffle

Populist, austerity-minded President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO, for short), is still struggling to get rid of the presidential jet his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto, bought. At his most recent press conference on the topic, AMLO detailed some of the ideas he’s toying with.
Mexico's President will probably raffle the presidential jet through the National Lottery 5 photos
Photo: Emiliano Zapata / lopezobrador.org.mx
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Before he won the elections, AMLO said that he would strive to live a modest life even if he got elected, because he could not in good conscience live a life of luxury, as politicians are wont to do, when a good chunk of the country starved. He also vouched to sell off the Boeing 787 Dreamliner his predecessor had bought and had converted into a presidential jet.

Last year, the plane was parked at a California hangar, with AMLO in negotiations to secure a buyer. He failed to find one and, adding insult to injury, the plane accumulated about $1.5 million in maintenance fees. So AMLO and his people are now toying with various ideas to rid themselves of the plane, even if that means raffling it through the National Lottery.

AMLO says he would be willing to sell 6 million raffling tickets at $25 a pop just to see the plane gone, The Guardian reports. He would even throw in one or two years of free operating time, in case whoever won it didn’t have the financial resources to – you know – fly a private jet.

Other ideas being tossed around include trading the plane with the U.S. in exchange for ambulances and medical equipment, renting it out by the hour or selling it to a private consortium of businesses (about 11 of them) that would chip in to raise $130 million.

The problem with most of the ideas is that the plane is fitted to carry a President and an entourage. It can only seat 80 people, and has a presidential suite and bathroom. Reconverting it to commercial, to sit 300, would be too expensive – and it’s clearly not an expense AMLO is willing to make when he’s already paying for something he does not want or use. Because, believe it or not, the President of Mexico flies only commercial, in keeping with his approach to political life and his campaign promises.

According to AMLO, Nieto would spend a fortune on each flight he made with the presidential jet, including $13,000 on Carolina Herrera perfumes for men, $12,000 on toilet paper and $3,000 on hair gel. He may get some credit for wanting his peeps to always look and smell good, but this kind of expenditure is shameless in a country where half of the population lives in poverty.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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