A Boeing 787 bought as the presidential aircraft for Mexico’s former leader has finally been sold for $92 million.
The luxury jet, which has a presidential suite with a private bath, had been on the market for over four years after the country’s current leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, refused to use it.
Obrador had tried to sell the aircraft to various corporations and business executives, but found no takers, the Associated Press reported.
The jet was first purchased by the former president Enrique Peña Nieto, but after Obrador came to office in 2018 it was clear he regarded the jet as ostentatious.
In a social media post on April 20,2023, Obrador said: “The government of Tajikistan deposited 1,658,684,400 pesos, in accordance with the official appraisal, to the account of the Institute to Return the Stolen to the People.”
He added: “This money will be invested in two hospitals, in Tlapa, Guerrero and in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, which will be built by military engineers and inaugurated before the end of our term.”
The Mexican President also shared a seven-minute video from inside the plane.
“It’s important that everyone knows how people thought before, how the authorities acted, like little pharaohs. Not any more,” Obrador claimed.
It is understood that the aircraft is currently in the hands of the Mexican army, which keeps it at a military base in Santa Lucia, north of Mexico City.
Obrador is scheduled to release more information about the sale in the coming days, including the jet’s hcessive maintenance costs.