The Mexican president’s plane isn’t selling
So he has organised a raffle
IT SHOULD HAVE been easy. The delivery in 2016 of a luxurious jet for Mexico’s then-president, Enrique Peña Nieto, symbolised an out-of-touch government in a country with lots of poor people. In his campaign to succeed Mr Peña in 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised to stick a for-sale sign in the window of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which was bought for $127m (plus $81m for customised fittings). As president, he would travel by commercial airline like ordinary folk. He won the election in a landslide.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Air show”
From the September 12th 2020 edition
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Entrevista con Javier Milei, presidente de Argentina
Transcripción de su encuentro con nuestro corresponsal
An interview with Javier Milei, Argentina’s president
A transcript of his meeting with our journalist
Mexico and Canada brace for Donald Trump’s tariff thrashing
Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada’s Justin Trudeau are taking different approaches to looming trade war
Javier Milei, free-market revolutionary
Argentina’s president explains how he has overturned the old economic order
Is Uruguay too stable for its own good?
The new president must deal with serious problems with growth, education and crime
Bolsonaro’s bid to regain Brazil’s presidency may end in prison
Brazilian police have accused some of his backers of involvement not just in a coup, but in an assassination plot