Business Adventures in Mexico
When the new President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, first took office in 2018, one of the first orders he threw down was for his carbon-emitting presidential jet to be banished and sold.
It’s been years now since Obrador started flying coach, denouncing his private airliner as too lavish a purchase for a poverty-stricken country. Yet, it still sits there, adorned with presidential liveries on the tarmac of New Mexico’s main airport. It’s just not got the coolness of Air Force One. It won’t sell, and failure to get the plane off public books would be a failure to deliver on a political promise, and to raise money for Trump’s wall!
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The president’s managed to mess with resident billionaires’ heads and set in motion a fluster of cancellations and changes to major investment projects in the country. Last night, he called for a fund-raiser at his palace (seems ironic) to work everything out, and perhaps even plot a low-key plane sale so that someone else can contribute the emissions!
Seventy-five investors honed in on arguably the most valuable gala dinner in history, including Carlos Slim, Maria Asuncion Arambaruzabala, and Amancio Ortega. One drink, two drinks, three drinks, and before they knew it, raffle tickets were being passed around for a chance at winning the jet.
Strangely though, the government removed the actual jet from the presidential jet raffle last week and subbed in cash prizes instead. The plane will be sold via normal means, and the super-rich played raffle games for twenty million pesos in pocket change. In the end, Obrador pulled in $60 million from the tickets, all monies given away to fund medical equipment. However, if you’re in the market for a Boeing 787-8…
