THE PERUVIAN PRESIDENT’S PLANE UP FOR SALE
Peruvian Head of State Pedro Castillo announced on Wednesday that the presidential plane, a Boeing 737-528 with a capacity of 70 passengers, would go on sale and that the money collected would be used to finance the sectors health and education, hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I am announcing that we will sell the presidential plane, the resources (taken from this sale) will be used for health and education,” said the left-wing president, speaking from Ayacucho town, in southeastern Peru.
He also announced, among other austerity measures, the ban “for any civil servant to travel by plane in first class” to end the “privileges of many civil servants”. “In a government of the people, civil servants will travel like ordinary citizens,” added the former teacher and trade unionist, elected head of Peru in July.
This is not the first time that a head of state has tried to sell the device. In 2007, the former president Alan Garcia had not managed to get rid of it after having auctioned it twice, in particular because of its price: 18.5 million dollars.