THE WILSON CENTER’S LATIN AMERICAN PROGRAM WISHES YOU A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

AIR FORCE NONE

By Henry Shuldiner

Peru’s president, Pedro Castillo, recently made headlines after announcing plans to sell the Peruvian presidential plane, an aging Boeing 737. He followed his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who in 2020 announced his intention to auction off the presidential Boeing 787 Dreamliner for $130 million. Demand for presidential jets might be small, but supply is growing fast. In June, Honduras’s leftist president-elect, Xiomara Castro, said she too would divest of the presidential plane. In August, Ecuador’s new leader, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, promised to do the same.

These aviation yard sales are mostly symbolic acts, but Latin American leaders have a sometimes turbulent history in the friendly skies. In November, former Bolivian President Evo Morales landed in Buenos Aires aboard a Venezuelan Bombardier Learjet aircraft that belonged to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA and was subject to U.S. sanctions. Morales’s air travel previously caused controversy in July 2013, when several European governments denied the Bolivian presidential plane access to their airspace amid unsubstantiated suspicions that he was transporting Edward Snowden.

The same year, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner was reportedly forced to charter a private jet out of concerns the presidential plane, Tango 1, might be seized by hedge funds seeking repayment on billions of dollars in defaulted sovereign debt. In a global hunt for Argentine government assets, the investors had previously got their hands on the Libertad, a three-mast tall ship seized from the Argentine Navy in a Ghanaian port.

These days, Latin American leaders eschewing private jets regard the planes as symbols of overspending, and even corruption. López Obrador travels on commercial airlines, and Castillo has prohibited first-class air travel for all government officials. In Mexico, the savings from ditching the presidential plane will supposedly fund investments in Central America designed to reduce migration. In Peru, Castillo says his low-key travel style will free up cash for health and education.

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The Latin AmericaN Program Weighs In

“Chile se emborrachó del éxito. Y apuntó a ser Finlandia o Nueva Zelandia. Y en realidad sigue siendo América Latina. No está mal ponerte esos objetivos, pero para llegar a ellos debes hacer cambios muy profundos.” – Daniel Zovatto

Cynthia Arnson is quoted in, “20 years of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” for IDEA

Cynthia Arnson in quoted in, “Elecciones LATAM y Venezuela,” for Voz de América

Benjamin Gedan is quoted in “Erosão democrática nos EUA reduz cerco a Bolsonaro em cúpula de Biden,” for Correio Popular

Jorge Heine is quoted in, “The ‘active non-alignment’ in the struggle between the United States and China,” for Otra Mirada

Richard Sanders authored, “Spain’s Vox Sets Its Sights on Latin America,” for World Politics Review

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera co-authored, “CIDE, ¿núcleo de una red de intereses?,” for MSN Noticias

Daniel Zovatto is quoted in, “Chile se emborrachó de éxito (…) Y en realidad sigue siendo América Latina,” for The Clinic

Carlos Basombrío authored, “De refundador a refundido,” for El Comercio Perú

Carlos Fernando Chamorro authored, “El periodismo frente a la dictadura en Nicaragua,” for La Nación

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Beatriz García Nice produces the Weekly Asado. It is edited by Benjamin Gedan.