Mexico's Raffle to Raise Money for Presidential Plane Upkeep Ends

Mexico City (dpa) - Mexico's symbolic raffle for the upkeep of a presidential plane the country has been trying to sell for almost two years ended on Tuesday.

Children picked 100 numbers in a televised event. Each of the 100 winners will receive 20 million pesos (947,000 dollars).

Mexico has been trying to find a buyer for the plane, which was purchased for 219 million dollars by former president Enrique Pena Nieto.

His successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had initially planned to raffle off the plane itself, but the scheme was widely mocked as people questioned what an ordinary Mexican would do with the aircraft.

Lopez Obrador then backtracked and decided instead to hold a 6-million-ticket raffle to raise about 160 million dollars, with around 100 million dollars distributed as prize money, and the rest used for health care and maintenance of the aircraft.

However, on the day before the lottery draw, only around 70 per cent of tickets were sold, which meant the funds raised were only slightly more than the cost of the prizes.

Lopez Obrador had earlier said that entrepreneurs had bought half of the tickets, but then said the pandemic had hampered sales.

The luxurious Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which can accommodate 80 passengers, returned to Mexico City in July from a logistical airport in San Bernardino, California, where its storage cost more than 2 million dollars.

The Mexican government said in July it had received two offers of about 130 million dollars to purchase the aircraft.

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