Auction in Uruguay: an Argentine bought the presidential plane for US...

MONTEVIDEO.- An Argentine businessman was left with the Uruguayan presidential plane that was finished off today, without a base and with few interested parties. It had cost a million dollars two and a half years ago, and now fIt was sold at auction for $ 180,000.

The bid of a few minutes was between a Panamanian and an Argentine. Although there was no basis, the auctioneer started the auction with the suggestion of a price of $ 200,000., but there was no one who put that money.

“The price was reasonable,” said the auctioneer., whose commission goes to the Coronavirus Fund, created by the government of Luis Lacalle Pou, according to a prior agreement between the government and the auctioneers’ union.

The Minister of National Defense, Javier García, was tough against the previous government that had bought the plane. “The presidential plane was publicly and transparently auctioned at $ 180,000,” which “was bought directly and with absolutely disproportionate value,” said the Secretary of State. And I add: “Uruguay is an austere country. The tastes of the rulers should not be made with public money.”

In 2018, then-president Tabaré Vázquez had bought a plane, both for presidential flights and for medical aid, and then-opposition leader Luis Lacalle Pou criticized the measure. In full electoral campaign he had announced that if he became president, he would sell it.

Lacalle Pou took office last March and put it up for sale at an auction organized by the Uruguayan Ministry of Defense. The first auction was on July 15 with a base of $ 350,000, but there were no applicants.

On that occasion, Minister García had announced that it would be auctioned again and Foreign Ministry and Migration were being coordinated to “provide all facilities for all those people who want to come from other countries to see the plane, and be present at the auction” .

The plane was purchased in February 2018 by the government of Tabaré Vázquez from the Uruguayan businessman Carlos Bustin, for $ 1,010,000, and its maintenance in two years required an outlay of $ 1,600,000, according to what was reported at the time by the Air Force to the Ministry of Defense.

The Argentine businessman who bought the plane left through a door where there was no press; his name was also not released.