The president of Ecuador Guillermo Lasso decided to put the aircraft incorporated into the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE) up for sale for its exclusive use on August 31, 2021, through a decree in which he restricted its use to “exceptional situations” considering that for “rationalize public spending and balance the national budget it is necessary to sell unproductive assets or whose preservation is inefficient or unnecessary”.
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In 2021, Ecuador faced a fiscal deficit of 4,813 million dollars (4.63% of GDP) that worsened due to the pandemic, leaving a balance of more than 32,000 dead.
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In addition, Lasso explained that the cost of maintenance and operation of the two aircraft that the presidency had “are inconvenient for the country”, which by then registered 30% underemployment and unemployment and 48% poverty and misery.
The aircraft is an Embraer Legacy EMB-135-BJ, with a capacity for 14 passengers, distributed in three cabins with carpets and leather seats, a kitchen and a luggage room, was acquired from the Brazilian company Embraer by the Government of Ecuador in 2008 during the term of former President Rafael Correa for a price of about 28 million dollars.
In addition to the Legacy, the Ecuadorian Presidency has another plane, the Dassault Falcon 7X, also acquired during Correa’s time (2007-2017).
In rebate. The Legacy presidential aircraft was sold to the Colombian Air Force for USD8 million. In 2008 it cost Ecuador USD28 million. pic.twitter.com/32INvxB4t1
– LaHistoria (@lahistoriaec) May 16, 2022
Colombia would buy Ecuador’s presidential plane, according to Economy Minister
The Colombian Air Force (FAC) would be the buyer of the Ecuadorian presidential plane put up for sale in 2021 by the president, Guillermo Lasso, according to what his Minister of Economy, Simón Cueva, confirmed on Monday, although later the body in charge of the transaction clarified that this one is not closed yet.
“I understand that it was sold to the Colombian Air Force”Cueva said in an interview with the Teleamazonas channel where he did not know how to specify the amount for which the sale was made.
Hours later, the Technical Secretariat of Real Estate Management of the Public Sector (Inmobiliar), the state office in charge of the negotiation, indicated in a statement that the management of the process continues and, “once the sale is concluded, details of the process through an official pronouncement”.
The technical secretary of Real Estate, Fernando Villacís, had already anticipated in March that the Colombian Air Force had expressed its formal interest in acquiring the
plane, whose price was estimated between 5 million and 8 million dollars.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Eph.
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