Juan Perez Munguia / La Paz
In seven international trips of President Luis Arce, the handling and catering service for FAB-001 cost 98,071 dollars. This amount – which does not take into account the price of fuel or operating costs – goes against what the president said in the first months of his term, that his government would be austere and that a presidential plane flight “costs us a lot of money ”.
Handling is the assistance on the ground that aircraft receive upon landing, in aspects such as cleaning the plane, unloading luggage, filling with drinking water, boarding and disembarking. Catering is the food and beverage service for the ship’s passengers. The Paraguayan firm Royal FBO Service was hired for this.
Arce assumed the presidency on November 8, 2020 and a day later, after swearing in his cabinet, he stated: “This is going to be an extremely austere government.”
On December 4, the president was seen boarding a commercial flight. So, he stated that he did it because using the FAB-001 was too expensive.
“(The presidential plane) is just there, one of those flights costs us a lot of money. Actually this is the second flight (commercial that I do), it is cheaper. It is a lot of money and a wear and tear on the equipment (traveling on the State aircraft)”, said the Head of State at the time.
Pagina Siete agreed to the travel handling and catering service contracts made by the governor in the past administration, which are cited below.
trip one
On March 23, the president traveled to Mexico, where he met with his counterpart, the president of that country, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The handling service had a cost of 7,545 dollars and the catering, 466 dollars.
trip two
On July 28, President Arce attended the inauguration of Pedro Castillo, in Peru. For handling, 4,451 dollars were spent and for catering, 1,050 dollars.
trip three
On September 17, President Arce went to Mexico to participate in the VI Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. The handling had a value of 3,040 dollars and the catering 830 dollars.
trip four
On September 22, Arce traveled to the United States, where he attended the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization. She spent $7,395 for handling and $1,972 for catering.
trip five
On October 30, the head of state traveled to Scotland for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change COP-26. For this trip, handling totaled 58,747 dollars and catering, 5,103 dollars.
trip six
On November 15, he traveled to Brazil, where he met with Bolivian residents and attended an event of the Central Única de Trabajadores. The handling cost 2,163 dollars and the catering, 1,345 dollars.
trip seven
On December 13, he flew to Cuba to attend the XX Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty. For handling, 3,248 dollars were allocated and for catering, 836 dollars.
In total, for these seven trips, 86,489 dollars were allocated for handling and 11,582 dollars for catering.
This medium called the Vice Ministry of Communication in order to contact an authority of the Ministry of the Presidency to have their position on the matter. However, despite the fact that they promised to return the call, until the closing of this note there was no response.
The reactions
The head of the bench in Deputies of the Movement Towards Socialism, Gualberto Arispe, indicated that the expenses correspond to international trips that President Arce must make, for which there should be no greater “criticism” in the expenditure of these amounts by the State. .
“These are expenses that are made in the international context. You have to compare these expenses with what other presidents do. I do not see an exaggeration on this issue, because it is a representation of the State and when he goes to another country, our president will not go on a commercial flight either, “he said.
The legislator maintained that the government complies with the austerity issue, since there are no excessive expenses of the country’s resources. “I do not see an exaggeration on this issue, nor why raise a lot of dust on this issue, because a job is being done on behalf of the State,” said the official.
The head of the bench of We Believe in the Senate, Centa Rek, described as “excessive spending” the amount that was allocated for the handling and catering service for President Arce’s trips. She announced an audit process.
In addition, the legislator recalled Arce’s sayings about the family basket -when being Minister of Economy he said that with 100 Bolivians you could buy the basics-. Rek noted that the head of state now spends hundreds of dollars on catering for short flights.
“We are going to start a control process, they are excessive expenses because they leave the town. These expenses contradict Arce’s speeches. He said that with 100 Bolivians a family lived a month, that earned him the nickname of ‘baskets’, when he was a minister. This shows that for the people there is only stale bread and for him cakes. It doesn’t identify with the needs of the people,” he pointed out.
The deputy of the Citizen Community José Luis Pórcel emphasized that Arce cannot afford to incur such high expenses on his trips, since the country is going through a critical moment economically.
“These expenses are an offense to so many people who are desperate for jobs, to mothers who beg on the streets. Arce is inconsistent with his speeches, he says one thing and does another. It is not possible for him to spend so much money on travel,” he added.
Political analyst Gregorio Lanza pointed out that the president is not fulfilling his commitment to carry out an austere government. He added that old practices of excessive spending are being repeated in the Evo Morales administration.
“We have a politician who does not keep his words and promise of austerity. Arce said it was expensive to use the presidential plane. The high prices of his seven trips make us presume that the old practices of corruption in the government of Evo Morales continue to be repeated, ”he asserted.
minister’s maple
In 2016, when Arce was Minister of the Economy, the process of awarding 33 rugs, from Iran or India at a cost of 233,160 bolivianos, for the new building of that office, whose construction cost Bs. 102 million Bolivians.
There was also the purchase of furniture for that infrastructure for 9.4 million bolivianos, which after criticism lowered the amount to 8.6 million.
In October of that year, Arce was questioned in the Legislative and was applauded, because the MAS had two thirds. “Officials have the right to have decent property and real estate. We can’t buy just anything,” said the then head of Economy.
It is a representation of the State and when he goes to another country, our president will not go on a commercial flight either.
Gualberto Arispe, deputy
Arce said that with 100 Bolivians a family lived a month, that’s why they nicknamed him the basket. For the people there is only stale bread
Centa Rek, Senator
(On the presidential plane) one of those flights costs us a lot of money. (…) It’s a lot of money and wear and tear on the equipment (use the FAB-001)
Luis Arce, President
