On the evening of February 12, 2020, President López Obrador invited more than 100 business leaders to dinner at the National Palace. They were served tamales of chipilín and hot chocolate. On each guest’s table lay a carta compromiso, a letter of commitment, asking how many tickets the guest would buy in the raffle tied to the presidential plane. (Video in Spanish, without subtitles.)
The next morning, the president said that at least 75 business leaders had committed 1,500 million pesos. Bosco de la Vega, president of the National Agricultural and Livestock Council, called them “los tamales más caros de mi vida” (the most expensive tamales of my life).