Global General

Chile swears in new president amid strong quakes

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-12 01:34

Chile swears in new president amid strong quakes

Chile's outgoing President Michelle Bachelet waves as she arrives for the inauguration of Chile's president-elect Sebastian Pinera at the Chilean Congress building in Valparaiso March 11, 2010. [Agencies]

"He is a businessman ... and that is what we need right now. Someone who can create jobs for our kids," said Carlos Fuentes, a 47-year-old fisherman who lost his home and boat when giant waves rolled over the town of Curanipe after the 8.8-magnitude quake.

"He's got a tough job," Fuentes said while untangling fishing nets with a knife.

Pinera, a former senator who made a fortune on a credit cards business and an airline, ranks No. 437 on Forbes' richest list, which estimates his fortune at $2.2 billion.

To fund reconstruction, the new leader is likely to issue international bonds and dip into the country's copper savings.

SOMBER CEREMONY

The handover of power from popular center-leftist Michelle Bachelet was celebrated with an austere midday ceremony, toned down out of respect for those still mourning the dead.

Officials have identified 497 dead from the February 27 quake and tsunami, after revising down an earlier death toll of 802, which mistakenly included lists of the missing.

Pinera's election marks a shift to the right in Latin America where a generation of center-left and socialist leaders are in power.

Fellow conservative presidents Alan Garcia of Peru and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia attended the inauguration along with leftist leaders such as Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and Bolivia's Evo Morales.

Pinera and Morales, a soccer fanatic, played together in a friendly soccer match the day before the inauguration, putting aside their countries' historic dispute over landlocked Bolivia's access to the sea.

Bachelet, a pediatrician-turned-politician, is leaving office with a record high 84 percent approval rating even after criticism of delays in government aid for victims.

The government was also slammed for a faulty tsunami warning system, the botched death toll estimates and hesitating to send in troops to quell violent looting. Pinera has promised a total overhaul of the country's emergency response office.

The agency's head tendered her resignation on Wednesday, defending its record in the face of widespread criticism and Pinera's overhaul vow.

"What more do they want? Blood?" Carmen Fernandez said after tendering her resignation to Bachelet. "What else do they want me to say? That I will sacrifice myself in public?"

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