Tycoon Sebastian Pinera was to take over the presidency of Chile yesterday faced with the challenge of rebuilding a nation devastated by one of strongest ever recorded earthquakes and a tsunami.
Popular outgoing President Michelle Bachelet was to hand over to Pinera at 12pm at the seat of Congress in Valparaiso, 120km west of the capital, Santiago.
His first task as president will be to visit inhabitants of the coastal town of Constitucion, one of the worst damaged after last month’s magnitude 8.8 quake and the giant waves that followed, leaving almost 500 confirmed dead, at least 260 missing and some 2 million homeless.
Pinera’s January victory spelled an end to the ruling left-wing coalition that has governed Chile since the end of General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship 20 years ago.
“We won’t be the government of the earthquake, we’ll be the government of reconstruction,” Pinera said after the Feb. 27 disaster, naming five new governors in each of the worst-hit central regions.
The 60-year-old not only faces the challenge of reconstruction — which analysts estimate could cost up to US$15 billion — but also takes over from a highly popular outgoing leader.
Bachelet scored an 84 percent popularity rating in a post-quake survey, even amid criticism of a slow government reaction to the disaster.
Bachelet on Wednesday issued a farewell statement to the country, boasting that her ruling Concertacion Party under her and three other presidents in the past 20 years turned Chile into “a country of high credibility.”
The outgoing president, however, said she was leaving with continued concern for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami.
“The earth and the sea have hit us very hard, reminding us that despite our strength and firmness we can never be safe from nature’s onslaught,” she said.
Pinera on Wednesday played a friendly game of football with visiting Bolivian President Evo Morales and former Chilean soccer stars, in a show of solidarity with earthquake victims and neighborly friendliness.
RSS