Excited, the now ex-president Sebastián Piñera and the newly sworn in, Gabriel Boric, carried out this Friday morning (11) the change of command of the Chilean Presidency.
As is traditional in the country, the new leader received his presidential sash from the Senate president, Álvaro Elizalde – each chief executive has his own, and Boric’s was made by a textile union made up only of women. Piñera withdrew his and they both embraced to applause.
“In front of the people and peoples of Chile, I promise to do my best for the good of the country,” said Boric when he took office, in a ceremony that lasted about 40 minutes in Valparaíso, where the Congress is located.
Latin America’s youngest president, 36, listened to the oaths of his ministers and then said, briefly, “I’m very happy to have before me a cabinet with more women than men.”
Unlike in other years, there were fewer guests at the ceremony, around 500 people, due to restrictions imposed by Covid-19. After the performance of the national anthem, Boric, wearing a mask, embraced many of those present, including the presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, Bolivia, Luis Arce, Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou and Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso.
The ceremony was also attended by allies in the defense of human rights, as well as leaders of NGOs and indigenous peoples. Another guest, the writer Isabel Allende, daughter of Salvador Allende’s cousin, president overthrown by the military coup carried out in the 1960s in the country, was affectionately embraced by the new president, who did the same with Dilma Rousseff, former president of Brazil.
The current Brazilian leader, Jair Bolsonaro, did not attend the event and sent deputy Hamilton Mourão in his place. Throughout the campaign and after Boric’s victory, Bolsonaro criticized the candidate and the choice of Chileans, for being a leftist name. Thus, his absence from the ceremony was expected.
Boric didn’t wear a tie, in an indication of what the tone of his government will be like. In the official portrait that will be distributed to government institutions and embassies around the world, the Chilean leader appears in the same way.
For the first time, the photo was taken against the background of the Pacific Ocean. Boric, born in Punta Arenas, a coastal town in Patagonia, often makes a point of celebrating his origin, which is even marked in the tattoos he carries. During the ceremony, the president also wore a brooch with a tree that symbolizes the Magellan region.
The new Chilean leader will spend the afternoon at the Cerro Castillo presidential palace, holding bilateral meetings with some presidents, and in the early evening he will return to Santiago, where he is expected to speak on Alameda, one of the main thoroughfares in downtown Santiago. .
