Chile's new president to heal past wounds
Santiago
Socialist Michelle Bachelet, who has been sworn in as Chile's first woman president, has appealed for national unity to heal the divisions left by a military dictatorship that had imprisoned and tortured her and her parents.
Bachelet's election in January marked a sharp political shift in traditionally conservative, male-dominated Chile.
Her first act as president on Saturday was to swear in a cabinet of 10 men and 10 women, fulfilling a promise to have equal numbers of men and women in decision-making posts.
The 54-year-old pediatrician took her oath at the Hall of Honour of Chile's Congress in the port city of Valparaiso, where she was applauded by hundreds of people, including most of the leftist leaders that recently have come to power in South America.
Bachelet called for national unity in the wake of Chile's 1973-90 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, which activists say saw a wave of human right abuses and oppression of dissidents.
"There was a time in our history when we were divided, looking at each other with suspicion, with mistrust and rejection. Now the time has come to look at each other again to the face, to the eyes," she told thousands of cheering supporters in Santiago.
"The past is the past, but we do not want to repeat the mistakes of that past," she said.
Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured and died in prison for opposing the 1973 military coup.
Then a 22-year-old medical student, she herself was briefly imprisoned and tortured along with her mother before being forced into exile.
En route to Santiago, Bachelet made a brief stop in the town of Casablanca, where she vowed to listen to the voices of all Chileans.
"I want a government in which citizens have an active participation," she said.
"A government at the service of the people."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met Bachelet for 30 minutes ahead of the ceremony, described her election as a triumph of democracy.
Rice said she expects US-Chile relations will remain as close under Bachelet as they were under her predecessor and fellow Socialist, Ricardo Lagos.
Also there, to kiss the new president on the hand, was the South American leader who most vexes Washington, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Bachelet is seen as somewhat more to the left of Lagos, although equally supportive of the strict fiscal discipline and free-market economic policies that helped make Chile one of South America's success stories.
She's also expected to maintain Lagos's foreign policy, including close ties with the US, which signed a free-trade accord with Chile.
Socialist Michelle Bachelet, who has been sworn in as Chile's first woman president, has appealed for national unity to heal the divisions left by a military dictatorship that had imprisoned and tortured her and her parents.
Bachelet's election in January marked a sharp political shift in traditionally conservative, male-dominated Chile.
Her first act as president on Saturday was to swear in a cabinet of 10 men and 10 women, fulfilling a promise to have equal numbers of men and women in decision-making posts.
The 54-year-old pediatrician took her oath at the Hall of Honour of Chile's Congress in the port city of Valparaiso, where she was applauded by hundreds of people, including most of the leftist leaders that recently have come to power in South America.
Bachelet called for national unity in the wake of Chile's 1973-90 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, which activists say saw a wave of human right abuses and oppression of dissidents.
"There was a time in our history when we were divided, looking at each other with suspicion, with mistrust and rejection. Now the time has come to look at each other again to the face, to the eyes," she told thousands of cheering supporters in Santiago.
"The past is the past, but we do not want to repeat the mistakes of that past," she said.
Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured and died in prison for opposing the 1973 military coup.
Then a 22-year-old medical student, she herself was briefly imprisoned and tortured along with her mother before being forced into exile.
En route to Santiago, Bachelet made a brief stop in the town of Casablanca, where she vowed to listen to the voices of all Chileans.
"I want a government in which citizens have an active participation," she said.
"A government at the service of the people."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met Bachelet for 30 minutes ahead of the ceremony, described her election as a triumph of democracy.
Rice said she expects US-Chile relations will remain as close under Bachelet as they were under her predecessor and fellow Socialist, Ricardo Lagos.
Also there, to kiss the new president on the hand, was the South American leader who most vexes Washington, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Bachelet is seen as somewhat more to the left of Lagos, although equally supportive of the strict fiscal discipline and free-market economic policies that helped make Chile one of South America's success stories.
She's also expected to maintain Lagos's foreign policy, including close ties with the US, which signed a free-trade accord with Chile.
posted by Alice at
Monday, March 13, 2006
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