Former guerrilla Mujica inaugurated as Uruguayan president - Summary

Montevideo - Former guerrilla fighter Jose Mujica, 74, was inaugurated Monday as Uruguay's president. He succeeds Tabare Vazquez. The leftist Mujica's wife, Senator Lucia Topolansky, presided over the ceremony as Congress speaker. Later, Danilo Astori was sworn in as Mujica's vice president and took command of the proceedings.

At a simple ceremony in central Montevideo, Vazquez passed on to Mujica the presidential sash.

Mujica, then a senator and nominee of the ruling coalition Frente Amplio (Broad Front), got more than 53 per cent of the votes in a presidential run-off on November 29, to defeat former president Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-95). He is set to serve a five-year term.

The Broad Front first took power in 2005, and outgoing president Vazquez led a successful reformist government that has retained an approval rating of about 60 per cent, according to surveys. He couldn't run again because Uruguayan law forbids consecutive presidential terms.

Mujica spent 15 years in prison - including 13 years in solitary confinement - for his activities as a member of the Tupamaros guerrillas, which included involvement in burglaries, bank robberies and kidnappings. However, he has since rejected violence as a means to attaining political power.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended the ceremony, along with Spain's Crown Prince Felipe and presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311981,former-guerrilla-mujica-inaugurated-as-uruguayan-president--summary.html.