Michelle Bachelet sworn in as Chile's president

Updated: 2014-03-12 10:17 (Xinhua)

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet (C), Senate President Isabel Allende (L), and outgoing President Sebastian Pinera applaud after Bachelet was sworn in to office in Valparaiso, March 11, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

VALPARAISO - Michelle Bachelet was officially sworn in as president of Chile on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by leaders around the region in the central port city of Valparaiso, the seat of Chile's Congress.

Bachelet, 62, received the presidential sash on the shoulder from speaker of the Senate Isabel Allende, the first time it was passed from one woman to another in the history of the South American nation. Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera then tied a tassel to the sash and wished his successor good luck.

Bachelet, a moderate socialist heading the center-left New Majority coalition, takes the helm of the country again after a spell with the United Nations. Her campaign pledge of major reforms in education, healthcare and tax has held strong appeal among voters.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by presidents from around the region, including Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Uruguay's President Joss Mujica, Colombian President Jose Manuel Santos, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, among others.

Profile: Michelle Bachelet

Michelle Bachelet was officially sworn in as president of Chile on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by leaders around the region in the central port city of Valparaiso, the seat of Chile's Congress.

Bachelet, from the center-left New Majority coalition and ex- president, won over conservative rival Evelyn Rose Matthei in a presidential runoff on Dec 15, 2013, garnering 62 percent of votes.

Born in Santiago on Sept 29, 1951, Bachelet studied military science at Chile's National Academy of Strategy and Policy, and the Inter-American Defense College in the United States.

In 1975, Bachelet and her mother, an archeologist, were held for about two weeks at Villa Grimaldi, a notorious torture center after her father Alberto Bachelet, an air force brigadier general, died in prison in March 1974 as a victim of torture for opposing the regime of former military ruler Augusto Pinochet.

Bachelet, along with her mother, later went to Austria and Germany. She became a member of the Socialist Party after returning home in 1979.

She served as health minister from March 2000 to January 2002 and defense minister from January 2002 to October 2004, becoming the first woman to hold the post in the history of Chile and Latin America.

In January 2005, she was named the Socialist Party's presidential candidate.

At a run-off in January 2006, Bachelet won the presidency with 53.5 percent of votes and served until March 2010. She also served as president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations from 2008 to 2009, and executive director of United Nations Women from 2010 to 2013.

During last year's campaign, she proposed three major reforms: to make free education a right, to make changes to tax laws in a bid to raise 8.5 billion US dollars to finance the educational sector, and to adopt a new constitution.

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