Santiago: Left-leaning former student leader Gabriel Boric was sworn in as the new President of Chile on Friday. Boric vowed political and economic reform in Chile, which has faced repeated large-scale protests over inequality in recent years, despite having a relatively diverse economy.
Gabriel Borik is the youngest president
Boric (36) is the youngest president in the history of the South American nation. He was only four years old when democracy was restored to the country after a 17-year military dictatorship that laid the groundwork for modern Chile.
Borik expressed his resolve
Boric has vowed that his young, inclusive government would eliminate poverty and inequality stemming from the free market model implemented during the regime of General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990. His four-year term begins at a time when the Constituent Assembly is drafting a new constitution for the country to replace the one adopted under Pinochet’s rule.
Leftist former student leader Gabriel Boric was sworn in as Chile’s youngest-ever president, with plans to turn the country greener and more egalitarian https://t.co/jWbwfCnnas pic.twitter.com/9vSyNiuxsw
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 11, 2022
sworn in as cabinet leader
lvaro Elijalde, leader of the Socialist Party of the Senate, wears the presidential emblem on Boric’s shoulders during a ceremony at the Parliament House in the port city of Valparaíso. Shortly thereafter, Borik was sworn in as his cabinet leader. Borik’s cabinet consists of 14 women and 10 men.
Borik got 56 percent of the vote
In the election held in December, Boric got 56 percent of the vote against the conservative Jose Antonio Cast. “We have to make changes step by step because if that doesn’t happen, the risk of backtracking is too high,” he said recently.
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Chile is one of Latin America’s biggest economic success countries
Chile has long been seen as one of Latin America’s greatest economic successes. But it has repeatedly faced several major protests over the past decade, some led by Boric, demanding better education, pensions and health care as well as more egalitarian distribution of wealth.