Aftershocks rattle Chile as Pinera assumes office
Published: Mar 11, 2010 20:14 Updated: Mar 12, 2010 01:27
SANTIAGO: Conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera took office as Chile's president on Thursday in turnover ceremonies punctuated by strong aftershocks, including the biggest since last month's 8.8-magnitude temblor.
Pinera urged citizens along the coast to move quickly to higher ground and Chile's Congress building in the coastal city of Valparaiso was also evacuated moments after Pinera was sworn in, as a precautionary measure.
Visiting dignitaries looked nervously at the ceiling but the inauguration went forward as normal. In the capital of Santiago some buildings were briefly evacuated.
Aftershocks with preliminary magnitudes of 5.1, 7.2, 6.9 and 6.0, respectively, rocked Chile throughout the inauguration.
Pinera kept his cool but said Chileans shouldn't ignore the possibility of dangerous waves. The Chilean Navy issued a tsunami warning. Sirens sounded in Constitucion, one of the strongest-hit cities in the Feb. 27 quake and police ordered people away from beaches.
But the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the aftershocks were too small to cause dangerous waves.
The Harvard-trained economist Pinera said his urgent task is to rebuild his country and Chileans hope he can use his business skills to help one of Latin America's most stable economies rebound from the quake, which was followed by a tsunami that devastated coastal villages.
The 8.8-magnitude quake killed hundreds of people and caused infrastructure damage across much of south-central Chile, threatening to undermine Pinera's election pledges to boost economic growth to 6 percent a year and to create a million jobs.
"The main challenge is to identify priorities to swiftly start the reconstruction effort. That will be the key variable that will be evaluated during his administration," said Alberto Ramos, senior economist with Goldman Sachs in New York.
"This could be the (hurricane) Katrina of President Pinera ... in terms of how the population perceives the relief and reconstruction effort." Even though mines were mostly unscathed in the world's top copper producer, the quake seriously damaged key wine, fish and paper pulp industries near the epicenter in south-central Chile.
State-owned copper miner Codelco, the biggest copper miner in the world, said none of its mines were damaged on Thursday in the aftershocks. One of the aftershocks was a powerful magnitude 7.2 centered about 124 km (80 miles) south-west of the capital.
Some analysts see the damage shaving 0.5 to 2.0 percentage points off this year's economic growth, while others are holding to their original GDP forecasts of around 5 percent.
Survivors are praying Pinera, 60, gets it right.
"He is a businessman ... and that is what we need right now. Someone who can create jobs for our kids," said Carlos Fuentes, a 47-year-old fisherman who lost his home and boat when giant waves rolled over the town of Curanipe after the 8.8-magnitude quake.
"He's got a tough job," Fuentes said while untangling fishing nets with a knife.
Pinera, a former senator who made a fortune on a credit cards business and an airline, ranks No. 437 on Forbes' richest list, which estimates his fortune at $2.2 billion.
To fund reconstruction, the new leader is likely to issue international bonds and dip into the country's copper savings.
Somber ceremony
The handover of power from popular center-leftist Michelle Bachelet was celebrated with an austere midday ceremony, toned down out of respect for those still mourning the dead.
Officials have identified 497 dead from the Feb. 27 quake and tsunami, after revising down an earlier death toll of 802, which mistakenly included lists of the missing.
Pinera's election marks a shift to the right in Latin America where a generation of center-left and socialist leaders are in power.
Fellow conservative presidents Alan Garcia of Peru and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia attended the inauguration along with leftist leaders such as Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and Bolivia's Evo Morales.
Pinera and Morales, a soccer fanatic, played together in a friendly soccer match the day before the inauguration, putting aside their countries' historic dispute over landlocked Bolivia's access to the sea.
Bachelet, a pediatrician-turned-politician, is leaving office with a record high 84 percent approval rating even after criticism of delays in government aid for victims.
The government was also slammed for a faulty tsunami warning system, the botched death toll estimates and hesitating to send in troops to quell violent looting. Pinera has promised a total overhaul of the country's emergency response office.
The agency's head tendered her resignation on Wednesday, defending its record in the face of widespread criticism and Pinera's overhaul vow.
"What more do they want? Blood?" Carmen Fernandez said after tendering her resignation to Bachelet. "What else do they want me to say? That I will sacrifice myself in public?"
