Juan Manuel Santos was inaugurated President of Colombia during a ceremony on Bogota’s central Bolivar square on Saturday. 5000 guests witnesses outgoing President Alvaro Uribe hand over the executive power to his former defense minister.
The inauguration ceremony began early Saturday morning when Santos flew to the northern Sierra Nevada where he took part in an indigenous ceremony.
Following a private lunch with Spanish Prince Felipe de Borbon, the public ceremony started at 3PM at Bolivar Square, the center of Colombian politics.
Santos was sworn in by Congress President Armando Benedetti, who in name of the two chambers of Congress expressed hope for a good collaboration between the executive and the legislative branch.
Benedetti said he hoped for a transparent relation between the Presidency and Congress and to jointly fight to improve the situation in the poorest regions of Colombia and to improve Colombia’s relations in Latin America.
The ceremony was also attended by Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Colombia’s had troubled relations with its neighbors following a 2008 cross-border attack on a FARC camp in Ecuador and Colombia’s strong ties to the United States.
Santos will be President of the Republic of Colombia until August 2014 and succeeds the popular Uribe, who took office in 2002.
Colombia’s 59th President is a member of a family with a long history in the country’s politics and media.
The inauguration ceremony was held amid rigid security measures with 400,000 mobilized soldiers and policemen all over the country. Authorities hope to avoid a repetition of the 2002 inauguration of former President Alvaro Uribe when 21 people died and 70 were injured when the FARC attacked the presidential palace.
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