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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 13 March 2018

Chile again veers right as Pinera returns to presidency

By EVA VERGARA called for improvements in
Associated Press health care and improve-
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — ments in the La Araucania
Conservative Sebastian region, where many of the
Pinera returned to Chile’s 700,000 members of the in-
presidency this week, vow- digenous Mapuche com-
ing to revive an economy munity live in deep poverty
that has slumped under and where some activists
center-left leader Michelle are fighting to recover an-
Bachelet and calling for cestral lands.
unity in helping the coun- Pinera’s first administration
try’s less fortunate. was marked by big street
The outgoing leader hand- demonstrations demand-
ed the presidential sash to ing reforms to education
the president of Congress, and other services as well
who then swore in Pinera as by the start of softening
— who himself had turned copper prices. He left of-
over the office to Bachelet fice with favorability ratings
in a similar ceremony four in the 30s.
years ago. Pinera, whose first term
Pinera, a billionaire entre- ended 20 years of left-
preneur, oversaw growth leaning governments, has
that averaged 5.3 percent said he hopes to work with Chile’s newly elected President Sebastian Pinera, left, and outgoing President Michelle Bachelet
a year during his first term center-left rivals to achieve embrace during his swearing-in ceremony at Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, Sunday, March 11,
from 2010 to 2014, aided by his goals, but he also faces 2018. Pinera returned to Chile’s presidency, after his first term from 2010 to 2014.
pro-business policies, rising a challenge of herding his (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
prices for Chile’s chief ex- own sometimes fractious gusto Pinochet from 1973 the capacity to work as a emony were the presidents
port, copper, and a huge coalition, which includes to 1990. “We have to see team,” said political ana- of Argentina, Bolivia, Bra-
rebuilding effort following a parties that backed the effectively if the right, for lyst Miguel Zlosilo. zil, Ecuador, Mexico and
magnitude 8.8 earthquake dictatorship of Gen. Au- the first time in history, has Among those at the cer- Peru.q
that hit just before he took
office. A slump in copper
prices helped sour Bach- Cuba’s likely next leader pledges more responsive gov’t
elet’s second round as
president, with the econo-
my — and the president’s By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN of Santa Clara that “the in style from Castro’s, Diaz- The vice president has
popularity — slipping badly Associated Press people will participate in Canel waited in line to vote long been seen as Cas-
in 2014 and 2015. The coun- SANTA CLARA, Cuba (AP) — the decisions that the gov- alongside other citizens. tro’s hand-picked succes-
try’s first female president Cuba on Sunday took the ernment takes.” Most officials are swept to sor, and he has consistently
had been wildly popular final political step before “The people can also recall the front of lines to vote in emphasized maintaining
when she ended her initial a promised transition from someone who doesn’t fulfill front of local and interna- continuity in Cuba’s single-
term by handing power the founders of the Com- their responsibilities,” Diaz- tional media. party political system and
to Pinera. “From day one, munist state to a younger Canel said. “There has to “We’re almost in the future centrally planned econo-
Pinera is going to want to generation of officials. be a focus on ties to, links that we’ve been talking my. Despite a series of re-
show that under him, the Along with millions of Cu- with, the people, to listen to about, a transition,” said forms instated by Castro
wheels of the economy will bans, 57-year-old vice the people, deeply inves- Jose Ramon Machado at the beginning of his de-
start to spin again,” said president Miguel Diaz-Ca- tigate the problems that Ventura, the 87-year-old cade in power, the Cuban
Cristobal Bellolio, a profes- nel voted to ratify a gov- exist and inspire debates second vice president who government maintains its
sor of government at the ernment-approved list of about those problems.” fought along with Castro monopoly on most forms of
Adolfo Ibanes University. members of the National Diaz-Canel also lamented to overthrow strongman economic activity and the
In the first speech of his Assembly, which convenes the downturn in relations Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Cuban economy remains
new term, Pinera called for April 19. with the U.S. under Presi- “We’ve been in transition mostly stagnant and unpro-
a national consensus on Diaz-Canel, who is expect- dent Donald Trump, saying since Jan. 1, 1959. ductive.
protecting the tens of thou- ed to assume Raul Castro’s “the reestablishment of re- Now, the change is gen- Young Cubans in particular
sands of young people seat as president that day, lations has been deterio- erational.” are widely disenchanted
who live in state-run homes said the country’s next gov- rating thanks to an admin- Despite the change in by a lack of economic op-
or related institutions, ernment will be more re- istration that has offended tone, few Cubans on Sun- portunity and the state’s
which saw 865 youngsters sponsive to its people. Cuba.” day expected Diaz-Canel tight control of virtually
die over the past decade. Miguel Diaz-Canel told re- In a bit of political theater to bring about immediate all aspects of life on the
The new president also porters in the central city that may prove to be a shift or dramatic reform. island.q