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Toledo Sworn in, Pledging War on Poverty and End to Arms
Toledo Assumes Peru's Presidency
Shoe-shine boy turned Harvard-educated economist Alejandro Toledo, sworn in as Peru's president Saturday, announced a war on poverty and corruption and urged Latin American nations to halt arms purchases.
Promising a new dawn for Peruvian democracy following a decade of autocratic rule by Alberto Fujimori, Toledo said he would fight corruption, and dedicated himself to improving the lot of Peru's impoverished millions.
"I have the firm determination to dedicate every minute of my life and of my government to initiate a frontal war on poverty," he said in his inaugural address.
"This is and will remain the central objective of my administration and nothing will distract me from it."
To the 12 Latin American heads of state attending the ceremony, he said: "Latin American brothers, let us stop spending on weapons, to invest more in education and in conquering poverty."
Toledo's inauguration capped an eventful 12 months in which his predecessor, Fujimori, fled the country in disgrace, while the country's security czar was arrested abroad and brought back to face Peruvian justice. Lawmaker Valentin Paniagua served as president during the interim.
Born of struggling peasants from an impoverished Andean village, Toledo is the first president of an Andean nation of indigenous descent. He campaigned with pride as a "cholo," or mixed-Indian blood Peruvian, and the simple fact that he looks like a majority of Peru's most humble people helped earn their support.
The new president spoke with passion of his priority to help Peru's poor + more than half of the nation's population of 26 million.
"Fifty-four percent of Peruvians are in conditions of poverty, while four and a half million are sentenced to live below the line of extreme poverty," he said, pledging to create 400,000 new jobs during his five-year term.
He also denounced the corruption of Fujimori's decade-long rule, which collapsed amid scandal last year.
"I will be a president who is implacable in the fight against corruption, which has poisoned the soul of our country," he said.
During the ceremony three pro-Fujimori legislators waved placards reading "No to political persecution," "We will not be silenced," and "Respect our vote" while from the gallery, others yelled, "Japan, return the thief."
Fujimori, in Tokyo since he resigned in November, is protected by recently revealed dual Japanese citizenship from being extradited to Peru to face charges of illegal enrichment.
Toledo prevailed in a hard-fought run-off presidential elections on June 3 against former president Alan Garcia. He proclaimed his ascension to power as a "new and irreversible beginning for Peruvian democracy."
In his first act as president, Toledo swore in a cabinet led by Harvard Law School graduate Roberto Danino, 50, a corporate lawyer with a Washington firm before accepting the post of prime minister.
Danino, a longstanding Toledo ally, is a free-market advocate with close ties to the United States. Another free-marketeer Pedro Pablo takes the key post of minister of the economy, while the former justice minister under Paniagua, Diego Garcia Sayan, heads the foreign ministry.
The defense and interior ministries, reserved for military officers under Fujimori, go to civilians: David Waisman, an anti-Fujimori crusader, and Fernando Rospigliosi, a leftist journalist respectively.
An economist and former World Bank consultant who holds degrees from Harvard and Stanford University, Toledo is married to anthropologist Eliane Karp, a Paris-born Belgian national, who speaks Quechua, the language of Andean Indians. They have an 18-year-old daughter, Chantal.
Toledo and visiting dignitaries will Sunday travel under heavy security to Cuzco, for a ceremonial celebration at the base of the Machu Picchu Inca ruins.
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