Gabriel Boric inaugurated as youngest president of Chile

SANTIAGO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Gabriel Boric Font, a 36-year-old leftist politician, was inaugurated on Friday as Chile's new president, the youngest to hold the office, for the period between 2022-2026.

A former student leader, and legal and social sciences graduate from the University of Chile, Boric was sworn in along with his cabinet during a ceremony at the National Congress in Valparaiso, about 100 km from the capital Santiago.

"I am deeply proud of this cabinet, deeply proud that there are more women than men, thanks to the feminist movement. Let us never, never forget that we are indebted every day to the people of Chile," he told the new cabinet.

As the biggest presidential vote-getter in Chilean history, Boric also made history by choosing an unprecedented cabinet filled with youth, feminists and environmentalists.

He took office amid the economic and health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a historic constituent process in the South American country to replace the Constitution that dates back to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.