Alberto Fernández in the front row, between the King of Spain and the President of Chile. Mauricio Macri in the second row, along with the former presidents of Uruguay and Chile: the oath of the new Paraguayan president brought together two characters on Tuesday who, in their country, at this point would be unthinkable for them to meet again.
The president and former president gathered in the gallery of foreign guests, who included other Latin American rulers, King Felipe VI of Spain and Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai, to see Santiago Peña vow to fight corruption in Paraguay.
The photos show Mauricio Macri sitting right behind Alberto Fernández at the ceremony held at the Palacio de López, in Asunción, but there is no photographic evidence that they have made contact. Along with them were presidents such as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Gabriel Boric (Chile) and Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay) along with other Chilean and Uruguayan ex-presidents.
Peña was sworn in as the new president of Paraguay for the next five years in a ceremony in which he assured that he would follow the “political vocation” of consensus and agreements of former President Horacio Cartés, questioned for alleged corruption.
In his first speech as the new president, Peña, 44, appealed to both his supporters and his detractors to, together, build a “better nation”, stressing that he will seek for everyone to prosper and for this he will work in order to reach consensus and overcome what divides Paraguayans.
One day before his inauguration, Peña has met with several of the representatives of the foreign delegations that have come for the ceremony, such as the Spanish one headed by King Felipe VI, or the American one, with the Secretary of the Interior, Debra Haaland, front.
Peña, who already ran as a candidate in 2017 without success, is the tenth president of the country after the return of democracies after the fall of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner. During his campaign, he promised to create half a million jobs, invest in security and social housing, as well as reduce the prices of fuel and basic foods.
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