Michelle Bachelet has been sworn in as the president of Chile for the second time - the first Chilean president in more than half a century to return for a second term.
Michelle Bachelet: four more years. Photo: AFP
The 62-year-old socialist leader, who won 62 percent of the vote in the second round of the presidential election in December, well ahead of the 38 percent cast for Evelyn Matthei, was inaugurated in the city of Valparaiso.
Outgoing president Sebastian Pinera wished her good luck and senate president Isabel Allende placed the presidential sash around her neck - the first time it has been passed from one woman to another.
The BBC reports that the inauguration ceremony was attended by several leaders from the region, including Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Peru's Ollanta Humala and Bolivia's Evo Morales.
Ms Bachelet served one term as president, from 2006 to 2010 but under Chile's constitution she was banned from running for a second consecutive term, even though her popularity ratings remained high.
This time around she campaigned on a promise to spend nearly $18 billion on reforming education, improving health care and reducing income disparity. She also wants to raise taxes to offer free university education and reform political and economic structures dating from the 1973-90 military dictatorship.
Former student activists elected
The youngest member of the newly elected Chilean congress, 25-year-old Camila Vallejo, first came to public prominence in 2011 as the poster child of Chile's student protest movement. Three other former student leaders - all in their 20s - will also be sworn in as MPs.
Camila Vallejo with President Bachelet. Photo: AFP
The BBC's correspondent says it's a remarkable achievement for activists whom no one had heard of at the time of the last government handover in 2010.
Mass rallies demanding education reform drew tens of thousands of people to the streets of Chilean cities in 2011 and 2012. Ms Vallejo was often at the head of those marches, accompanied by 27-year-old Giorgio Jackson - who has also been elected.
"We have a different story from other people in this parliament," Mr Jackson told the BBC. "Our story is about being born in the last years of the Pinochet dictatorship. We were raised in democracy, and that immediately changes your expectations about what democracy is.
"For people who are now in their 60s and 70s, the transition from dictatorship to democracy was a huge achievement in itself. They're happy with that. But our generation wants to push the limits and take things further forward. We don't feel comfortable with the status quo."
Mr Jackson will enter parliament as an independent, as will another of the former student leaders, Gabriel Boric, 28.
Ms Vallejo and Karol Cariola, 26, represent the Communist Party, which is part of Ms Bachelet's governing coalition.
