Lula assumes presidency on January 1

• Various Latin American presidents confirm attendance www.granma.cu

BRASILIA.- VARIOUS heads of state have confirmed their presence at the January 1 investiture of Luiz Inacio da Silva as president of Brazil, including five from South America (at the close of this edition). The information was given by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry and published by AFP.

The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already confirmed the attendance of Presidents Eduardo Duhalde, Argentina; Jorge Batlle, Uruguay; Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, Bolivia; Alejandro Toledo, Peru; and Jorge Sampaio, Portugal.

A diplomatic source states that despite his country’s political crisis, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has guaranteed that he will be in Brasilia on the first day of the New Year.

Other presidents expected in Brazil are Goran Persson, Sweden; Said Nuzio D’Angieri, Belize; and Samuel Hinds, Guyana. Prince Felipe of Bourbon will represent Spain.

Lula and his Workers Party tried to change the investiture date so that more foreign heads of state could attend along with other governors-elect. But parliament would not accept that the date be changed to January 6, one day after provincial governors take their seats.

Despite the fact that the date is not favorable for the authorities remaining in the capital, the expectation of PT leaders is that more than 150,000 people from all the Brazilian states will attend the ceremony. Fernando Henrique Cardoso will hand over his position to left-wing president-elect Lula, who is to govern Brazil 113 years after the Proclamation of the Republic (November 15, 1889).