NEW PRESIDENT IN ARGENTINA--Promises changes and social justice

• Fidel attends ceremonies and is greeted by Duhalde and Kirchner • New president stresses that the debt cannot be paid without assuring Argentines of work, education for their children and access to healthcare

BY JOAQUIN RIVERY TUR AND JORGE LUIS GONZÁLEZ —Granma daily special correspondents—

BUENOS AIRES.— Néstor Kirchner has assumed the presidency of Argentina with a speech in which he emphasized change in the midst of the initial measures taken by the new government and in the presence of 12 presidents including Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

President Néstor Kirchner  receives the presidential  command baton from the  hands of outgoing leader  Eduardo Duhalde.

After being sworn in together with Daniel Scioli, the vice president, Kirchner directed his first message to the nation in a speech whose basic focus was change. "Change is the name of the future," he stated.

In a direct reference to the practice of neoliberalism, Kirchner noted that in the 90’s the pauperization of Argentines went ahead regardless. He highlighted that the situation of reducing politics to electoral results and government to circles of economic power must not be repeated.

He made it clear that "there would be no magical or lifesaving ploys, and nobody should think that things will change from one day to the next."

He advocated a better and more just redistribution of income. "We want to restore the values of solidarity and social justice that will allow us to change the current reality."

The new president stressed: "We know that the market organizes, but it does not articulate and the state is needed to install equality where the market excludes and abandons it. The state has to protect the most vulnerable sectors; in other words, workers and pensioners."

He added that "society is impoverished when government ignores the people. Juridical security must be for everyone and not only for those with power or money."

Kirchner announced that subsidies had to be guaranteed for those below the poverty line in order to give them access to healthcare, education and housing.

"These are necessary policies," he added, "that have to be impervious to pressure wherever it comes from."

He also placed emphasis on a regional policy, fundamentally through MERCOSUR and, at national level, emphasized that consumption will be at "at the center of our expansion strategy, and that of the population must be able to grow."

The state is to be involved as an economically active entity, promoting public works, not at a Pharonic level, but basically housing and infrastructure. "We have to refute neoliberalism with an increase in the national economy and the creation of new jobs," he explained.

"We cannot have recourse to adjustments and increasing our indebtedness. Creditors will have to understand that they can only get their money if Argentina is doing well," the new leader affirmed, adding that debt is a central issue, but it cannot be paid without ensuring Argentines work, education for their children, and access to healthcare.

He noted that, above everything else, the armed forces must be committed to the future and not the past, and in the international context noted that MERCOSUR must be strengthened and extended to new Latin American members, while proposing a serious a wide-ranging relationship with the United States and the European Union.

For the first time in Argentine history, the transfer of power and the presidential  sash, as well as the command baton, took place in the National Congress rather than the Rose House.

Kirchner effected another national touch with a different choice of command baton. He abandoned the one with the golden hilt in the French style, for a national one with Argentine symbols wrought by goldsmith Juan Carlos Pallardo. The official ceremony began when the outgoing president, Eduardo Duhalde, received the delegations attending the investiture. When Fidel arrived the television cameras followed him and captured the strong embrace Duhalde gave him before greeting the other guests.

HUNDREDS OF ARGENTINES GREET FIDEL

President Fidel Castro was a strong attraction for hundreds of Argentines who greeted him on the night of Sunday, May 25 outside the Four Seasons Hotel, where he is staying.

The crowd chorused solidarity with Cuba slogans ("Cuba, Cuba, Cuba, the people greet you") and carried posters with Che’s portrait, as well as Cuban and Venezuelan flags, thus also supporting the Bolivarian Revolution in that latter country.

One of the Argentines affirmed that it was a historical day for Argentina and that "perhaps the greatest living revolutionary in the world is treading on this soil and we have been able to see him, and see so many people who have fought for a more just society. For us (choked) it is probably one of the greatest joys in our lives that Fidel is here and, for the sake of millions of workers and young people, hopefully we might have a country that is just and where there is work for everybody."

Another person wanted to say that "the Argentine homeland is also the homeland of Fidel, Bolívar, the great Latin American homeland that our fathers dreamed of."

In addition to greeting Duhalde and attending a lunch offered by the outgoing president, the Cuban leader attended the swearing in of the president and vice president and, in the evening was present for a reception given by Kirchner at the Foreign Ministry where he greeted and conversed with the new leader and his wife.

Also present at Kirchner’s investiture were the presidents of Ecuador, Lucio Gutiérrez; Uruguay, Jorge Batlle; Colombia, Alvaro Uribe; Venezuela, Hugo Chávez; Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Chile, Ricardo Lagos; Panama, Mireya Moscoso; Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo; Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada; and El Salvador, Francisco Flores.