Chilean President Vows to Rein In Army

The last time a Socialist served as Chile’s president, he was toppled in a bloody military coup. Ricardo Lagos was sworn in Saturday as the second Socialist president, pledging to bring a still-powerful armed forces to heel.

Lagos, who embarks on a six-year term, gained national prominence more than a decade ago by taking a key role in a referendum defeat of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Today, Lagos is equally bold in insisting that Chile’s armed forces defer to the elected government.

“This is a fiesta for democracy,” said a smiling Lagos, who took his oath in the Congress building in this port city, viewed by dignitaries from Europe and the Americas.

Lagos said that, during his presidency, “I will make a tremendous effort to show the world that this is a democratic country where power is in the hands of authorities, elected by the people, and where the armed forces are obedient.”

Those on hand for the swearing-in included Prince Felipe of Spain and U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

Lagos, 62, became well known in 1988, when he worked to defeat a referendum that would have extended Pinochet’s power until the turn of the century. In a televised debate about the referendum, Lagos pointed his finger directly into the camera as if addressing Pinochet personally, calling him a “liar” and “ambitious” for wanting to hang on to power.

Unthinkable at the time, his audacity caused a national sensation as Lagos dared to stand up to a regime accused of causing more than 3,000 deaths and disappearances. Pinochet left power in 1990.

An academic and lawyer, Lagos is a product of a different time than Salvador Allende, the Marxist president who died in the 1973 coup led by Pinochet.

Distant from Allende’s brand of Marxism, Lagos is a moderate Socialist who has dismissed claims by his opponents that his election would signal a return of radicalism.

Lagos narrowly defeated rightist Joaquin Lavin in a Jan. 16 election, the closest since military rule ended in 1990. Lagos won 51% of the vote to Lavin’s 49%.