Calderon Finally Mexican President
Felipe Calderon assumed duties on Friday midnight as the constitutional president of Mexico for the 2006-2012 period, in an unusual ceremony in the history of the transfer of powers in this nation.

At the presidential residence of Los Pinos, outgoing president Vicente Fox Calderon handed over the national flag and the presidential sash that will be donned by Calderon at the Congress headquarters in the evening.

After the ceremony, the incoming Mexican dignitary sent a live broadcast to the people, assuring that differences will be forgotten from today on.

Calderon, who in a few hours will appear before Congress to take the constitutional oath, also swore-in the secretaries of Defense, Navy, Public Security and Government.

The head of state is a lawyer whom the opposition calls a rightist leader that backs neoliberalism.

Fielded by ruling National Action Party (PAN) to run in the July 2 presidential balloting, he was proclaimed president-elect by the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation on Sep 6 following a thorny process of challenges and denunciations of apparent fraudulent actions.

Calderon was president of the PAN s youth movement in his early twenties.

He was a local representative in the Legislative Assembly, and on two different occasions in the federal Chamber of Deputies.

He ran for the governorship of Michoacan in 1995 and served as national president of the PAN from 1996 to 1999. During his tenure, his party maintained control of 14 state capitals but also lost presence in the federal Chamber of Deputies.

Soon after Vicente Fox took office as president, Calderon was appointed director of Banobras, a national development bank. Later on he joined the presidential cabinet as Secretary of Energy, substituting Ernesto Martens.