Horacio Cartes Sworn President of Paraguay Thursday Aug 15,2013

Paraguay's new President Horacio Cartes, center, holds up the presidential baton as Congress President Julio Cesar Velazquez, right, applauds at his swearing-in ceremony at Palacio de Lopez presidential palace in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013

Horacio Cartes(57) was sworn in as president of Paraguay who took the oath of office in the gardens of the presidential palace

Horacio Cartes replaces Federico Franco, a Liberal party leader who has led the country since Cartes replaces Federico Franco, a Liberal party leader who has led the country since Lugo's ouster Lugo's ouster

He used his inaugural address to pledge a "war on poverty" in a country where 39 % of the 7Million people are poor.
"If in five years, we haven't substantially reduced poverty, all our work will have been for nothing," he said.

The presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Peru  attended the function

Conspicuously absent at Cartes' inauguration was Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, a close leftist ally of Fernando Lugo who was pointedly not invited to the ceremony



Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes and his daughter Sofia after his inauguration in Asuncion on August 15, 2013

Note

• Horacio Cartes whose election on April 21,2013 returned to power the Colorado party of the late dictator Alfredo Stroessner

• Colorado Party was in power for 60 years and played a key part in supporting the military rule of Gen Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989

• In 2008, Colorado Party was beaten by a left-wing coalition headed by Fernando Lugo

• Fernando Lugo was controversially impeached by Congress over his handling of a land eviction in which 17 people died.The impeachment process took less than 48 hours and was deemed unfair by many of Paraguay's neighbours and led to the country's exclusion from the Mercosur trading bloc.