CASPER
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SANTIAGO, Chile – Calling on Chileans to dry their tears and get to work to rebuild the nation, Sebastian Pinera is already setting an example.
Meeting until early Friday with his ministers after repeated earthquakes shook up inaugural ceremonies, the new president vowed "to work without rest" on relief and reconstruction and on introducing his first proposals to the congress hours later.
Pinera promised that Chileans could sleep soundly, confident "a government team will be working so you and your children can have a better dawn."
The emergency bill would create subsidies and tax-deductible donations and provide one-time cash handouts of $76 each to 4.2 million survivors in need, he said. Pinera's staff already has been lobbying opposition lawmakers for the package, and Congress prepared to move quickly.
Pinera repeatedly urged Chileans to display courage in his first appearances as president. But Thursday's swarm of aftershocks — including several capable of generating tsunamis and one nearly as big as the quake that devastated Haiti — persuaded many to run for the hills and stay there.
The temblors also caused worry during the inaugural ceremonies inside Chile's congress in coastal Valparaiso, rocking a massive light fixture that many in the audience of 2,000 worried would come crashing down on presidents and dignitaries. Colombia's Alvaro Uribe briefly walked out during one of the aftershocks, while outgoing President Michelle Bachelet seemed unperturbed even as the flower arrangements rocked back and forth.
Then the 60-year-old Pinera strode in smiling, and a steely calm prevailed until oaths were sworn and the audience headed for the hills, joining a crowd outside that was already evacuating, following the navy's tsunami warning.
The roller coaster of an Inauguration Day, with more than a dozen significant aftershocks rocking central Chile, amply demonstrated Pinera's challenges after last month's magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the biggest ever measured.
Meeting until early Friday with his ministers after repeated earthquakes shook up inaugural ceremonies, the new president vowed "to work without rest" on relief and reconstruction and on introducing his first proposals to the congress hours later.
Pinera promised that Chileans could sleep soundly, confident "a government team will be working so you and your children can have a better dawn."
The emergency bill would create subsidies and tax-deductible donations and provide one-time cash handouts of $76 each to 4.2 million survivors in need, he said. Pinera's staff already has been lobbying opposition lawmakers for the package, and Congress prepared to move quickly.
Pinera repeatedly urged Chileans to display courage in his first appearances as president. But Thursday's swarm of aftershocks — including several capable of generating tsunamis and one nearly as big as the quake that devastated Haiti — persuaded many to run for the hills and stay there.
The temblors also caused worry during the inaugural ceremonies inside Chile's congress in coastal Valparaiso, rocking a massive light fixture that many in the audience of 2,000 worried would come crashing down on presidents and dignitaries. Colombia's Alvaro Uribe briefly walked out during one of the aftershocks, while outgoing President Michelle Bachelet seemed unperturbed even as the flower arrangements rocked back and forth.
Then the 60-year-old Pinera strode in smiling, and a steely calm prevailed until oaths were sworn and the audience headed for the hills, joining a crowd outside that was already evacuating, following the navy's tsunami warning.
The roller coaster of an Inauguration Day, with more than a dozen significant aftershocks rocking central Chile, amply demonstrated Pinera's challenges after last month's magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the biggest ever measured.