Santo Domingo - Leonel Fernandez was inaugurated Saturday for his third term as president of the Dominican Republic in a ceremony attended by nine heads of state, who were delayed by Tropical Storm Fay, which soaked the country Saturday. Spanish Crown Prince Felipe and presidents Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Michelle Bachelet of Chile made it to the ceremony despite the heavy rain.
Fernandez, 54, has had a good relationship with all Latin American leaders, and the absence of the presidents of Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil stood out.
The three did attend the inauguration of centre-left former bishop Fernando Lugo as Paraguayan president Friday.
Fernandez was sworn in as president before Congress, although the military parade that traditionally accompanies Dominican presidential inaugurations was not performed in the light of energy-saving measures introduced by the government.
The centre-right incumbent - who spent his childhood and adolescence in the United States - governed the Caribbean country 1996-2000 and 2004-08.
On Saturday, he was inaugurated for a further four-year mandate.
He obtained over 53 per cent of the vote in the presidential election on May 16.
Amid allegations of irregularities in the use of public money to fund his campaign, Fernandez avoided a run-off by remaining above 50 per cent in the first-round election.
The president's Party for Dominican Liberation controls both chambers of Congress in the Dominican Republic, a Spanish-speaking country which shares the island of Hispaniola with French-speaking Haiti.
During the campaign there was a broad consensus as to the major issues at stake for the country: strategies to counter the world crises around food and fuel prices and to combat poverty (which affects some 42 per cent of the country's 9.1 million people), corruption, unemployment and insecurity.
