Mr. Peña Nieto took office at 12:01 a.m. in a short ceremony at the presidential residence with his immediate predecessor, Felipe Calderón.
Around 11 a.m., after arriving at the congressional chamber, Mr. Peña Nieto recited the oath of office amid cheers and jeers, mostly from leftist legislators. The national anthem was played, and he left quickly.
Facing the hostility of Congress is becoming a tradition in Mexican presidential transitions. Opposition lawmakers barricaded the doors to the congressional chamber and brawled before Mr. Calderón’s swearing-in in 2006 after a razor-close win over the leftist candidate.
In a speech Saturday afternoon before an audience of domestic and foreign dignitaries, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Peña Nieto promised to bring peace and prosperity to Mexicans.
“This is Mexico’s moment,” he declared.
He said he would increase support for the victims of violence, enact changes to the penal code to attack rampant impunity and move forward on economic changes to remake Mexico into a middle-class society that his advisers say will help reduce crime.
He made no promise to dismantle the drug-trafficking organizations, a focus of Mr. Calderón’s, but unveiled a sweeping 13-point plan filled with ambitious domestic goals for new passenger train lines, broader access to the Internet, pensions for the elderly, a campaign against hunger and other goals.
Behind barricades blocks from the national palace, where Mr. Peña Nieto spoke, demonstrators and the police clashed; windows were broken at a hotel and television channels showed images of protesters hurling rocks and other objects at riot police officers.
Mr. Peña Nieto, 46, a lawyer who served as governor of Mexico State, has vowed to continue Mr. Calderón’s efforts to work with American law enforcement agencies to quell the violence linked to drug gangs that has killed tens of thousands in the past several years and tarnished Mexico’s image.
His team has emphasized the need to bolster Mexico’s economy, which rebounded from a recession in 2009 and is now growing faster than that of the United States, thanks to an infusion of new manufacturing plants and other investment.
His administration plans more steps to stimulate the economy, arguing that generating better-paying jobs will go a long way toward reducing violence by providing alternatives to crime for the chronically underemployed.
Mr. Peña Nieto also plans to reorganize the federal security forces and form paramilitary units with police duties to combat violence in rural areas and support local and state police departments that are too corrupt or poorly trained to fight crime.
Still, his administration will be watched to see if it is propelling Mexico forward or backward.
Mr. Peña Nieto ushers in a new era for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which ruled Mexico for more than 70 years before the more conservative National Action Party toppled it in 2000 and defeated it again in 2006.
Mr. Peña Nieto and his associates say they represent a new, chastened party bent on promoting efficiency and economic change and promising to fight the kind of corruption long associated with it.
“It’s a very common misconception to think that the PRI’s return to power means the return of something that is already in history,” Luis Videgaray, who led the president’s transition team and will become treasury minister, said in a recent interview.
“The PRI of today is like any other party: a party that competes in a democracy, that accepts results and understands that only through good government would it be able to compete again in elections,” he said.
When Mr. Peña Nieto announced his cabinet on Friday, it was clear that he had relied largely on PRI stalwarts, including five former governors. But he also placed several young, foreign-educated technocrats from his inner circle, including Mr. Videgaray, in prominent positions.
The PRI-led coalition is the largest in Congress, but it does not have an absolute majority and will need alliances to get anything done.
Randal C. Archibold contributed reporting.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/world/americas/enrique-pena-nieto-takes-office-as-mexicos-president.html?partner=rss&emc=rss