The Peruvian President, Mr Alejandro Toledo, was sworn into office twice this weekend, first inside parliament on Saturday and yesterday at the imposing sacred Inca citadel of Macchu Picchu.
Mr Toledo (55) received a standing ovation from two dozen foreign dignitaries who attended Saturday's ceremony including 11 Latin-American presidents.
In his hour-long acceptance speech Mr Toledo called for "a war against poverty" that will include tax cuts, investment in rural schools and health clinics, and new resources to fight corruption that siphoned off more than $1 billion in public money during the administration of the former president, Mr Alberto Fujimori.
"My government will never again permit the dignity of the poor to be stolen through political manipulation," he said.
Mr Toledo appointed Mr Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a Princeton-trained economist as Finance Minister, while Mr Roberto Danino, a Harvard Law School graduate, was named Prime Minister. Mr Toledo, a former shoeshine boy turned World Bank economist, played a key role in ousting Mr Fujimori from office last year.
Mr Fujimori, an authoritarian ruler, fled to Japan last year and was fired by Congress as "morally unfit" after his former intelligence chief, Mr Vladimiro Montesinos, was seen in a secretly taped video handing cash to an opposition politician.
Mr Montesinos now sits in a Lima jail awaiting trial on charges ranging from embezzlement to murder.
Mr Toledo also announced a reorganisation of the armed forces and gave official recognition to an independent Truth Commission.
In what he termed a "special note", Mr Toledo called on the assembled South American leaders to agree to an immediate freeze on the purchase of offensive military weapons. "Our fight," he said, "should be against poverty and misery."
Over 60 per cent of Peru's 28 million citizens live beneath the poverty line, a figure which shows the magnitude of the challenge facing Mr Toledo.
He is the first Peruvean president to claim descent from indigenous Andean peoples. His followers call him "Pachacutec" after the legendary 15th-century Inca leader who once used Machu Picchu, perched on a mountain saddle 2,500 metres above sea level, as a sanctuary. Mr Toledo was blessed by Andean priests yesterday, which honoured his indigenous roots.