Mexican President Takes Oath After Brawl

Felipe Calderon took the oath of office as Mexico's president Friday amid jeers and whistles, a lightning-fast ceremony before lawmakers who exchanged punches and insults over the conservative leader's narrow victory.

Calderon entered through a back door and appeared suddenly on the speaker's platform, the site of three days of fistfights and sit-ins by lawmakers seeking to control the stage. Physically protected by sympathetic lawmakers and flanked by outgoing President Vicente Fox, Calderon ignored the chaos around him and calmly raised his arm as he swore to uphold the constitution in comments almost inaudible over the noise.

Congress' leader ordered the national anthem played, momentarily stilling the catcalls and shouting, before Calderon made a quick exit and Congress adjourned. Foreign dignitaries — including former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Spanish Prince Felipe of Asturias — barely warmed their seats in a balcony overlooking the scene.

"He did it! He did it!" chanted ruling party lawmakers, who danced and embraced each other in celebration.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, claims he was robbed of the presidency and has declared himself Mexico's "legitimate president." In September, the Federal Electoral Tribunal declared Calderon the winner of the disputed race by less than a percentage point.

After the inauguration, Lopez Obrador led tens of thousands of supporters down Mexico City's elegant Reforma Avenue, the same boulevard they occupied for weeks this summer to protest Calderon's victory. Carrying banners that read "Lopez Obrador is president," the sea of people marched toward the heavily guarded National Auditorium, where Calderon was to address the nation.

Afterward, Calderon was to attend a military ceremony in which army commanders swear allegiance to him.

Lopez Obrador said he would never recognize Calderon as president because that "would be accepting fraud."

"If we don't protest and we remain silent, there will never be democracy in our country," he said.

After camping out in Congress for three days in an attempt to control the speaker's podium and prevent Calderon from taking office, leftist lawmakers seized the chamber's entrances Friday morning.

They draped a giant banner across the chamber reading "Mexico doesn't deserve a traitor to democracy as president," exchanged punches with ruling-party lawmakers and erected barricades of chairs as Calderon supporters chanted "Mexico wants peace."

"It's good action," quipped California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as he arrived.

Sen. Santiago Creel, who was Fox's former interior secretary, added: "I have never been in such an exciting session."

Calderon acknowledged the political chaos during an unusual midnight ceremony in which he took control of the presidential residence from Fox.

"I am not unaware of the complexity of the political times we are living through, nor of our differences," he said. "But I am convinced that today we should put an end to our disagreements and from there, start a new stage whose only aim would be to place the interests of the nation above our differences."

The closed-door ceremony at Los Pinos, where Calderon will live and work, left experts on Mexico's constitution puzzled over whether Mexico had a president Friday morning. The constitution requires presidents to be sworn in "before Congress," and the brief ceremony in Congress appeared to put that technical debate to rest.

Congress adjourned quickly after the oath of office and lawmakers filed out after their three-day slumber party complete with pillows, sleeping bags and pizza.

Mr. Bush looked down at the near-empty chambers littered with protest banners from a balcony. A Mexican reporter yelled from below in English: "Be careful while you're in Mexico!"

The elder Mr. Bush laughed and said "thank you."

Earlier, Mr. Bush praised Mexico's new president, saying: "The U.S. will work with him every way we can."