Economist and businessman Sebastián Piñera is sworn in as President of Chile, while three earthquakes, the strongest measuring magnitude 6.9 and all centered next to Pichilemu, capital of Cardenal Caro province, hit central Chile during the ceremony.
The 2010 Pichilemu earthquakes (Spanish: Terremoto de Pichilemu de 2010), also known as the Libertador O'Higgins earthquakes, were a pair of intraplate earthquakes measuring 6.9 and 7.0 Mw that struck Chile's O'Higgins Region on 11 March 2010 about 16 minutes apart. The earthquakes were centred 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) northwest of the city of Pichilemu.The earthquakes were caused by increased regional stress arising from an earthquake on 27 February, centered offshore Maule Region, which was felt throughout central Chile. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center pointed out the possibility of local tsunamis within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the epicentre, although small, but violent waves were seen in the Pichilemu and Bucalemu area. One person was reported dead. At least eleven aftershocks immediately followed, causing panic throughout coastal towns between the Coquimbo and Los Lagos regions.
The earthquakes were especially destructive in the epicentre town, Pichilemu, capital of Cardenal Caro Province. The city hosts five National Monuments of Chile, of which two, the Agustn Ross Park and the Agustn Ross Cultural Centre, were seriously damaged by the earthquake. They also damaged the villages of La Aguada and Cardonal de Panilonco. Rancagua, the capital of O'Higgins Region, was also damaged, leading President Sebastin Piera to declare a state of catastrophe in that region.
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (Spanish: [miˈɣel ˈxwan seβasˈtjam piˈɲeɾa etʃeˈnike] (listen); born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman, politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022.
The son of a Christian Democratic politician and diplomat, he studied business engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and economics at Harvard University. He had an estimated net worth of 2.8 billion dollars in 2019 according to Forbes, making him one of the richest people in Chile.A member of the liberal conservative National Renewal party, he served as a senator for the East Santiago district from 1990 to 1998, running for the presidency in the 2005 election, which he lost to Michelle Bachelet, and again, successfully, in 2010. As a result, he became Chile's first conservative president to be democratically elected since 1958, and the first to hold the office since the departure of Augusto Pinochet in 1990.Following the social unrest that erupted in late 2019, Piñera's diminished capacity to govern according to the principle of presidentialism has led to claims that Chile is in a state of de facto parliamentarism or should become parliamentarian.