Outgoing Mexican leader Felipe Calderon handed power to president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto in a symbolic ceremony just after midnight, hours before the new leader is officially sworn in.
In a five-minute-long event, Calderon and Pena Nieto stood stone-faced, side by side before the incumbent handed a Mexican flag to his successor, who then handed the green-white-red banner to a soldier.
“The handover of the national flag for the change of guard from the president to the president-elect symbolizes the transfer of command,” Calderon wrote on Twitter.
The two sang the national anthem and then shook hands with the outgoing and incoming cabinets, but they did not speak.
Pena Nieto’s inauguration, taking place at 1500 GMT Saturday, will mark the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after a 12-year absence from the presidency.
The PRI ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century with a mix of patronage, corruption and repression, but the 46-year-old former Mexico state governor has vowed that his party had abandoned its dark past in his six-year term.
Pena Nieto inherits a brutal drug war that has killed more than 60,000 people in the last six years, but the new leader has vowed to significantly reduce the levels of violence.
Pena Nieto will take the oath of office in the lower house of congress at 1500 GMT under tight security, with metal walls circling the building and some 6,500 police officers deployed on the street.
Mexico's Calderon hands over power to Pena Nieto
