Brasilia, Brazil ? Brazil’s first elected leftist president was inaugurated Wednesday, pledging to ease the agony of countless impoverished and hungry Brazilians who inhabit South America’s biggest country — a fertile land the size of the continental United States.

Choking back tears as he spoke to an estimated 200,000 supporters, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said there was no excuse for hunger among any of Brazil’s estimated 50 million poor. “If at the end of my mandate all Brazilians have the possibility to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, I will have fulfilled the mission of my life,” said the former union leader and head of the Workers Party.

Silva warned, however, that the task would be difficult. Brazil’s weakened economy has produced double-digit inflation and a currency that lost 35 percent of its value against the dollar last year.

As Silva began to speak before Congress, the masses who were jammed in a huge park outside danced and chanted “Lula! Lula!” — as Silva is popularly known.

Then they fell silent, transformed as if listening to a sermon from one of their own, as indeed he was — the son of a dirt-poor farmer who dropped out of the fifth grade to shine shoes and sell peanuts.

Silva said he would fight inflation, reduce corruption, boost efforts to give land to the poor and negotiate hard with the United States over the terms of a hemisphere-wide free trade agreement.

Psychiatry professor Maria Aparecida Gussi and her 13-year-old daughter cried during the speech, but said their tears were from joy.

“All I want is a better Brazil for my children, and he’s giving us that hope,” Gussi said. “The hope that it will be better.”

Leaders and representatives of 119 countries — including presidents of seven other Latin American nations — attended the inauguration. Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez watched from the front row of Congress as Silva was sworn in.

Chavez left his country as a general strike by opponents trying to force him from office took a break for the new year. It wasn’t immediately known when Chavez would return, though he was not expected to stay abroad for more than a day. He and Silva planned to have breakfast together this morning.

Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in sash, leaves the Planalto Palace with Vice President Jose Alencar after being sworn in in Brasilia. Silvam, the leader of Brazil's leftist Workers Party, on Wednesday became the 36th president of Latin America's biggest nation.