Bolivian voters approved a new constitution on Sunday to give the poor indigenous majority more power, let socialist President Evo Morales run for re-election and hand him even tighter control over the economy.
Aymara, Quechua, Guarani and other indigenous groups who suffered centuries of discrimination in South America's poorest country largely backed the new constitution and exit polls showed it was approved with around 60% support.
The new constitution will give the Indian majority more seats in Congress and greater clout in the justice system. It also officially recognises their pre-Columbian spiritual traditions and promotes their languages.
"A new country is being founded for all Bolivians," an ebullient Morales, 49, told a cheering crowd in front of the presidential palace in La Paz on Sunday night.
Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian who herded llamas as a boy and went on to lead the country's coca-leaf farmers, is Bolivia's first indigenous president and is popular among the poor.
The right-wing opposition accuses Mr Morales of pushing the new constitution to grab more power as he will now be able to run for a second consecutive term in office in an election later this year.
Bolivia was shaken by violent anti-Morales protests in September as opponents feared the president would break up large landholdings in wealthy eastern provinces where a European-descended elite dominates.
After protesters stormed government buildings and blocked highways, Mr Morales watered down the land reform element of the draft constitution and agreed to a two-term limit on the presidency.
Despite those concessions, many mixed-race people in the fertile eastern lowlands rejected the charter on Sunday and the "no" vote prevailed in four of Bolivia's nine provinces, according to exit polls.
Reforms in South America
Mr Morales belongs to a trio of socialist leaders in South America who have reformed constitutions to extend their rule, tackle social inequalities and exert greater control over natural resources.
President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela won approval for a new constitution in 1999 and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa did the same last year.
The new constitution in Bolivia guarantees freedom of religion, angering critics who accuse Mr Morales of being anti-Catholic for embracing indigenous faiths.
The 50-page document also grants Indian communities the right to use ancient traditions in sentencing criminals and it will subject judges, including those on the Supreme Court, to popular votes instead of approval by Congress.
It also says the state should have control over natural resources - from rich natural gas deposits to vast tracts of agricultural land.
Mr Morales has said the new constitution will pave the way for correcting the historic inequalities of Bolivian society, where the economic elite is largely of European descent.
Overall, the exit polls show voters in the poor, arid planes of the High Andes voted around 70% yes for constitutional reform, and in the richer, wider tropical lowlands votes hovered around the 60% mark.
