Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has stormed to a re-election victory that has handed him an ample mandate to broaden his promised socialist revolution.
The National Electoral Council said Mr Chavez won 61 per cent of the vote while rival Manuel Rosales, a governor of an oil-producing province who managed to unite the fractured opposition, won 38 per cent after nearly 80 per cent of the vote had been counted.
Mr Chavez told cheering supporters at his presidential palace last night that his landslide was a blow to President Bush's administration, which portrays the leftist as an anti-democratic menace.
"Today we gave another lesson in dignity to the imperialists, it is another defeat for the empire of Mr Danger," Mr Chavez roared from a balcony above the crowds.
The White House worries about Mr Chavez destabilising Latin America neighbours and strengthening ties between the Opec heavyweight Venezuela and US foes Cuba and Iran.
Mr Rosales acknowledged defeat but promised to keep fighting.
The country's opposition movement struggled to challenge Mr Chavez after he defeated a recall referendum in 2004. Many opposition supporters believe Mr Chavez has an unfair advantage by controlling key institutions such as the election council.
But supporters applaud the man they fondly call "El Comandante" for spending the country's soaring oil wealth on free health and education programmes for the poor majority who feel abandoned by previous governments.
Mr Chavez is the fourth leftist to win an election in Latin America in the past five weeks.
Ecuador's Rafael Correa won a run-off last week after promising sweeping political reforms. Leftists Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua also have won recent presidential elections.