Exit polls suggest Bolivia has approved a new constitution backed by President Evo Morales that he says will empower the country's indigenous majority.
Polls for some TV stations put the yes vote in the referendum at about 60%.
Planned reforms including greater state control of natural resources, reductions in future land holdings and the creation of state assemblies.
Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian, has pursued political reform but has met fierce resistance from some sectors.
Opponents concentrated in Bolivia's eastern provinces, which hold rich gas deposits, argue that the new constitution would create two classes of citizenship - putting indigenous people ahead of others.
The wrangling has spilled over into, at times, deadly violence.
At least 30 peasant farmers were ambushed and killed on their way home from a pro-government rally in a northern region in September.
President 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.
The new constitution will give the indigenous community a chance to have a greater say in what happens to their country's natural resources.
Crucial concessions
Bolivia's Congress approved the referendum in October but only after Mr Morales agreed to make a number of concessions.
 Evo Morales has been trying to reform Bolivia since being elected |
The new constitution also includes a bill of rights, including a chapter dedicated to Bolivia's 36 indigenous peoples.
It increases state control over the economy, limits the size of big land holdings and redistributes revenues from the important gas fields in the east to poorer parts of the nation.
Indigenous people would be granted autonomy over their traditional lands and a "priority" share of the revenue from natural resources. But many of the areas where natural resources are found are governed by the opposition and would also be granted greater autonomy.
Analysts say it remains unclear how some of the constitution's articles can be reconciled.
Despite the Yes vote, there is likely to be continued opposition to the constitution as it goes through parliament, says the BBC's Candace Piette in La Paz.
The referendum will be followed by elections for president, vice-president and Congress in December.
1 comment:
See that Bolivian llama wool cap? I was probably the only kid in Santa Barbara County who wore one of this caps to school, proud of my missionary aunt's work in Bolivia and the neat llama wool stuff she brought back for her nephews. I loved my Bolivian cap and my mom loved her big woven Bolivian purse. Little dig I know that my aunt was softening up the Bolivian natives by taking away their indigenous religion so that European colonials could take away control of their lands. So this is welcome karmic news for these Indios now getting their country back from European conquest and control, something that never happened in America but has in Africa and will in Israel as well.
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