Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed victory in Sunday's presidential elections after the electoral authority gave him a clear lead over his closest rival.
According to the National Electoral Council, after 78 percent of the vote had been counted, Chavez won with 61 percent. Opposition candidate Manuel Rosales trailed with 38 percent.
Minutes after the results were announced, Chavez gave a victory speech to tens of thousands of supporters at the the presidential palace in Caracas.
 "There are so many victories within this historic victory on December 3. From here, I send my greetings of solidarity to all of the Latin American and Caribbean nations."
Chavez has become hugely popular among the majority of poorer Venezuelans because of his free spending of the OPEC country's oil bonanza on clinics and schools. His rival Rosales draws his main support from the middle and upper classes by focusing his campaign on issues such as crime and corruption.
Fifty-two-year-old Chavez is expected to have a strong mandate in his third term to press his pro-people policy and forge an anti-U.S. front in Latin America to counter what he calls the superpower's "imperialism."
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Director: Liu Chi