Bolivia's left-wing leader Evo Morales has pledged to end "500 years" of oppression after being sworn in as the first indigenous president of Bolivia.
Mr Morales (46), a former leader of Bolivia's coca growers and a fierce critic of US policies, raised a fist in a salute as he swore to uphold the constitution.
"I wish to tell you, my Indian brothers, that the 500-year indigenous and popular campaign of resistance has not been in vain," he said
Mr Morales vowed that his socialist government would reshape Bolivia. He criticised free-market economic prescriptions supported by the United States and international donors, saying they had failed to end chronic poverty.
"The neoliberal economic model has run out," said Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian.
Thousands of Aymara and Quechua and other Indians attended, many wearing the varied styles of hats imposed on them when Bolivia was a Spanish colony hundreds of years ago.
They stood alongside miners, students and leftist sympathisers waving Cuban and Venezuelan flags on the cobblestone plaza outside the colonial-era Congress building.
Mr Morales compared decades of discrimination against Indians to apartheid, saying "Bolivia seems like South Africa" as he recounted how, decades ago, Indians were barred from entering the plaza.
He said he planned to bring Bolivia's vast natural gas reserves under more state control and to call a constitutional assembly to answer Indian demands for a greater share of power at all levels of society.
But he said his government would rule "with all and for all" and would not seek revenge for past injustices. He also reiterated promises to respect and protect private property.