More than 27,000 people have become followers of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's Twitter account, which opened at midnight on Tuesday.
The controversial Venezuelan leader created the Twitter account in an effort to combat the opposition's use of social-networking sites.
So far, the move has been successful as his @chavezcandanga account ('candanga' means naughty or wild) has received the highest number of Twitter followers in Venezuela. More than 9,000 people have already sent messages to the president.
In his first tweet, the Venezuelan leader said: "Hey, how's it going? I appeared like I said I would: at midnight. I'm off to Brazil. And I'm very happy to work for Venezuela. We will be victorious!!"
Critics are skeptical whether the verbose Venezuelan leader will be able to limit his messages to only 140 characters - the maximum for messages on this micro blogging site.
Twitter is a popular site in Venezuela, but seven of the top 10 most followed Twitter accounts in the country are anti-Chavez, while his supporters come at 66 in the top 100, according to telecomtv.com.
BUENOS AIRES, April 28 (RIA Novosti)