Chavez is not a dictator but a democratically elected leader, unlike George W. Bush for instance who was installed after an irregular election and then kept in office by another one. Here are two sources of more accurate information about Venezuela:

http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/070613_chavez_and_rctv.php

No claims are made that Chávez was not democratically elected in 1998 and 2006.
The story of RCTV is very interesting - thank you for sharing the link, Nancy. That RCTV was part of the coup in 2002 is often stated. One reason the students of Venzuela got organized and grew significantly was the shutting down of this very TV-station. They knew very well that RCTV was implicated in the coup somehow - but no TV channel in Venezuela is clean. There are so many stories, but one example: Venevisión is owned but a Cuban magnate Gustavo Cisneros who has a vey good relationship with Chávez, supporting him with good news. State television gave almost no cover to those opposing the constitutional reform.
The stories of young activists as Yon Goicochea, Freddy Guevara and Stalin Gonzalez tell of how young people got fed up and tried to do sometihng different that was neither for or against Chávez' oficialismo, but plain and simple - for liberal rights. That is also why they were successful, they encouraged people to stay with Chavez and to consider the suggested reform of the constitution as something separate from their leader. Chávez told his supporters that those who voted NO, voted for the leader of the "north American empire". That is probably why 3 million Venezuelans never voted last weekend.
Ms. Eltahawy's article is interesting, her interpretation is that that the poor of Venezuela did not trade their civil rights for pensions and shorter work weeks.She also opens a discussion: what is the left today? Perhaps it was saved last Sunday by "the people". That would indeed be a revolution.

thanks for a great article!!!!