[TteFAboB]

Welcome to the club. There is the occasional link in German I can hardly crawl through, or the one in Russian completely alien to me, or Dutch.

"Not the same as appointing himself eternal leader". Chavez is alot smarter than that. Why should he do that while he can win referendums? But If he remains in power for 25 years, will he be a dictator then?

The point is not to become obsessed with democratic formalities. Cuba has regional elections. The Soviets had elections. Feudal Japan had elections. The EU votes in a parliament. Mexico under the PRI had elections. Pinochet held elections. The military dictatorships of Brazil and Argentina held elections. This doesn't make any of these governments any less dictatorial, simply because they kept or had more or less democratic formalities. If necessary to go further, many Kings in the past were elected, as was the Holy Roman Emperor.

Democracy is defined more by the guarantee of rights to the minority than by the changes the majority can legitimize. And by the ability of removing politicians from power than by installing or maintaining them.

What is the great legitimizer tool of democracy? The referendum. And that's Chavez favourite instrument. Used twice to install the Bolivarian Constitution, which dissolves the three branches (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary) and for every other policy that would otherwise be considered undemocratic in international eyes.

Of course, all of this granted the elections are and will be democratic indeed. The existance of fraud or interference would be most unfortunate.