As for Chavez, he wasn't a dictator, but he wasn't a democrat (small d, douchebags) either. If he had stuck around longer it wouldn't have ended well as he was clearly heading towards being a caudillo.

His significance has been exaggerated by the right and the left in the US, 2/3rds of South America is run by leftist social democrats now and most of them are better off than Venezuela economically and politically. Proving that Chavez's economic policy didn't require the decline in political rights he oversaw.