Democracy?

In Venezuela, the proposal to alter the constitution to allow unlimited presidential terms, limitless state of emergency time, among other things, was shot down by a 51 to 49% vote. However, only 56% of the registered voters turned out. This says something about the way the people live in the country. Alt4hough Chavez has almost limitless power in his country, even his legions of followers did not fully support this new change. Instead of voting against it however, many of them decided to stay home. Many stated that it was out of fear of retaliation that they did not vote. Has Chavez's power become so much that it threatens the democracy as a whole, even without changing the way their system works. If fear of retaliation led to 44% of the voters not voting whatsoever, what does this say about the way the democracy in this country works? Dispite this, there is something to be said of the somewhat change to Socialism in Venezuela, which ironically is using the democratic process to slowly change their country into one of socialism. Do these people even want democracy?