Honest question, as I'm not familiar with the country: Isn't it still a "banana republic"? (In the democratic sense - as I suppose it's what you meant.)
"Banana Republic" means to me a country which government is at the service of foreign corporations. Under this definition, no, neither Venezuela or Bolivia are banana republics.
Is Venezuela a healthy democracy? Well, we have one of the best electoral systems in the world, so at least you can be sure that the people elected are the ones who got more votes. More than 70% of turn out in non compulsory elections. Probably you've heart differently, and that's because Venezuelan have the bad habit to vote for people not liked by western interests. Venezuela has been criticized for attacking the media too. That brings the idea of hundreds of reporters imprisoned and rampant censure. What it really means is that the current and previous president dared to criticize the media monopoly that was, among other things, accomplice in at least two attempts to overthrow the constitutional government.
Venezuela isn't a paradise of institutionalism, but at least I can say that today we are freer than 20 years ago when nobody heart about Venezuela in the media. That was the time when the country was sold as an "example for democracy for all Latin America."
This is a hugely nitpicky thing, seeing as you clearly know at least two languages more or less as well as I know one, but you used 'heart' a couple times when you meant 'heard.'
> Is Venezuela a healthy democracy? Well, we have one of the best electoral systems in the world, so at least you can be sure that the people elected are the ones who got more votes.
The same cannot be told about the USA, either because of the indirect voting system or because of Florida.
