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Don't worry people, I've been doing your work for you and have searched around to find reports of oppressive behaviour committed in Venezuela, Amnesty International analyses each country for human rights and has been extremely critical of Venezuela:
http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/ven-summary-eng
It does seem to be fairly characteristic of all Latin American countries and it's worth pointing out that Amnesty was equally (if not more) critical of the regime that came prior to 1999 when Chavez took over (which would be who the opposition in Venezuela want back in). Still, my opinion of Chavez has decreased, tho whether this means he is a dictator is not clear. Police brutality is certainly a characteristic of a dictatorship, but that in itself does not define a dictatorship (as Magnetonium points out accidentally, Putin and Russia can also be accused of dictatorship as often worse things can happen in Russia, certainly if you're a political opponent)
It still doesn't explain why Venezuela is targeted for criticism and not, for example, Columbia which has a far far worse human rights record than Venezuela ever did. It also doesn't explain support for the opposition which would also be far worse than Chavez. Still, human rights are human rights and if Chavez is responsible, and it's not a legacy left over from previous regimes in the law enforcement agencies, then it is still inexcusable and needs stamping out...
(Not that that should detract from the positive improvements Chavez has made compared to how the opposition used to run things...)
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