Considerable academic work has previously established that international and regional organisations help to support and foster the dominant regime type of its respective members. In other words, organizations with high levels of ‘democratic density’ boost democracy. However, linkages between these findings and the content of accession rules to such organizations, on one hand, and international legitimization sources for autocratic regime survival, on the other hand, have yet to be sufficiently explored. In this context, the adhesion of Equatorial Guinea to the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) proves a puzzling case-study given how the official narrative implied that membership would precisely foster a subsequent democratization process. Joining CPLP was expected to produce two intertwined effects that did not emerge: a deterrence effect on a possible slide-down of the regime towards an even more authoritarian path; and a spill-over effect in terms of possible reforms and subsequent liberalization of the country’s political system, Based on a set of key elite interviews and CPLP internal documentation, we argue that failure in locking a democratization path for Equatorial Guinea through the adhesion to an international organization has derived from a combination of factors, including the CPLP's own incipient institutional limitations, its members diverging/competing agendas, and the lack of sufficient formal incentives for any democratization drive to take hold.