Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But it entered into a free fall after Mr Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000pc led first to social unrest and then mass emigration.
Economic sanctions from the US seeking to force Mr Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection — which the US and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate — only deepened the crisis.
Mr Maduro’s pitch to voters this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4pc this year — one of the fastest in Latin America — after having shrunk 71pc from 2012 to 2020.
But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month (£155), which means families struggle to afford essential items.
The opposition tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the US dollar.