After spending much of January on a trip to China, Russia and the Middle East, Mr Maduro has returned defiant.
Despite having failed to persuade OPEC leaders to act in support of the oil price, and with little or no fresh money from China to pay the bills, the president insists that the solution is more revolution. He announced that food distributors would be given an ultimatum: fix the supply problem or face “the full weight of the law”. For the umpteenth time he promised to announce economic measures to alleviate the crisis. His annual speech before the National Assembly on January 21st (a day later than planned) was characteristically long on rhetoric and short on specifics.