In Petare’s Village of Hope, the women cooking for the barrio’s hungry children are praying that this time will be different.

Scraping together meals in a tiny breeze block room where the tap ran dry a year ago, Arielies Ospino and Mariangela Yanis say change is desperately needed.

“Things have got very ugly,” said Ms Ospino, a 62-year-old grandmother who has lived most of her life in this corner of Latin America’s biggest shantytown. “It wasn’t like this before, now the situation is critical.”

Many families could no longer afford food, she told The Telegraph as she picked spoiled grains out of rice. A bag of this, she said, gesturing to the bowl in front of her, cost 4000 bolivars - almost a quarter of Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage.

The soup kitchen is now feeding over 140 children, for many of whom it may be the only meal of the day. “We have children who are in a state of malnutrition,” said Ms Yanis, 39.

Ms Ospino and Ms Yanis spoke approvingly of Juan Guaidó, the parliamentary head recognised as Venezuela’s legitimate leader by 65 countries. "We hope he's going to resolve this problem," said Ms Ospino, though she admitted that her hopes had been raised by others before him.