PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela drove himself to an ailing iron plant this month to tout its export capacity amid tightening American sanctions.

“No one is going to stop us,” he said with his wife by his side as they watched a conveyor belt of iron briquettes at the Guayana Steel Complex. “These are the days of victory!”

Two days later, the plant was out of business. It was paralyzed by the crippling national blackout that lasted almost five days and wiped out what little was left of Venezuela’s heavy industry. The blackout, coupled with new American sanctions on Venezuela’s critical oil sector, have pushed the country even closer to total economic collapse.

Venezuela’s better-off citizens have tucked into dollar savings to buy portable power generators, imported canned foods and taken respite in hotels and steakhouses. The less fortunate saw a signal of possible respite on Friday with word that the Red Cross would soon undertake an emergency relief campaign in Venezuela.