Either way, the long-term outlook is far from rosy. “What they have been doing so far is depleting assets in order to make their payments – and that is clearly not sustainable,” says Arreaza.

He says a new regime could help the country back on its feet, with help from the IMF.

“If we have a new government that could imply multilateral support to manage a transition process [and] we could have a relatively market-friendly restructuring like that seen in Ukraine.”

For Moya-Ocampos, the government can only ignore the will of the people for so long. “I go quite often to Caracas and what I feel is that people are starting to lose fear.

They are realising that regime change is a possibility.” For Bacalhau, who has a Portuguese passport, the end game is in sight. He is waiting until the end of the year to see if there will be regime change, or he’s ready to emigrate.

“The truth is my children don’t have a future in this country. It’s changed so much,” he says.

“Ten years ago I used to go to the beach with my father to camp overnight. Now it would be suicidal. I live in hope for change, but after living here all my life it’s got to the point that if I leave I’ll never come back.”