Shortages of food and basic goods are likely to worsen as Venezuela’s economy continues to contract this year. Political prisoners, meanwhile, have languished behind bars for years, victims of a corrupt and broken justice system.

This crisis has exposed the hollow promise of the socialist policies Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have peddled since the late 1990s. While many Venezuelans got a taste of prosperity in better housing, subsidized food and higher wages when oil prices were high — oil accounts for roughly 96 percent of Venezuela’s exports — the government failed to build anything resembling a sustainable economy. It also failed to save when money was flowing in, which would have softened the impact of the recession that began in 2014.

Mr. Maduro has avoided defaulting on Venezuela’s debt by borrowing billions of dollars from China, which will have to decide whether to keep bailing out Caracas when its next large payment becomes due in the fall. The government has stubbornly avoided sensible long-term solutions, like seeking technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions that rescue failing economies. Venezuela has not had meaningful contact with the I.M.F. for over a decade.

Over the past decade and a half, Mr. Chávez and Mr. Maduro made spending on welfare benefits their top priority to keep their base loyal, while neglecting institutional reforms that would have diversified the country’s revenue sources and made lasting improvements to the education and health systems.

A coalition of rival political parties, which won control of the National Assembly in December, has pressed Mr. Maduro to undertake reforms, including restoring the independence of the national bank. But his party has blocked opposition leaders at every turn, dismissing them as right-wing radicals doing the bidding of foreign powers.