Venezuela is the great failure of the western hemisphere. A large, seemingly wealthy, apparently modern and resource-rich country, only a three-hour flight from the US, is on the brink of economic and political collapse, financial default and, potentially, a humanitarian crisis. A lack of basic goods and medicine has led to protests and lootings. Shortages of foreign currency, prioritised to pay overseas debts, have forced a 40 per cent drop in imports in the past year, according to estimates by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Oil production is falling and power shortages have cut the government’s working week to two days. Inflation is forecast to top 450 per cent this year, and almost 2,000 per cent next, while the economy is shrinking at a rate of 8 per cent — its third year in recession. How much longer can this sad state of affairs continue? More than two-thirds of Venezuelans say that President Nicolás Maduro should be relieved of his duties. Instead, he is digging in. Last week, he declared a 60-day state of emergency, extendable into 2017, supposedly to protect the country from unnamed threats. In another defensive move, he ordered the army to go on manoeuvres. As one US intelligence official has put it: “You can hear the ice cracking.”