As former attorney-general Luisa Ortega Diaz’s speedboat bounced over the Caribbean waves to freedom on the Dutch island of Aruba last August, she left behind a left-wing dream gone sour in Venezuela.

Ortega Diaz was a supporter of late president Hugo Chavez, the charismatic leader who won popular acclaim with his populist socialist Bolivarian Revolution, but she broke with his successor Nicolas Maduro and fled her broken country after accusing him and his cronies of corruption.

As voters in Europe, not least in the UK, signal their dissatisfaction with the old elite they would do well to look west and see the results where time for the Caracas government may this year finally be running out.

Venezuela, circled by Colombia, Brazil, Guyana and the Caribbean on the north coast of South America, has had 19 years of United Socialist Party rule under Mr Chavez and then Mr Maduro.

Mr Chavez, a former army colonel, had whipped up support from the masses with promises to reduce poverty and inequality as money rolled in from high oil prices, then a goldmine for a nation with the world’s largest proven reserves. Mr Maduro, who succeeded him in 2013, lacks both the charisma and ability of Mr Chavez.

In these years, the nation of 30 million people has seen the economy shrink by a third since 2013, the average weight of the population declining due to food shortages, and an explosion of rampant crime, with Caracas now rated the world’s most dangerous city.

Surging inflation rose to 80 per cent in February alone, and is forecast to exceed an astonishing 13,000% this year.

Corruption pervades every aspect of life and puts Venezuela at 166 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index our of 175 countries.

Oil production has fallen to a 30-year-low around 1.6 million barrels per day, according to Opec, as corruption, the replacement of skilled engineers in state oil company PDVSA with Maduro cronies, and lack of investment and maintenance take their toll. With no other source of foreign exchange, the impact is severe.

Venezuela has strict exchange controls and has imposed drastic devaluations, not least a jump in the official exchange rate last month to 40,000 bolivars to the dollar from 10 used for the so-called priority rate for imports such as medicine.

Many of these scarce dollars are siphoned off by regime cronies and resold on the black market, where the rate this month is more than than 200,000.

Mr Maduro depends for survival on the military, whose senior ranks benefit from the rampant corruption and are hesitant to waver and risk the collapse of the regime. Officers suspected of disloyalty are swiftly convicted and jailed, boosting the ranks of the political prisoners who dared oppose the government.

An informed source in Caracas told The Herald that a crackdown on military dissent at present reflects nervousness about the enduring loyalty of senior troops.

The former head of Venezuela’s intelligence service was arrested this month amid rumours he was plotting a coup against Mr Maduro with support from other officers.

Some military insiders speculate this could have been a ploy to oust officers who support Chavism rather than Mr Maduro himself. And nine other officers were arrested on charges including treason, local human rights organisations say.

Most of the top players in the military (which has more than 1,500 generals, more even than in the US) are in roles where they can make fortunes from corruption so have been bought off. Those that are not are mostly in prison or exile.

Substantial numbers of lower-ranking military are also involved in corruption and thus make reasonable money but those who are not grow increasingly disaffected over supply shortages and woefully low pay.

Time may be running out but other factors make this a year for Mr Maduro to ponder his future, even though he is virtually assured of a win in May 20 presidential elections allegedly mired in corruption.

US President Donald Trump rejects ex-president Barack Obama’s relatively passive view on Venezuela. The administration has increased sanctions on Venezuelans involved in human rights abuses, drug trafficking and other illegal activities.

The US imposed crippling economic sanctions on the regime, which limited Caracas’s funding sources and ability to fund imports. The sanctions restrict Venezuela’s ability to borrow and, as US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: “Maduro may no longer take advantage of the American financial system to facilitate the wholesale looting of the Venezuelan economy at the expense of the Venezuelan people.”

Overall politics in Latin America are also tilting away from radical ideologies like Chavismo, notably with the election of market-friendly presidents in Argentina, Peru and Chile, leaving Mr Maduro increasingly isolated.

Mr Maduro’s ability to survive through repression and surrounded by a well-rewarded clique has surprised analysts inside and outside the country. But time may finally be running out for a man who has brought poverty and suffering to a previous economic star of Latin America. The one certain prediction is that life for the masses of the people this year will continue to get worse.