Venezuela in meltdown as Maduro vows to push on

President oversees a country with expected 10m% inflation and a flood of people leaving

Gideon Long in Caracas

Every day before dawn, a long line of people forms outside the Spanish consulate in the Plaza la Castellana in Caracas. Venezuelans, many of Spanish descent, are desperate to get their hands on visas or passports so that they can flee to Europe.

There are queues outside supermarkets, too, but they appear shorter, possibly because so many people have already left Venezuela or, more likely, because they know there will be little for sale inside.

On Thursday Nicolás Maduro will be sworn in for a second term as president after his first term saw an exodus of Venezuelans escaping economic meltdown. The UN says more than 3m people have fled Venezuela since 2014, around 10 per cent of the population, while the IMF expects prices will rise a staggering 10m per cent in 2019.