Abstract. In 2013, after the death of President Hugo Chávez, the founder of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, his associate Nicolas Maduro was elected as new president and continued the policy of his predecessor. This, in terms of completion of the «commodity supercycle», provoked a massive economic crisis in Venezuela. In 2019, the country’s GDP fell for the fifth year in a row, the level of production decline reached double digits and inflation amounted to more than 200 thousand percent. Being one of the world's largest oil producers and the largest country in terms of proven oil reserves, Venezuela plunged into a political, economic and social crisis, which intensified the acute shortage of essential goods, food, medicine and gasoline. The government of N. Maduro has not published negative statistical indicators for several years, but they are provided by the opposition’s National Assembly. This article outlines the key prerequisites for crisis phenomena of a political, economic and social nature experienced in the country amidst de facto dual power and assesses the prospects for stabilizing the situation in Venezuela.