In 24 hours, a 35-year-old Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaido, declared himself the country’s president, the United States recognized him as the legitimate head of state, and President Nicolás Maduro ordered American diplomats out of the country, The New York Times reports on website.

The crisis is years in the making, and our reporters have covered it throughout (despite, in one case, being kicked out of the country). Here is a guide to that coverage:

The Economic Crisis

Venezuela once had Latin America’s richest economy, buoyed by oil reserves larger even than Saudi Arabia’s and Iran’s. Yet under Mr. Maduro and his predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, Venezuela’s economy spiraled into mismanagement, corruption and backbreaking debt.

Hunger is killing Venezuelan children at an alarming rate, doctors say, as stores have run out of food and children are suffering severe malnutrition.

The country’s hospitals are “like something from the 19th century,” one doctor has said, collapsing under chronic shortages of antibiotics, food and other supplies.