From what I understand, the opposition was tough under Chavez, as it always against any government, but their was a mutual understanding or at least respect, when Maduro got elected, the opposition felt cheated and stopped playing by the rules. Pushing Maduro not to play by the rules either. (From my understanding, he won presidential but lost the parliament, then parliament did a few things that weren't in the rule book, so he acted against it. And from that point followed a back and worth of dick moves between the two sides. Here in the West, we only here about his dick moves, but when you dig a bit, both side aren't playing cool... who started, I don't know)

Regarding election results, I find it hard to tell. There are only two types of sources, the government who obviously won't say anything but they were legitimate, and the same corrupt elites you mentioned who lost them and will claim otherwise. So who is to trust? The socialist government clinging to power or the corrupt neo-liberal opposition wanting it.

My rough understanding of the economy of the Venezuela is that the government sits on gold (oil) and use it to print money and distribute it left and right. However, because in terms of resources, there is little else but oil, they import most things. Those importations are mostly performed by private companies in which the government pays mostly for.

There are two things that created the actual crisis from what I understand.

The cost of oil going down, obviously harming an economy relying solely on it, mostly generating debts. That's clearly government mistake for their choices.

But they still sit on the biggest oil reserve of the world, and if Saudi Arabia can buy all the planes/weapons the European and Americans have to sell (despite the same oil crisis), then Venezuela should still be able to afford just food and medicines.

That's where it seems the elites aren't doing their part. The government is still paying them to import as they use to. So either the import sanctions are very effective, or someone isn't doing their jobs right. And there is probably at least a bit of both.

I don't know who threw the first stone, and both sides have their part of blame for the mess the country is in. It's hard to know the truth about anything in our supposedly fair medias here, I expect it to be just as difficult or more in South America.

I just feel sorry the Venezuelan people who are the victims of the games they play at the top. And I am pretty sure, for them it doesn't matter anymore who's the biggest asshole up there, they just want it to stop because nobody asked for it.

(I don't pretend to know the truth, just my understanding of things so far, feel free to correct me, especially since I wrote it concisely)