I only have a smattering of anecdotal advice to throw into the melée
1) I read a trip report recently, wish I could find it but I cannot. A North American guy I think (possibly even from Canadia) went to Catatumbo and hired a local guide on the basis that even from Maracaibo, Catatumbo is a fair schlep off the beaten path. The implication was that one would have to be mad to do such a trip without a local guide to watch your back.
2) Thanks to a scheduled LAN Peru flight that failed to materialise 2 weeks ago, I had the pleasure of wasting 6 hours with a Venezuelan couple at UIO. They had bussed it from Caracas to Valencia, then on to Maracaibo for a few days, crossed the border then travelled Maicao to Valledupar. In a normal world, sensible people don't travel the road from Maicao to Valledupar so this couple were hardly "green" either.
I am quite used to anti-Chavista Venezuelan expats rubbishing their own country but this couple seemed quite grounded in reality and were genuinely surprised at how their own country had descended into lawlessness. They actually got steamed on a bus outside of Valencia. The impression I got was that their reports were not hyperbole.
Being curious about Catatumbo, I ventured to ask if it was feasible to slip across the border from La Guajira to Maracaibo and undertake such a tour myself. Absolutely not apparently.