Venezuela President Faces Rivals in Congress Crisis

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro comes face to face on Friday with hostile lawmakers threatening to oust him, at a key point in the political crisis rocking the oil-rich nation.

The Socialist leader is expected to go before the state legislature for the first time since his center-right opponents took control of it to deliver an annual state of the nation address.

His opponents vowed to devise a way of ousting the mustachioed former bus driver as president this year. He secured a Supreme Court injunction limiting their legislative powers to do so.

The institutional arm-wrestle threatened to paralyze the National Assembly legislature this week, until last-minute compromises set the stage for Maduro to deliver his annual presidential report at 2130 GMT.

"We will receive him calmly and respectfully," said the new speaker of the assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, a leading opponent of Maduro.

Leaders have been wary of fanning tensions during the past two weeks of political maneuvering, mindful of deadly street clashes in 2014.

There was speculation that Maduro may use the address to announce his promised emergency plan for the economy.

The plan is expected to propose new forms of production to reduce Venezuela's reliance on oil exports.

Venezuela has the world's biggest known oil reserves but the big fall in crude prices over the past year and a half has slashed its revenues.

The opposition gave some ground in the power struggle on Wednesday. It bowed to pressure from the Supreme Court, which Maduro's rivals say is controlled by his allies.

Three opposition lawmakers agreed to quit while the court investigates them over government allegations of electoral fraud.

"Sometimes truces are needed," Ramos said in a television interview. "You have to sacrifice a part to save the whole."

The court responded to that by lifting an injunction that had declared the assembly's motions would be null and void if the three banned deputies took part.

The departure of the three deprives the opposition MUD coalition of a two-thirds majority.

That so-called "supermajority" would have allowed the opposition to launch constitutional measures to cut short Maduro's mandate, which expires in 2019.

Ramos said Wednesday that the MUD still aimed to do that, though its majority is cut to three-fifths for the time being.

"The crisis cannot be overcome with this government," he said, branding Maduro's policies of social spending financed by oil "a failed model."

Maduro has accused the opposition of planning a "coup" against him.

The MUD won control of the legislature from the socialists in elections last month for the first time in nearly 17 years.

It has mounted the toughest challenge to the government since Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez took office in 1999 in what he called a socialist "revolution."

The opposition has vowed to rescue Venezuela from an economic crisis that has sparked soaring inflation and shortages of goods.

Ramos says the economic policies inspired by the late Chavez have "failed."

Analysts say the political deadlock is not helping resolve the economic hardship that drove voters to hand the opposition a landslide election victory.

Maduro has promised "more socialism," branding the opposition a U.S.-backed "bourgeoisie."

"If Maduro's discourse continues to be the same, the only way the results can change is by getting worse," said economist Luis Vicente Leon, head of the polling firm de Datanalisis.

Analysts have warned the political uncertainty will worsen the plight of ordinary Venezuelans.

"I really don't know what is going to happen here," said Juan Molina, a 44-year-old security guard.

"The situation is getting worse and worse, and now that they're fighting over the assembly, they're less likely to sort it out than ever."