Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro moved Friday to ensure strong relations with his closest regional ally Cuba, two days before a historic visit by his biggest adversary, U.S. President Barack Obama.

Maduro landed early Friday morning at Havana airport, state television showed. State newspaper Granma said he was due to meet later with Cuba's President Raul Castro.

Venezuela's opposition has called a national day of protest for Saturday, the opening salvo in its new strategy to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

After winning by a landslide in legislative elections only to see its authority hamstrung by the courts, the opposition is counting on the power of the street to force the deeply unpopular Maduro to listen to calls for change.

Venezuela's opposition called Tuesday for the "largest movement that has ever existed" to oust President Nicolas Maduro, vowing to pursue all means to force him from power, including a referendum and protests.

The opposition, which has been on a collision course with Maduro since winning control of the legislature in December, spent weeks deciding on its strategy to remove the deeply unpopular socialist president -- whether through a referendum, a constitutional amendment or the drafting of a new constitution.

Venezuela's opposition-controlled legislature resolved Thursday to ask the Organization of American States to intervene in its standoff with President Nicolas Maduro and the judiciary.

Tension in the recession-racked oil giant has reached the boiling point since the opposition won control of the National Assembly in December, dealing a severe blow to the socialist "revolution" launched by Maduro's late mentor Hugo Chavez in 1999.

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.

Venezuela's opposition moved Wednesday to try to break the country's political deadlock by removing from the state legislature three of its deputies rejected by the government.

The move raised the prospect of an end to more than a week of tense squabbling over the composition of the congress in the crisis-hit OPEC oil producer.

Venezuela sank deeper into a messy political crisis Tuesday as the opposition-controlled National Assembly suspended its session and President Nicolas Maduro's party proposed the Supreme Court take over legislative powers.

Speaking before a nearly empty chamber, speaker Henry Ramos Allup declared the National Assembly lacked a quorum in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that declared the current legislature null and void because of the presence of three banned opposition lawmakers.

Venezuela's military pledged loyalty to President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday, ramping up a high-stakes standoff between his socialist government and a center-right opposition that has vowed to use its new legislative powers to oust him.

The opposition laid claim to a big majority in the National Assembly, which could empower it to force out Maduro. He has rejected the assembly as illegal and formed a new hardline leftist cabinet to fight it, in a deepening political crisis.

Venezuela's opposition on Tuesday broke the government's 17-year grip on the legislature and vowed to force out President Nicolas Maduro despite failing for the time being to clinch its hoped-for "super-majority."

The National Assembly swore in deputies to 163 of the 167 seats, with four lawmakers -- three opposition and one pro-government -- suspended pending a lawsuit over alleged electoral fraud.

A tense struggle for control of Venezuela's legislature threatens to come to a head at a swearing-in ceremony Tuesday as opposition lawmakers defy government efforts to weaken their majority.

Opponents and loyalists alike of the country's Socialist leadership have called on their supporters to rally at the National Assembly as an opposition majority takes over for the first time in 17 years.