CARACAS: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro will come face to face with hostile lawmakers threatening to oust him when he makes a state of the nation address on Friday.
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.
They vowed to devise a way of booting out the mustachioed former bus driver as president this year, while 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 and heightened fears that the political rumpus could spill over into unrest on the streets.
Only last-minute compromises set the stage for Maduro to deliver his annual presidential report in the debating chamber. Under the constitution he had until Friday to do so.
The new speaker of the assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, a leading opponent of Maduro, said Thursday it would hold a "special session" to hear the address.
Maduro has yet to publicly confirm his appearance, but his communications team were making preparations for the address, which was scheduled for 2130 GMT.
Ramos said Maduro's office and members of the assembly "have been coordinating... in order to ensure compliance with the protocol" surrounding the annual address.
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