Venezuela's Maduro faces off with hostile legislature

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has made his first appearance before a hostile legislature, hours after decreeing a two-month state of "economic emergency" in the crisis-hit, oil-rich nation.
Maduro's first state of the nation address before the newly opposition-held National Assembly, which is locked in a bitter power struggle with his administration, came as Venezuela's central bank released its first official economic growth and inflation statistics in more than a year.
The new figures show the magnitude of the country's recession: the economy shrank 4.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2015, the central bank said, while inflation for the same period came in at a painful 108.7 per cent, fueled by crippling shortages.

The leftist president was alternately conciliatory and defiant as he launched into his speech yesterday, telling the opposition he was ready for dialogue to preserve the peace but chastising them for such measures as removing portraits of his late predecessor Hugo Chavez from the legislature.
Addressing the issue of what the opposition calls political prisoners from within its ranks -- one of its most acrimonious disputes with the executive -- Maduro said: "We are ready and willing to talk about this and any other issue necessary to discuss for the peace that Venezuela demands of us."
Dressed in his red, yellow and blue presidential sash, Maduro periodically sipped from a white coffee cup, as his mentor Chavez once did.

Earlier, the socialist leader sought to seize the initiative in his standoff with the legislature, decreeing a 60-day state of "economic emergency."

It gave the administration special temporary powers to boost production and ensure access to key goods, including taking over private companies' resources, imposing currency controls and "other social, economic or political measures deemed fitting."
The institutional arm-wrestling threatened to paralyze the National Assembly legislature this week, until last-minute compromises set the stage for Maduro to deliver his annual presidential report.
"We will receive him calmly and respectfully," said the new speaker of the assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, a fierce Maduro opponent who shook hands with the president when he arrived.

Leaders have been wary of fanning tensions since the opposition took control of the legislature last week, mindful of deadly street clashes in 2014.