CARACAS - Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday abandoned measures to tighten President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power, which had drawn international condemnation and raised pressure on him as he clings to office.

In a rare climb-down by the president’s allies, the pro-Maduro court retreated from the rulings that had prompted opposition calls for mass protest marches in a volatile country stricken by an economic and political crisis. The court said in a ruling published on its website that it was revoking a March 29 decision to take over legislative powers from the National Assembly, a move opponents had branded a “coup d’etat.”

It also revoked an earlier ruling that stripped lawmakers of their immunity from prosecution. And it ended special powers it had conferred on Maduro over security legislation in the crisis.

Maduro had earlier hinted at the coming announcement in a televised address, hours after his own attorney general broke ranks to condemn the court rulings. “We have reached an important agreement to solve this controversy,” he said.

However, opposition assembly speaker Julio Borges dismissed the court’s gesture. “Nothing has changed. The coup d’etat continues,” he told reporters.

Maduro faced the strongest criticism ever from within his own camp when Attorney General Luisa Ortega condemned Wednesday’s Supreme Court rulings as a “rupture of constitutional order.”

The president’s opponents had called on Venezuelans to take to the streets Saturday and urged the army to abandon him. It remained uncertain Saturday what the next maneuvers in the more than year-long political standoff will be.

Borges earlier called on the military and other institutions to follow Ortega’s example and speak out against Maduro. “Now is the time to obey the orders of your conscience,” he said.

Pressure against Maduro also increased abroad. In Washington, the Organization of American States (OAS) scheduled an emergency session for Monday to discuss the Venezuelan crisis.

Thirteen members of the regional diplomacy body, including heavyweights Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, as well as the United States, had called for the Venezuelan court rulings to be declared “incompatible with democracy and a violation of the constitutional order.”

OAS chief Luis Almagro has strongly criticized the Maduro government in the past.

The South American regional bloc Mercosur - which suspended Venezuela in December - will hold crisis talks Saturday, Argentina announced.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) won a landslide in legislative elections in December 2015. But the court has overturned every law passed by the current legislature.

Venezuela has the world’s biggest oil reserves, but the collapse in energy prices has sapped its revenues, prompting shortages of food, medicine and basic goods along with a surge in violent crime.

Maduro is not up for re-election until October 2018. But he has been forced to fend off opposition efforts to call a vote on removing him from power.

Venezuela emerged from dictatorship after an uprising in 1958 and has seen three further attempted military coups since 1992. Tension has grown since Maduro took over from his late predecessor Hugo Chavez in 2013. Both have been fierce critics of the United States.

In a speech to cheering supporters late Friday, Maduro insisted “the constitution, civil, political and human rights, and people power are in full force.”

But outside a supermarket in Caracas on Friday, Venezuelans queuing to buy food rations vented their frustration. “I don’t support either side,” said Yandry Diaz, 18, who works in a shoe shop. “What they want is to have us in the street, fighting and killing each other so that they can hold power.”