Venezuelan lawmakers have given President Nicolas Maduro special decree powers to fight an "economic war," but the shape that fight will take is uncertain.

Maduro has promised to use his new powers -- approved by the National Assembly on Tuesday -- to make sweeping changes to the way the economy is run in the oil-rich, but poorly managed South American nation.

The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, applauds Wednesday as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shows the document giving him special decree powers.

Among his priorities, Maduro says, will be to cap profits for businesses at between 15% and 30% and to enforce price controls on an expanding number of goods.

Some see this as a movement to a fully socialist model; other see political opportunism.

(Source: CNN)