Self-coup

“This is repression. This is a crime. They’re committing crimes and violating human rights by stepping on the rights of people. The government has staged a self-coup and what they’re now doing to me is part of it,” Capriles said.

After all, that would be akin to a self-coup. Apart from the traditional vision of a coup requiring a military takeover of the government, self-coups occur when governments depart from typical norms of democracy by altering election laws, calling into question election results or seeking to suspend their constitutions in order to stay in power.