Not every coup looks like Pinochet (thank fuck for that). The modern coup is a more elegant creature. It does not need tanks. It does not need generals. What it needs: control of the media, control of the judiciary, and enough plausible deniability to keep the international community from calling it what it obviously is.
They call this the constitutional coup or the judicial coup. You do not overthrow the government. You hollow it out from inside like a termite. Elect a friendly president. Stack the courts with loyalists. Pass laws that make the opposition illegal. Arrest your rivals on bullshit charges. By the time anyone figures out what is happening, the democratic facade is still standing but the guts are gone.
Orban in Hungary is the goddamn master of this. He did not abolish elections. He just made sure his party controls the media, the judiciary, the electoral commission, and the economy. The EU cannot sanction him because technically Hungary is still a democracy. Technically (wink).
The constitutional coup has real advantages over the classical version. No bloodshed. No international sanctions. No resistance. It is the slow death of democracy by a thousand paper cuts (and nobody even notices until it is too late).
Coming soon: Case Study: How to Overthrow a Government (Turkey 2016)