 In 2016, Maduro again claimed that the United States was attempting to assist the opposition with a coup attempt.On 12 January 2016, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, threatened to invoke the Inter-American Democratic Charter, an instrument used to defend democracy in the Americas when threatened, when opposition National Assembly member were barred from taking their seats by the Maduro-aligned Supreme Court.Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, and the Human Rights Foundation called for the OAS to invoke the Democratic Charter.