The documentary series “9F: The Return of the Rifles” reveals the moment when Congressman Guadalupe Vásquez, from Ghana, accepts that the militarization of the Legislative Assembly, on February 9, 2020, was a “coup d’etat”
An eight-second video, part of the documentary series “9F: The Return of the Rifles”, reveals that GANA Deputy Guadalupe Vásquez said that the militarization of the Legislative Assembly on February 9, 2020, was a “serious” event and described as a ” coup d’etat ”.
“This is already a coup d’etat, a coup d’etat,” Vásquez said in an audio-visual footage captured that afternoon by a journalist from El Diario de Hoy. “It’s serious,” he added, before being interrupted by Mario Tenorio, also a GANA deputy, who also asked the journalist who was recording the scene.
“What media are you from?” Tenorio asks the journalist and when he answers that it belongs to El Diario de Hoy, the deputy indicates that he removes it and claims “Here we are talking, respect me, respect the situation”. Immediately afterwards, a person who appears to be part of the GANA party’s communication team blocks the image.
The moment belongs to the shootings recorded during the military incursion into the Legislative Assembly, led by President Nayib Bukele on February 9, 2020, a few minutes before his arrival in the Blue Chamber to pressure MPs to approve a million-dollar loan requested by the executive. It appears at minute 04:41 of the fourth chapter of the documentary.
On the stage, in addition to deputies Guadalupe Vásquez and Mario Tenorio, other members of the Ghanaian legislative bank appear: Santos Adelmo Rivas, Wilfredo Guevara and Lorenzo Rivas.
In an interview with singer René Pérez Joglar, who is also part of the documentary series “9F: The Return of the Rifles”, Bukele admits that his intention was to press deputies. “Why did he bring deputies to parliament?” René asked, and the president replied, “It’s a form of pressure,” “This pressure could be exerted without an army,” the singer concluded.
A production that opens your eyes
The documentary series “9F: The Return of the Rifles” is a production in which a dozen journalists from El Diario de Hoy and Revista Factum were involved, with the support of the digital newspaper El Faro. Together, they conducted more than 18 interviews with characters involved in the events of 9F and analyzed more than 15 hours of archival recordings of events during the militarization of the Legislative Assembly that day.
“9F: The Return of the Rifles” takes almost 60 minutes, and its publication has been divided into chapters that segment the events of 9F into four major moments.
Chapter 1: The Smoke Screen, reports the events that led until February 9 and clarifies the reasons for President Bukele. In Chapter 2: It explores the end of charm, the national and international consequences of the military takeover of the Salvadoran Congress. Democracy under fire is the name from chapter 3, which describes the circumstances in which the Salvadoran constitutional order was violated and the damage done to democracy. In the fourth chapter: With rifles and God, the day of the failed coup is recounted, step by step, and reflections are presented on what is missing from Nayib Bukele’s presidential term.