This is how “9F: The Return of the Rifles” was created, which features unpublished events and analysis after Nayib Bukele’s military takeover.
A dozen journalists from El Diario de Hoy, Revista Factum and El Faro spent eight days traveling the diffuse paths of the events that took place on the day of the militarization of the Legislative Assembly, on February 9, 2020 (9F) with the intention to to relive, connect and reveal unknown details of one of the darkest dates of the Nayib Bukele period.
From these marathon and reflection days of interviews, analysis of publications and consultation of archives, the documentary “9F: The return of the rifles” emerged, a retrospective look with the voices of journalists, politicians, diplomats and analysts presenting the events for and after February 9.
This is to build a story that responds to the need to clarify once and for all the motives that Bukele had for breaking into the Salvadoran congress with armed soldiers and the consequences of that event, which are often referred to as a coup d’état. failed.
OPINION: The memory of the 9F
The production team of this documentary miniseries consisted of journalists and audiovisual producers from El Diario de Hoy and Revista Factum who interviewed no fewer than 18 characters who were involved in the events of 9F in different spheres for four days.
These sessions resulted in more than 15 hours of audio and video with whole days and nights of transcription and analysis, line by line, to ensure that every sentence, idea, intonation, or inflection that contributed to the goal of creating a record was made completely. use of. true to that episode in El Salvador’s recent history, which could later be used as an important document for those scrutinizing Salvadoran political memory in the future.
Equally valuable as the testimonials was the archive of images, video and photography compiled by the media involved in the project, as well as other visual witnesses to parallel and related events. All of this material went through a thorough curation process that allowed for the generation of unprecedented connections and relationships between events, an invaluable contribution to understanding what was happening.
Four chapters
“9F: The Return of the Rifles” lasts nearly 60 minutes and its publication was divided into chapters that split the events of 9F into four main moments.
Chapter 1: The Smoke Screen, recounts the events leading up to February 9 and clarifies President Bukele’s motives.
In chapter 2: The end of the charm, the national and international consequences of the military takeover of the Salvadoran Congress are explored.
Democracy under attack is the name from chapter 3, which describes the circumstances under which the Salvadoran constitutional order was broken and the damage to democracy.
In the fourth chapter: With guns and God, the day of the failed coup is told step by step and reflections on what is missing from Nayib Bukele’s presidential term.