Despite his loyalty to Nayib Bukele, the head of the GANA faction, Guadalupe Vásquez, on February 9, 2020, facing the heavily armed military in Congress, viewed the takeover as a coup.
On February 9, 2021, GANA deputy Guadalupe Vásquez called ARENA and FMLN delegates “useless”, who called a plenary to mark 9F’s first anniversary, when Nayib Bukele was in command of an armed takeover of the Legislative Palace.
But a year before this event, as heavily armed soldiers entered the Blue Room and agreed to President Nayib Bukele’s coup attempt, Vásquez himself condemned the event.
“This is already a coup,” Vásquez said, speaking to other GANA lawmakers, also loyal to the president of the republic.
An eight-second video, made by El Diario de Hoy at the time and part of the documentary series “9F: The return of the rifles”, co-produced with Factum Magazine, reveals Vásquez’s words.
A dozen journalists reveal unpublished facts about 9F in a documentary series
“It’s serious,” added Vásquez at the time, before being interrupted by Mario Tenorio, also from GANA, who noted that he was being recorded by a journalist from this medium, who he asked to withdraw.
With those words, Vásquez joined the broad chorus of voices that saw a coup attempt in the military incursion.
Over the course of a year, however, it went from condemning the “serious” act to defending it, downplaying it, and attacking those who find it serious in the militarization of the Legislative Assembly.
Vasquez isn’t the only one who has changed his mind about the raid. Deputies Milena Mayorga and Felissa Cristales, both elected by ARENA but collapsed into Bukele’s government, were in the Blue Room and condemned the capture at the time, but then dropped their words and defended the executive.
Mayorga even said in a virtual forum a few days ago that the 9F had not undermined El Salvador’s democracy.
The drastic “change of mind”
Guadalupe Vásquez and GANA are staunch fans of President Bukele. In fact, they are partisans, as the president won the 2019 election with that party flag.
The phrases with which the 9F will be remembered
The day the president led the military to the legislative chamber, hours after he intimidated the opposition with the police, he saw the events seriously and interpreted them as a “coup”, but a year later he believed the exact opposite.
This militarization was accompanied by inflammatory speeches from the president, such as when he said that “now it is very clear who is in control of the situation,” while there was a military siege in Congress and snipers in the surrounding buildings.
But for Vásquez, “it is an action that the people came, the president didn’t come alone, the people came with the president and wanted to speak to the delegates.”
Talk, but press with guns in your hands. Something the president himself, in a conversation with rapper Residente in March 2020, recognized as pressure on the deputies. The artist disapproved of these actions, despite Bukele’s attempts to juggle with excuses.
9F: A year in which democracy is under attack
Faced with this instrumentalization of the security forces, the Constitutional Chamber issued a precautionary measure instructing Bukele not to abuse the police and the military.
However, for the remainder of 2020, these armed forces stood out against the president’s will, even if his orders were illegal. For example, in the pandemic, he called on them to arrest suspected home quarantine violators without any law.
“A combination of convenience”
Analysts and delegates believe that the statements of the GANA faction leader, Guadalupe Vásquez, show that this party shows more loyalty to the president as a person than to the constitution itself, allegedly motivated by obtaining electoral revenue through Bukele and favors of the executive.
“Now we realize that they actually always knew what it was about. The situation shows the incoherence they show and the disloyalty to not only the population, but also the constitution itself, because they are called to respect the constitution, but to be loyal to one person, ”said criminal lawyer Marcela Galeas.
“The way to prevent 9F from happening again is to fight impunity,” deputies say
For lawyer Ruth Eleonora López, situations like the vision with Vásquez in the 9F documentary by El Diario de Hoy and Factum Magazine show how parties alliance with the Executive try to minimize the negative actions of the current government.
“It seems so spontaneous and natural (Vásquez’s expression) to me that it is clear what they thought and expressed, not just him but all those who were there. It also shows an expression of concern about what is happening, ”said López.
GANA was always clear to opposition representatives that the 9F was a coup d’état. “What is happening is that GANA is a party of convenience and shady deals, they don’t want to hide the truth, but the funding and favors of the government, because it is a party that has no ideology or principles,” said René Portillo Cuadra . , deputy of ARENA.
The PDC deputy, Rodolfo Parker, firmly affirms that what happened at 9F cannot be hidden. “These are facts that cannot be hidden, minimized or qualified. To bread, bread; and for the wine, it came, it was a coup d’état, short-lived and therefore failed, but a coup d’état! “