Despite his loyalty to Nayib Bukele, on February 9, 2020 before the heavily armed military in Congress, the head of the WIN faction, Guadalupe Vásquez, considered the capture a coup.
On February 9, 2021, WIN deputy Guadalupe Vásquez called ARENA and FMLN deputies who convened a plenary session on the occasion of the first anniversary of the 9F, when Nayib Bukele commanded a dam, “useless”. Navy of the Legislative Palace.
But a year before the event, as heavily armed soldiers entered the Blue Room and thwarted the coup attempt by President Nayib Bukele, Vásquez himself condemned the event.
“This is already a coup,” Vásquez said, while talking to other GAIN legislators, also loyal to the President of the Republic.
An eight-second video, taken at the time by El Diari d’Avui and part of the documentary series “9F: The Return of the Rifles” co-produced with Revista Factum, reveals Vásquez’s words.
A dozen journalists reveal unpublished facts about the 9F in a documentary series
“It’s serious,” Vásquez added at the time, before being interrupted by Mario Tenorio, also of WIN who noticed that he was being recorded by a journalist of this medium, whom he asked to retire.
With these words, Vásquez joined the wide choir of voices that saw in the military incursion a coup attempt.
However, in the course of a year, he went from condemning the “serious” fact to defending it, downplaying it and attacking those who find gravity in the militarization of the Legislative Assembly.
Vásquez is not the only one who changed his mind about the raid. Deputies Milena Mayorga and Felissa Vidres, both elected by ARENA but together in the government of Bukele, were in the Blue Hall and condemned the capture at that time, but then abandoned their words and remained in defense of the ‘Executive.
Mayorga even said, a few days ago in a virtual forum, that 9F had not subverted democracy in El Salvador.
The drastic “change of heart”
Guadalupe Vásquez and GUANYA are loyal supporters of President Bukele. In fact, they are co-supporters, as the president won the 2019 elections with this party flag.
The sentences with which 9F will be remembered
The day the president drove the military into the legislature, hours after intimidating opposition police with police, he saw the events as serious and interpreted them as a “coup,” but a year later create exactly the opposite.
This militarization was accompanied by incendiary speeches by the president, such as the time when he said that “it is now very clear who has control of the situation,” while there was a military siege in Congress and snipers in the adjoining buildings.
But for Vásquez, “it’s an action that came to the people, the president didn’t come alone, the people came with the president and he wanted to talk to the deputies.”
Talking, but pressing with rifles in his hands. Something that the president himself acknowledged, in a conversation with rapper Resident in March 2020, as pressure on MPs. The artist disapproved of these actions despite Bukele’s attempts to juggle excuses.
9F: A year with democracy under fire
Faced with this instrumentalization of the security forces, the Constitutional Chamber issued a precautionary measure in which it ordered Bukele not to misuse the police and military.
However, for the rest of 2020, these armed forces bowed to the will of the president, even if their orders were illegal. In the pandemic, for example, he called on them to capture the alleged rapists of home quarantine without a law backing it up.
“A match of convenience”
Analysts and deputies consider that the expressions of the head of the GUANYA faction, Guadalupe Vásquez, show that this party shows more loyalty to the president as a person than to the Constitution itself, allegedly motivated to obtain electoral revenue through Bukele and favors from the Executive.
“Now we realize that in reality they always knew what it was all about. The situation shows the inconsistency they show and disloyalty not only to the people but to the Constitution itself, because they are called to respect the Constitution but give loyalty to a person, “explained criminal lawyer Marcela Galeas.
“The way to prevent the 9F from happening again is to fight impunity,” MPs said.
For lawyer Ruth Eleonora López, situations such as the hearing with Vásquez in the 9F documentary published by Diari d’Avui and Revista Factum show how parties that have an alliance with the Executive try to minimize the negative acts committed by the government. in turn.
“It seems so spontaneous and natural to me (Vásquez’s expression) that it’s obviously what they thought and expressed, not just him but everyone who was there. It also shows an expression of concern about what’s going on.” , said Lopez.
For opposition MPs, WIN was always clear that 9F was a coup. “What happens is that WIN is a party of convenience and dark treatment, they do not care to hide the truth, but funding and government favors, for being a party that has no ideology or principles,” said René Portillo Quadra, deputy of ARENA.
PDC MP Rodolfo Parker bluntly states that what happened on 9F cannot be hidden. “These are facts that cannot be hidden, minimized or nuanced. In bread, bread, and wine, wine, it was a coup d’etat, short-lived and therefore failed, but a coup!”