February 9, 2022, marked two years since the failed coup carried out by President Nayib Bukele against the political opposition in the Legislative Assembly at that time. The date, which has come to be popularly known as “9F” marked the beginning of the deterioration of democracy and rule of law in the country. In a press release issued on February 9, 2022, popular organizations declared February ninth as National Day Against Authoritarianism.

The organizations that promoted the actions in commemoration of 9F were the Popular Resistance and Rebellion Bloc and the Salvadoran Coordination of Social Movements – both of which organizations coalesce a number of diverse movements in defense of the human right to water, territory, and social justice. On some banners, participants alluded to the death of democracy in El Salvador and in a symbolic cultural-artistic activity threw a cardboard coffin over police barricades. The coffin read, “Democracy Murdered.

In a press statement, the organizations condemned “the actions by the self-styled ‘Cyan Bench’ and its allies, who continue to perpetuate the coup against democracy with the arbitrary and illegal removal of magistrates from the Constitutional chamber and of the attorney general.

“This legislative majority composed of Nuevas Ideas, GANA, PCN, and PDC, puppets of the presidency, have also deepened public debt and approved laws like the one that imposed Bitcoin as legal tender, the “Alabi” law that prevents transparency with regards to the spending of public funds used to address the COVID19 pandemic, and the Water Resources Law, which essentially privatizes water, among other nefarious norms,” said the statement.