ESMA
Encyclopedia
Argentine Navy
The Navy of the Argentine Republic or Armada of the Argentine Republic is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Army and the Air Force....
that was employed as an illegal detention center
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
during the dictatorial rule of the National Reorganization Process (1976–1983).
While the School was originally a legitimate military teaching institution, this article focuses on its notorious use as a detention center.
The original ESMA was a complex located on Libertador Avenue, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, in the barrio of Nuñez
Núñez, Buenos Aires
Núñez is a barrio or neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is on the northern edge of the city on the banks of the Rio de la Plata.The barrio of Belgrano is to the southeast; Saavedra and Coghlan are to the west; and Vicente López, in Buenos Aires Province, is to the north.The borough has an...
. It was the seat of Task Unit 3.3.2 - Unidad de Tareas 3.3.2, charged with multiple instances of forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
and illegal execution
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, as well as appropriation of children born to mothers imprisoned there, followed by identity forgery and illegal adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
. ESMA was the largest detention center of its kind during the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
.
The premises of the Mechanics School in Buenos Aires were turned into a museum by law of the National Congress
Argentine National Congress
The Congress of the Argentine Nation is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies....
on 5 August 2004, which named it the Space for Memory and for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights.
The new facilities of the ESMA, again a legitimate military teaching institution, are located in the Puerto Belgrano
Puerto Belgrano
Base Naval Puerto Belgrano is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about south of Buenos Aires...
Naval Base
Naval base
A naval base is a military base, where warships and naval ships are deployed when they have no mission at sea or want to restock. Usually ships may also perform some minor repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usually stay on the ships but are undergoing maintenance while...
, 28 km from the city of Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and seat of government of Bahía Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the...
.
Human rights violations
Almost 30,000 people were taken and held in the ESMA, and only 150 lived to tell the story. . Executions were usually announced as "transfers", as if to other prisons. The prisoners were taken to the basement, sedated, and then killed: some by firing squad (their bodies to be crematedCremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
in the nearby sports field), others in "death flights
Death flights
The death flights were a form of forced disappearance routinely practiced during the Argentine "Dirty War", begun by Admiral Luis María Mendía. Victims of death flights were first drugged into a stupor, hustled aboard fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters, stripped naked and pushed into the Río de la...
", flown over the Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
and dumped from the airplanes while unconscious.
Functions and authorities
The Mechanics School worked as a detention center from the very start of the dictatorship. On the day of the coup d'étatCoup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
(24 March 1976) several people kidnapped by the Armed Forces were taken there. The officers in charge were under strict orders not to reveal their identities or military affiliation when capturing prisoners.
Task Force 3.2.2 was in charge of the city of Buenos Aires proper and the northern part of the metropolitan area (Gran Buenos Aires). It was led by Rear-Admiral Rubén Jacinto Chamorro and Captain Carlos Acosta Ambone, and among its ranks were Jorge Eduardo Acosta
Jorge Eduardo Acosta
Jorge Eduardo Acosta , alias "el Tigre" was an Argentine captain of corvette, head of the Work Group 3.3.2 of the ESMA naval school and in charge of this detention center during the Dirty War. He was allegedly the one taking decisions concerning torture and assassinations in the ESMA center...
, Alfredo Astiz
Alfredo Astiz
Alfredo Ignacio Astiz was a Commander, intelligence office and maritime commando in the Argentine Navy during the dictatorial rule of Jorge Rafael Videla in the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional...
, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo and Adolfo Scilingo
Adolfo Scilingo
Adolfo Scilingo was an Argentine naval officer who is currently serving 30 years in a Spanish prison after being convicted on April 19, 2005 for crimes against humanity, including extra-judicial execution.-Charges:Scilingo was charged under Spain's universal jurisdiction laws by investigating...
. Its chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
during 1977 was Father Alberto Ángel Zanchetta
Alberto Ángel Zanchetta
Father Alberto Ángel Zanchetta was Secretary and General Chancellor of Ordinariato Castrense of Argentina.- Involvement in the Dirty War :...
.
The group was ultimately (between 1976 and 1978) under the orders of Navy Commander-in-Chief Emilio Eduardo Massera
Emilio Eduardo Massera
Emilio Eduardo Massera was an Argentine military officer, and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2...
. Massera had reportedly been present during the gathering of the task group, gave an opening speech for the officers, and personally participated in the first illegal detentions.
Layout
The internal layout and conditions of the ESMA has been partly preserved, partly reconstructed from former prisoners' testimonies. Task Force 3.3.2 occupied the officerOfficer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
s' mess (casino de oficiales), which had three floors plus a basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
and a large attic
Attic
An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...
.
Detainees were held in the basement, the attic and the third floor. The basement was the entry to ESMA for new prisoners, who were taken there for questioning under torture. It included an infirmary and a photographic laboratory. Its layout was modified in October 1977 and again in December 1978, in preparation for the upcoming visit of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States .Along with the...
of the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
.
The ground floor was called Dorado, and hosted the intelligence and planning area, the officers' dining room, a conference room, and a meeting room. The first and second floors were occupied by the officers' rooms, to which the prisoners had no access.
The area termed Capucha (literally "hood
Hood (headgear)
A hood is a kind of headgear that covers most of the head and neck and sometimes the face. They may be worn for protection from the environment, for fashion, as a form of traditional dress or uniform, to prevent the wearer from seeing or to prevent the wearer from being identified.-History and...
") took up the right-hand side of the attic. It was L-shaped, and had a number of narrow cells (called camarotes, i. e. "cabin
Cabin (ship)
A cabin or berthing is an enclosed space generally on a ship or an aircraft. A cabin which protrudes above the level of a ship's deck may be referred to as a "deckhouse."-Sailing ships:...
s") lit only by small casement window
Casement window
A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges. Casement windows are hinged at the side. A casement window (or casement) is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges. Casement windows are hinged at the side. A casement window (or casement) is a...
s, each containing a mattress for the prisoner.
El Pañol, on the left-hand side of the attic, was the storage room for goods taken from the homes of detainees (furniture, utensils, clothes, etc.). Around the end of 1977 part of the Pañol was dedicated to La Pecera.
La Pecera was a series of small offices, plus a press archive and a library, under the supervision of closed-circuit TV surveillance cameras. Some of the prisoners stayed there part of the day.
Capuchita was a second attic for prisoners, similar to Capucha, but with even worse living conditions. It included two torture rooms. It was lent to the Navy's Intelligence Service, the Army
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army is the land armed force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of the country.- History :...
and the Air Force
Argentine Air Force
The Argentine Air Force is the national aviation branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. , it had 14,606 military and 6,854 civilian staff.-History:...
for them to keep and torture their prisoners apart from the others. The Task Force also employed it when Capucha was too crowded.