Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada
The Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada , formerly Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA) (in German mostly translated as a technical school / mechanics school of the Navy ) is a training facility of the Argentine Navy in the capital Buenos Aires . It is located in the Belgrano district , on Avenida del Libertador .
Military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983
During the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 , the school was both a secret prison and the largest torture center in the country. Around 5,000 people were tortured there and then mostly murdered, mainly political opponents of the regime and people who were believed to be. According to estimates by human rights organizations, only around 200 of the detainees are said to have survived captivity.
Most of the victims had been arrested in night-and-fog operations by security forces without legal basis and were referred to as Desaparecidos (Spanish for disappeared). According to statements by the Argentine officer Adolfo Scilingo , many of those detained at ESMA were stunned on so-called death flights (Vuelos de la muerte) and thrown naked from planes over the nearby Río de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean.
ESMA was subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and member of the junta Admiral Emilio Massera , who was considered one of the main people responsible for the implementation of the " dirty war ". Two of ESMA's most notorious torturers were military personnel Alfredo Astiz and Miguel Ángel Cavallo . Cavallo was arrested in Mexico in 2000 and sentenced to life imprisonment in Argentina in 2011, like Astiz.
After the military dictatorship
After the end of the dictatorship in 1983, the 17 hectare park-like area on which 34 buildings stand was again used exclusively for its original purpose. It was not until President Néstor Kirchner , on the anniversary of the military coup in 2004, that some of the buildings had to be cleared by the military and made available for a memorial. The memorial was opened in 2007. Guided tours and events take place there. The memorial is operated by fourteen organizations (as of 2019), including the Madres de Plaza de Mayo , Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and HIJOS .
As a replacement for the evacuated buildings, including the officers' mess, the main pavilion, the guard and the hospital, new premises were made available to the military in the Retiro district .
On August 2, 2010, the Council of Ministers of the Mercosur State Union decided to house the headquarters of the Institute for Human Rights in the premises of the former Naval Technical School.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steffen Leidel: Notorious ex-torture center opens to the public. In: Deutsche Welle. March 14, 2005, accessed December 13, 2008 .
- ↑ Christiane Wolters: Ex-officer in court for "death flights". Deutsche Welle, January 14, 2005.
- ↑ Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 13, 2018 ; accessed on March 12, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 6, 2017 ; accessed on March 12, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 8, 2018 ; accessed on March 12, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ ESMA becomes a museum. (No longer available online.) In: Argentinisches Tagblatt. January 1, 2005, archived from the original on October 8, 2007 ; Retrieved December 13, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Human rights authority at a historic location. In: amerika21. September 6, 2010, accessed September 6, 2010 .
Coordinates: 34 ° 32 ′ 18.3 " S , 58 ° 27 ′ 49" W.