ЭШМА: Школа механиков ВМС и место памяти о «грязной войне»

Defunct Argentine naval school; used as a detention center during the Dirty War

The Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy (Spanish: Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada, commonly referred to by its acronym ESMA) has gone through three major transformations throughout its history. Originally ESMA served as an educational facility of the Argentine Navy. The original ESMA was a complex located at 8151 Libertador Avenue, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in the barrio of Núñez. Additionally, It was the seat of U. T.3.3.2—Unidad de Tareas (Task Unit) 2 of G. T.3.3 [es]. However, ESMA operated as an illegal, secret detention center for opponents of the 1976–1983 military dictatorship, described as "subversives" during what was described as the Dirty War. The military took the babies born to mothers imprisoned there, suppressed their true identities, and allowed military families and associates of the regime to illegally adopt them. The Unidad de Tareas (Task Unit) was responsible for thousands of instances of forced disappearance, torture, and murder during this time. ESMA was the largest detention center of its kind during the Dirty War. The ESMA building has been converted into a memorial museum to show and honor those who were "disappeared" during Argentina's Dirty War. The National Congress passed a law on 5 August 2004 that converted the ESMA complex into a museum, the Space for Memory and for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Espacio para la Memoria y para la Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos). On 10 June 2014 the Museo Malvinas was inaugurated in the ESMA campus, a museum about the islands disputed and fought over by the United Kingdom (calling them Falkland Islands) and Argentina (Islas Malvinas). The School, once again legitimate, was renamed Escuela de Suboficiales de la Armada (ESSA; English: Navy Petty Officers' School) in 2001, and moved in 2005 to the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base, 28 km from the city of Bahía Blanca, and about 600 km southwest of Buenos Aires. The site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023 under the name 'ESMA Museum and Site of Memory – Former Clandestine Center of Detention, Torture and Extermination'.

According to the ESSA Web site, in 1897 the Escuela de Aprendices Mecánicos de la Armada (Navy Apprentice Mechanics School) was founded in premises that are now the Historical Naval Museum of Tigre, in Buenos Aires Province. In 1900 the School moved to naval workshops in Dársena Norte; in 1902 it became Escuela de Aprendices Mecánicos y Foguistas (Apprentice Mechanics and Stokers School). Two years later it became Escuela de Mecánicos de la Armada, and in 1911 Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada. In 1928 it moved to its later notorious premises, designed by the architect Raúl J. Álvarez, on Blandengues street (now Avenida del Libertador), between Arroyo Medrano and the extension of Deheza street. It was granted the name ESSA in 1999 as the by now sole NCO school of the Navy and continues to function in the Puerto Belgrano base.

Almost 5,000 people were abducted and held in the original ESMA campus in its active participation in the Dirty War between 1976 1983; all except 150 were killed during or after interrogation and torture. When announcements were made that prisoners were to be "transferred", people came to understand they were going to be executed. The prisoners were taken to the basement, sedated, and then killed, some by shooting, others in death flights: they were flown over the Atlantic Ocean or the Río de la Plata and pushed out of the aircraft. These are only some examples of the many treatments that prisoners of the ESMA were forced to experience during the kidnappings that forced them into clandestine detention centers.

The ESMA was used as a detention center from the very start of the 1976 dictatorship: on 24 March, the day of the coup d'état, several people kidnapped by the Armed Forces were taken there. Task Unit 3.2.2 was led by Rear Admiral Rubén Jacinto Chamorro and Captain Carlos Acosta Ambone. Jorge Vildoza has been identified by survivors as the second in command of ESMA. Among the Task Unit's ranks were Jorge Eduardo Acosta, Alfredo Astiz, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo and Adolfo Scilingo, who became notorious as torturers. Astiz was known as the "Blond Angel of Death". Its chaplain during 1977 was Father Alberto Ángel Zanchetta. It was in charge of the city of Buenos Aires proper and the northern part of the metropolitan area (Gran Buenos Aires). Officers in charge were under strict orders not to reveal their identities or military affiliation when capturing prisoners. Between 1976 and 1978, the group was ultimately under the orders of Navy Commander in Chief Emilio Eduardo Massera. Massera had reportedly been present when the unit was set up, gave an opening speech to the officers, and personally participated in the first illegal detentions.

Once kidnapped, it was very rare that these prisoners would return home, leaving loved ones wondering if they would ever see their family members or friends again. During the beginning stages of the Dirty War, Argentinians living in Buenos Aires were unaware that the building that once housed a school had been transformed into a center for punishing "subversion". These photos would allow victims to be recorded, providing an accurate count today as to the five thousand people who died due to the treatment within this camp. Another group targeted included the people who potentially supported a different government, opposing the current junta and military dictatorship of Argentina. If there was any suspicion that Argentinians were meeting secretly and consistently to resist General Jorge Rafael Videla and his regime, the government would kidnap these people and place them in detention centers such as the ESMA. This would serve as a lesson to incite fear within other members of the community who were also against the current governmental structure of Argentina. Upon being kidnapped, for example, many kidnappers would interrogate the prisoners about why they were opposing the Argentinian dictatorship and spreading a new political ideology, disregarding the fact of whether or not this was actually the case.

A few victims that survived and escaped the ESMA have made it a priority to share their experiences of the torture and human rights infractions they faced while living in this center.

One detainee who survived, Ana María Martí, has related some of the horrific treatment she faced while in the confines of the ESMA. The guard would yell obscenities and make sexually explicit comments to the women while they were showering. Officers would require the ESMA residents to take rides in these planes, only to push them off and watch them fall to their deaths. The victims were often still conscious, despite having been drugged. As a result, numerous bodies of victims washed up on beaches hundreds of kilometers south of Buenos Aires. There had been two previous trials after the Supreme Court struck down an amnesty the military dictatorship had granted its members; in the first the one accused committed suicide before a verdict was reached; in a 2009 trial, twelve defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial was still in progress as of 2016, and was being covered in a dedicated blog, Causa ESMA, with links to video reports of significant court sentences and similar events; many items are selected from the Argentine Infojus Noticias (National Agency of judicial news) Web site, Nacionales section. Gonzalo "Chispa" Sánchez was extradited to Argentina and faced charges, as of 2020. A federal court sentenced eight sailors and police officers and a civilian in the trial of crimes against humanity perpetrated during the military dictatorship at the ESMA on February 19, 2021. Among those convicted are former Navy officer Carlos Castellvi, police officer Raúl Cabral, and civilian Miguel Conde.

Members of the military claim that they were simply obeying orders. It was also claimed that military members were made to believe they were fighting a war against enemies in civilian clothes. Argentines feel obligated to use the museum to share the stories of those that lost their lives during the Dirty War and to show the horrors that occurred within the walls of ESMA.