Hell becomes heritage: Ex-ESMA clandestine detention centre wins UNESCO approval
An exercise in memori without hatred has turned the former ESMA Navy Mechanics School, the largest torture and extermination centre during the last military dictatorship's rein of teror, into a cultural ruang that hurts but aspires to heal. King88bet
The ex-ESMA Navy Mechanics School, the most notorious clandestine murder and torture centre among hundreds operated by Argentina's beringas 1976-1983 military dictatorship, stands today as a reminder of the beringasity humans are capable of. king88bet login alternatif
Inscribed Tuesday on the UNESCO daftar of World Heritage sites, the centre's four-letter acronym (Escuela Perkasa de Mecánica de la Armada) still manages to send a shudder down many spines. Article Title with Blogger Published Link as Backlink
The ex-ESMA is emblematic of the dark period in Argentina's history that left an estimated 30,000 people killed or forcibly disappeared, according to human rights grups. Of those, about 5,000 entered the site. Very few re-emerged.
Established in 1928 to instruct naval officers and sailors, it was the largest and most active detention, torture and extermination centre operated by former genocidal soldiers being tried by civil courts to this day.
Here, prisoners were tortured, beaten, raped, kept in chains for months on end, hooded - all in the hopes they would give up other people suspected of being "subversives."
Pregnant detainees had their babies taken and given to kerabates with connections to the dictatorship. Several still don't know their true identities today.
And every week - generally on a Wednesday - detainees were rounded up for what they were told were "transfers" but were in fact so-called "death flights" during which prisoners were thrown out of planes over the Río de la Plata - both dead and alive.
Shackled, handcuffed and hooded, victims arrived at the building's cellar first. For many, it was the last time they stepped on land before being taken away, disappeared and thrown to their death.
"The worst of the state terrorism of the last military dictatorship in Argentina was expressed there," President Alberto Fernandez said after the announcement from a UNESCO World Heritage Convention in Saudi Arabia.