JULIA BARBON
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FOLHAPRESS)
The largest torture center of the Argentine dictatorship became a World Heritage Site this Tuesday (19). The title was granted by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (UN arm for education, science and culture) to what is now the Esma Museum and Space of Memory, in Buenos Aires.
It was the first time that a place of memory was included in the work of the commission, which is meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to analyze 50 applications and decide which places on the planet deserve this status, previously divided into cultural, natural and mixed categories. .
Today, 1,185 sites are called World Heritage Sites, 23 of them in Brazil and 11 in Argentina, not counting the new ones. The last to enter the Brazilian list were the Burle Marx site (2021) and the historic city of Paraty and Ilha Grande (2019), both in Rio de Janeiro.
“I want to thank you for the decision made,” declared Argentine President Alberto Fernández in a video shown at the ceremony. “The memory has to be kept alive basically so that bad experiences are not repeated (…) So that no one in Argentina can deny or forget the horror that was experienced there”, he added, pointing out that this year the country turns 40 of democracy.
The group of buildings in the north of Buenos Aires was built in 1928 as the Navy Mechanics School, but between 1976 and 1983, it also functioned as a clandestine detention, torture and extermination center for the military dictatorship. Around 5,000 of the 30,000 prisoners who disappeared during the period passed through there.
Chained, handcuffed and hooded, the victims first arrived in the basement of the Officers’ Casino, a three-story pavilion that concentrated much of the repressive activity. This was also the last place they set foot before disappearing or being thrown from planes into the River Plate, in the so-called “death flights”.
The terror was concentrated on the upper floor and in the attic, “Capucha” and “Capuchita”, locked spaces where prisoners, identified by numbers, were tortured so that they could reveal the whereabouts of other politically persecuted people. It was in this place that women were raped.
In another tiny, empty room, dozens of them gave birth to their children, taken before they disappeared. Eleven of these children (out of 37 known) recovered their identity thanks to the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, mentioned by President Fernández in his acceptance speech.
After the end of the dictatorship, the place continued to function as a school for non-commissioned officers, until, in 1988, former president Carlos Menem, who granted pardons to former dictators and former guerrillas, ordered the demolition of the Officers’ Casino to create a “monument to reconciliation and national unity”.
Mothers and relatives of the disappeared prevented this from happening through legal measures, and the place was vacated by the Navy and declared a national historic monument in 2004. A year earlier, the Argentine Congress reopened legal proceedings against former soldiers, which continue until now in civil courts –73 have already been convicted out of a total of 1,159.
The museum’s preservation and assembly works began in 2013. Today, the spaces remain intact and serve as judicial evidence, being administered by a public body made up of representatives from the national government, the city of Buenos Aires and human rights organizations.
Around 150,000 people, many students, visit the center annually and participate in reflection activities.
“Authenticity, the connection with memory, the inclusive participation of all interested parties, the interpretation and education strategy” were criteria highlighted by the Japanese representative on the UNESCO committee, who considered Esma a good example for future applications.
According to Argentina’s Human Rights Secretariat, the country began negotiations with UNESCO in 2015 and, two years later, managed to have the site included on the World Heritage Center’s provisional list.
“The appointment is the result of in-depth work, in which the country was actively involved in the working group (…), which resulted in recommendations to include Memorial sites for the first time within the committee’s scope of consideration,” he stated Marcela Losardo, ambassador of the Argentine delegation to UNESCO, told the public news agency Telám.
SOME OF THE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGES IN BRAZIL
Mixed heritage (cultural and natural)
Historic City of Paraty and Ilha Grande (RJ)
Cultural heritage
Burle Marx Site (RJ)
Historic City of Ouro Preto (MG)
Historic Center of Olinda (PE)
Historic Center of Salvador (BA)
Brasilia Pilot Plan (DF)
Serra da Capivara National Park (PI)
Landscapes of Rio de Janeiro
Pampulha Modern Complex (MG)
Natural patrimony
Iguaçu National Park (PR)
Discovery Coast (BA and ES)
Protected Areas of the Central Amazon
Pantanal Protected Areas (MT and MS)
The post Former torture center in Argentina becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site appeared first in Jornal de Brasília.
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