Argentina's Old Detention and Torture Center Added to UNESCO World Heritage Site

Argentina has welcomed the decision made by a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization conference in Saudi Arabia to include the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory as a World Heritage site, AP reports.

This designation recognizes the ESMA Museum as a site of "outstanding value to humanity," marking a rare instance in which a museum dedicated to recent historical events is granted this distinction.

The ESMA Museum and Site of Memory is located within the former Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA), which served as one of the most notorious clandestine detention and torture centers during Argentina's brutal military dictatorship that spanned from 1976 to 1983.

Today, it operates as both a museum and a broader site of memory, housing government offices and human rights organizations.

Argentina's President Alberto Fernández expressed gratitude to UNESCO for the designation, acknowledging the ESMA's significance in preserving the memory of state-sponsored terrorism and the horrors experienced there.

He emphasized the importance of keeping the memory alive to ensure that the atrocities of that era are neither forgotten nor denied.

Background on Argentina's Dark History

The military coup in Argentina in 1976 led to the overthrow of President Isabel Perón and marked the beginning of a seven-year dictatorship characterized by widespread human rights abuses, per Al Jazeera.

The military junta sought to suppress dissent, activism, and left-wing political ideologies, resulting in the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people who were detained and never heard from again.

Argentina saw the emergence of approximately 340 detention centers during this period, with ESMA being one of the earliest and largest.

Located in Buenos Aires, ESMA was converted into a torture site, and only around 200 prisoners survived their time there.

The facility even had a maternity ward where pregnant detainees had their children taken away from them shortly after birth, often placed with families aligned with the dictatorship.

Efforts were made to conceal the crimes committed at ESMA during and after the dictatorship.

UNESCO World Heritage Designation

While UNESCO World Heritage's mission is universal in scope, the designation of memorials and historical sites often intersects with political sensitivities, particularly when they relate to painful past events involving multiple countries, BARRON's noted.

The inclusion of sites related to Japan's Meiji-era industrial revolution in the World Heritage list in 2015 sparked controversy in South Korea and China, given the forced labor of people from these countries during Japan's occupation.

UNESCO Chief Audrey Azoulay highlighted that the sites considered for World Heritage designation "bear the scars of history" and serve as a connection between the past and present, contributing to the global collective consciousness of humanity.

In the case of ESMA, UNESCO recognized it as a material and physical testament to human rights violations, serving as evidence of acts of terrorism and a condemnation of past atrocities.

UNESCO's Heritage Committee continues to deliberate on other candidates with relevance to conflict and violence.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Application of the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory to the UNESCO World Heritage - English subtitles - From Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA