ESMA: World Heritage and Argentinean testimony of State terrorism

Buenos Aires, Sep 19 (Prensa Latina) The ESMA Memory Site Museum was declared World Heritage on Tuesday grounded in its value as a testimony of State terrorism, but also as a symbol of the struggle for memory, truth and justice, Mayki Gorosito, director of that institution assured.

September 19, 2023
17:28

Such a distinction was announced in Saudi Arabia during the 45th extended meeting of the committee in charge of choosing the places recognized by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The news was celebrated by President Alberto Fernandez, legislators, officials, members of social, trade union and political organizations and by those who attended the nomination process initiated in 2015.

In exclusive statements to Prensa Latina, Gorosito stressed the significance of the facility located in the building of the Officers’ Casino.

The clandestine detention, torture and extermination center of the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), one of the over 700 facilities of such kind in Argentina during the last civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983).

ESMA was a piece of judicial evidence in the cases for crimes against humanity; thus, the site was not altered during its recovery, so it remains as survivors described it in the known Trial of the Juntas (1985) against the main military leaders of that period and in the proceedings resumed since 2004.

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