To satisfy a couple of inquiries here’s some background information.

Stairwell to Officers Building basement, Naval School of Mechanics, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo: Pete Brook, August 5th, 2008.

It is my own photograph. It is a detail of an exterior stairwell which led to the basement rooms designated for illegal interrogation and torture at the Naval School of Mechanics in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In Argentina it is referred to as the Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada, and commonly known by its abbreviation ESMA.

ESMA was the main site of illegal detention during the Dirty War (1976 to 1983). The Dirty War was a state-sponsored program of violence against Argentine citizenry carried out primarily by Jorge Rafael Videla’s military government. There were hundreds more sites like it across the country. There were scores of illegal detention sites in Buenos Aires alone.

The horrors of the Dirty War are still fresh in the collective memory and, as such, problems exist with its interpretation for today’s society. The surveillance and by-night kidnappings affected every Argentine’s life. The terror, the uncertainty and the 30,000 missing persons were all experienced during those years. It was dirty, it was covert and it divided a nation.

Click on the following for; more info on the Desaparecidos; more on the establishment of the museum/memorial; more on the continuing peace & justice efforts; and more on the national archives.

Finally, a very poignant site with photographs and descriptions of 3,400 victims of the Dirty War.