Detention centers in the Dirty War

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The use of detention centers in the Dirty War, the period of state terrorism in Argentina between 1976 and 1983 caused immense fear for victims throughout the country. After being kidnapped and interrogated, the prisoners would be forced to survive while living in various centers' worst conditions.^[1] Once the kidnapped were forced into detention centers, they immediately disappeared (Spanish: los desaparecidos). While there was no standard for detention centers, all of them incorporated a torture room that each victim had to encounter. This was combined with emotional torture, with prisoners humiliated and dehumanized by the hands of the leaders; prisoners also lost basic human rights, unable to talk, shower, eat, and sleep.^[1]

The detention centers were notorious for mass murders to remove all evidence of the torture that had transpired. At the end of the Dirty War and a change in government, prisoners were released on the street, blindfolded, with the torturers' identities kept a secret.^[1]

Detention centers

Argentina hosted over 520 clandestine detention centers during the course Dirty War.^[2] There was no standard for the location, torture methods, or leadership of detention centers, but they all operated on the purpose of political opposition, punishing prisoners suspected to be involved in socialism or other forms of political dissent. Little information is known about the true nature of the centers during their operation, due to the mass murder of inmates to prevent knowledge escaping.^[1][2]

Navy Petty-Officers School

The Navy Petty-Officers School (Spanish: La Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada), often known as ESMA was located in the heart of Buenos Aires, approximately two blocks from the 1978 World Cup Stadium. By the time it was shut down, over 5000 people had been tortured there. Only 150 victims had survived the center by the end of the Dirty War in 1983.^[3] The torture center split families immediately upon their arrival, murdering the mothers as quickly as possible. From there, victims would be moved to the basement, where most of the torture occurred, to have their pictures taken. Intense interrogations and torture plans made on an individual basis would ensue. In the present-day, the ESMA is used as a memorial for the human rights violations during the war.^[2]

Club Atlético

Serving as a site where socialists were tortured for opposing the Argentinian regime, Club Atlético housed up to 1,500 'political dissenters' at its peak, despite having a maximum capacity of around 200. Similarly to the ESMA, the detention center also used its basement as a torture chamber. Club Atlético formed part of a larger connected link of covert operations that contributed to the detention, torture, and extermination of hundreds of people in this location alone.^[2]

Olimpo

Olimpo detention center was located in Floresta. Similarly to Club Atlético, Olimpo held well over the allowance of the building in prisoners - the detention center held around 500 people at its peak, compared to the allowance of only 150. The operators used the operation room as the torture site to mock the victims. Olimpo, specifically, has been known for its horrific interrogation methods of those accused of being associated with a rival political position.^[2]

Virrey Ceballos

The Virrey Cerallos, in the neighborhood of Monserrat, was known for its 'efficient' torture methods in a garage-like building.^[2] The center's operations were unusually public, showing how Argentinian officials were able to violate human rights at the time.

Automotores Orletti

Placed in the Garage of a building, this torturing featured military members of both Argentina and Uruguay as a way to instill fear in the victims. This center, in particular, involved many nations in Operation Condor.^[2] This implementation of fear, in principle, created an environment where the prisoner would have to admit to all political dissent they had committed. Because most victims were not members of the socialist party, they were forced to falsely confess to their involvement in political opposition or risk being murdered by the Argentinian government.

Garaje Azopardo

Unlike other detention centers, Garaje Azopardo made its victims carry out forced labour and transmit passports illegally to friends of the Argentinian government. This addition of manual labor added a whole new layer to the dignity these prisoners lost while trapped in this prison. The Garage has been accused of only giving victims one meal a day.^[2]

Torture

Beginning as early as 1976, victims of the Dirty War were kidnapped from homes and public places and brought to detention centers like the ones discussed above, pending any suspicion of them being involved in political opposition to the Argentinian regime. Once these prisoners were brought to the respective camp, methods varied towards the type and severity of the torture.^[2] A New York Times article written on October 4, 1976, shares the experience of a victim who was blindfolded, hit, and forced to be nude.^[4] These conditions were only meant to scare the victims in the hopes that they would share their secrets of socialism. A process of interrogation followed the "minor" torture methods to convince the prisoners to confess to the political dissent they had committed. When these methods seemed insufficient to reveal the "hidden truths" of the prisoners, the leaders of the clandestine detention centers went one step further to offer more torture methods. Accounts of sexual abuse, cigarette burns, and electric shocks were common during these eight years of victimization.^[5] Methods, such as pushing prisoners off planes into oceans, were also used to kill the victims.^[6]

As more political opponents were captured and tortured, the idea of missing a loved one became more common. The Argentinian government contributed to the tortures themselves, so there were no government officials to oppose the human rights violations that were transpiring. Instead, most victims and their families were forced to remain quiet to stay alive. However, there was a movement of women called Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo that began in 1977, a year after the beginning of the Dirty War.^[7] These mothers marched along the Argentinian government, participating in nonviolent protests to fight for the return of their children. Unlike the tangible torture that the kidnapped felt, the pain of the mothers in this movement was expressed through their actions.^[8] In many ways, this can be seen as a form of torture, the torture that las madres could not have their beloved children back in their lives. Some mothers would protest for the rest of their lives, refusing to give up on their child's memory.

United States involvement in Argentina

The United States, through its covert CIA and other intelligence agencies, has declassified certain documents that prove their knowledge of Operation Condor during the 1970s. Operation Condor is an umbrella operation of the CIA, in which six Latin American countries banded together to remove all potential political opponents in the Southern Cone. The Dirty War connects as a specific event to the larger Operation Condor.^[9]

In a conversation between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and many of his colleagues, one of them argues that the Argentinian junta was overdoing the control it had over its citizens. Kissinger remarks that the treatment and policy of detention centers are, in fact, good for United States interests while also stating that this junta will need "a little encouragement from [the United States]" to pursue its efforts.^{[10] [improper synthesis?]}

Most famously, Henry Kissinger is associated with a big personality and his commentary encouraging the Dirty War to advance in Argentina. Among many other quotes, this former Secretary of State spoke openly to the leaders of Operation Condor by supporting their efforts; he believed that "the quicker you succeed, the better."^[11] Kissinger shows the tolerance of the United States regarding the pain and torture of other people in other nations held both inside and outside the detention centers. He has also been described as giving the "green light" to the nations causing pain for many prisoners.^[4] This idea highlights his outspoken support of this event. Kissinger was the leader who spoke, but many of the leaders of America during this time had a similar train of thought.^{[9][additional citation(s) needed]}

Most of the American effort in Argentina dealt with the economy, largely ignoring the issues happening on the ground level. Between the lack of jobs and abundant refugees flooding into Argentina, America believed its duty was to control and maintain the balance of the economy. There was little recognition of the treatment of Dirty War victims, as it was left to the side to deal with the "real, pressing issues" of the time in the opinion of the United States government.^[12]

United States inaction in Argentina

The opinions of Kissinger, supporting the continuation of Operation Condor policy and the restriction of human rights, were also shared by other figures of power during this time. This contributes to why the United States remained silent when the thousands tortured victims. Primary sources tell a story that proves America's knowledge and recognition of the severity of the events in Argentina during the Dirty War. The United States government published a list of American people who were either dead or disappeared in 1978 at the hands of the Dirty War to prove that the desaparecidos were being tortured both by domestic and abroad in detention centers.^[13] Following this release of information, no major American opposition movements followed this direct proof of people who had vanished from the world. A year later, the United States sent the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to travel to Argentina to see the impact of human rights abuses on the nation as a whole.^[8] By the time the Commission came by in 1979, the United States had decreed that terrorism was not an issue in this area of the world.^[14]

The exchange of words did not help to create change in Argentina. Henry Kissinger consistently commented on the Dirty War without proactively fixing the situation.^[4] He was not the only one to disregard what transpired during Operation Condor. A conversation between men who wrote for the United States Embassy in Argentina confirmed that 80-90% of the clandestine detention centers were destroyed by 1979 when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights traveled to Argentina. Two men remark that this progress was satisfactory because most of the camps had been removed.^{[15] [improper synthesis?]} Yet, the knowledge that most of the camps were no longer functioning raises the question of where the victims of these centers went. A large percentage of the victims that were once "housed" in the destroyed detention centers were confirmed to be disappeared, dead, or transferred to the small percentage of camps still running at the time.^{[15][failed verification]}

References