Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics
| Navy School of Mechanics | |
|---|---|
| Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada | |
 |
|
| Former names | Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada |
| General information | |
| Location | Núñez, Buenos Aires |
| Country | Argentina |
The Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy (in Spanish, Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada, commonly referred to by its acronym ESMA), was originally an educational facility of the Argentine Navy. It was used as an illegal, secret detention center during the so-called National Reorganization Process (Dirty War) of Argentina's 1976–1983 military dictatorship.
The original ESMA was a complex located at 8151 Libertador Avenue, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in the barrio of Nuñez. It was the seat of U.T.3.3.2—Unidad de Tareas (Task Unit) 2 of G.T.3.3–which was responsible for thousands of instances of forced disappearance, torture and illegal execution. The military took the babies born to mothers imprisoned there, suppressed their true identities and allowed them to be illegally adopted by military families and associates of the regime. ESMA was the largest detention center of its kind during the Dirty War.
The National Congress passed a law on 5 August 2004 that converted the ESMA complex into a museum, the Space for Memory and for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Espacio para la Memoria y para la Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos). Since 2014 plans are also made for the campus to house a second museum, this time, to honor the military personnel killed and wounded during the Falklands War, since several of its alumni and 230 students fought in the conflict.
The School, once again legitimate, was renamed Escuela de Suboficiales de la Armada (acronym ESSA; English: Navy Petty-Officers' School) in 2001, and moved in 2005 to the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base, 28 km from the city of Bahía Blanca, and about 600km southwest of Buenos Aires.
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