School of the Americas

i'm just tossing out this video clip as a reminder of my country's sordid history in fomenting torture, violence, death and destruction... i've had a number of posts (see here) on the horrors this kind of influence from the u.s. unleashed in latin america via operation condor, argentina's guerra sucia (dirty war), in chile via pinochet, and much more...

youtube via information clearing house...

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Argentina's ESMA becomes UNESCO Human Rights Center

ESMA [Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada - the Navy Mechanics
School] was a fully functioning naval school during the time that
it was being used as a torture camp. The Officer's quarters, which
was located only a few hundred feet from a busy street in Buenos
Aires and is visible to pedestrian traffic, was the main building
used to house and torture the victims.

i posted on this back in october 2007... the esma building just so happens to be about five blocks from where i live in barrio nuñez... a week ago saturday, i walked past it on the way back from parque de los niños and paseo de la costa...

The grounds of the largest clandestine detention and torture centre in Buenos Aires during Argentina's "dirty war" crackdown on dissent are now a United Nations human rights centre.

Nearly 5,000 political prisoners are estimated to have passed through the main building of the former Navy Mechanics' School during the 1976-83 dictatorship. After being tortured with racks, electrical prods and other devices, an estimated 90 percent of the prisoners were executed, joining the 13,000 who were killed or made "to disappear." Rights groups put the number closer to 30,000.

The site became emblematic of the human rights violations committed by the region's military dictatorships during the 1970s and 1980s.

On Friday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and the head of UNESCO inaugurated the International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights on the grounds of the former school.

"The centre is a symbol of the contribution of Latin America to the promotion of human rights on a global level," UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said, referring to the ongoing trials and investigations of former leaders of the region's military dictatorships.

from my october 2007 post...

The Naval Mechanics School (ESMA), located in Buenos Aires, is one of nearly 400 concentration camps/torture centers that operated in Argentina during the dictatorship. It is estimated that over 5,000 people were interrogated and tortured at ESMA and only 150 survived. ESMA had specially equipped detention and torture rooms as well as "birthing" rooms. Many of the children brought to ESMA and other concentration camps with their parents, or babies born at these facilities, were either tortured and ultimately killed in an attempt to extract information from their mother, or were seized and given to military families. In recent years, efforts initiated by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been successful in confirming the "true" identity (using DNA testing) of about 85 of roughly 400 children who were "disappeared."

it was an ugly and horrifying time, and, to this day, few argentines really want to talk about it...

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"We'll intervene whenever we decide it's in our national security interests to intervene, and if you don't like it, lump it."

a little background on the u.s. record for championing human rights and national sovereignty, and rejecting torture and death as a means of political control, set in the context of the western hemisphere institute for security cooperation (whinsec), formerly known as the school of the americas (* see below)...



john pilger interviews duane clarridge (** see below)...



and that youtube clip represents a part of our history we desperately need to know about that, for obvious reasons, seems to remain tucked away from public view... i probably wouldn't be nearly as aware of it myself had i not spent so much time in latin america... as i mentioned in a previous post on argentina's "guerra sucia" (dirty war), my home in buenos aires is a mere five blocks from the spot where many of the "disappeareds" were taken, a building that was also the hq of the argentine military criminals in charge of the guerra sucia, criminals trained by the school of the americas...

* After the legal authorization for the former School of the Americas was repealed in 2001 and the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation was established there were a number of changes at the school. A new human rights training program was developed and currently all students are given the option to attend classes, but are not required to receive the minimal eight hours of instruction in "human rights,^[10] as well as training in the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society." A "train the trainer" program was developed which equips students attending the course to return to their home country and establish human rights training classes of their own. In addition to that training other courses now focus on leadership development, counter-drug operations, peace support operations, disaster relief, or "any other matter the Secretary [of Defense] deems appropriate".

duane clarridge...

Duane Ramsdell "Dewey" Clarridge, (1932-) a CIA operative and supervisor for more than 30 years, became famous in the mid-1980s for his role in the Contra end of the Iran-Contra Affair. The brains behind the clandestine mining operations in the Nicaraguan port during the 1980s which many considered a state-sponsored terrorist activity, he is credited to have initiated the efforts for the establishment of the Counterterrorist Center at the CIA.

[...]

Clarridge was indicted in November 1991 on seven counts of perjury and false statements. However, on Christmas Eve 1992 in the waning hours of his presidency, George H. W. Bush pardoned Clarridge before his trial could finish. At the same time, Bush pardoned 5 of Clarridge's associates in the Iran-Contra Affair including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger (in an unprecedented move, Weinberger was pardoned before his trial had even taken place), Elliott Abrams, a former assistant secretary of state for Inter-American affairs; former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane; and former CIA employees Alan Fiers and Clair George.

again, folks, THAT'S our history, no matter how much we might want to pretend it isn't...

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A human rights memorial to Argentina's Guerra Sucia

the headquarters of argentina's guerra sucia - dirty war - the navy mechanics school, is only a short, five-block walk from where i live in barrio nuñez...


ESMA [Escuela de Mecanica de la Armada - the Navy Mechanics
School] was a fully functioning naval school during the time that
it was being used as a torture camp. The Officer's quarters, which
was located only a few hundred feet from a busy street in Buenos
Aires and is visible to pedestrian traffic, was the main building
used to house and torture the victims.

The rubber tip of Victor Basterra's cane bounced from one photo to another, pointing out the faces that elicit the most vivid memories from his encounters with them in this same building more than 25 years ago.

Basterra was a prisoner here at the Navy Mechanics School, the largest and most notorious political detention center used by the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. The navy finally moved out at the end of last month, allowing workers to begin transforming the 40-acre campus into the country's first comprehensive human rights memorial recalling that era and its lingering consequences.

some additional background...

The Naval Mechanics School (ESMA), located Buenos Aires, is one of nearly 400 concentration camps/torture centers that operated in Argentina during the dictatorship. It is estimated that over 5,000 people were interrogated and tortured at ESMA and only 150 survived. ESMA had specially equipped detention and torture rooms as well as "birthing" rooms. Many of the children brought to ESMA and other concentration camps with their parents, or babies born at these facilities, were either tortured and ultimately killed in an attempt to extract information from their mother, or were seized and given to military families. In recent years, efforts initiated by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been successful in confirming the "true" identity (using DNA testing) of about 85 of roughly 400 children who were "disappeared."

it was an ugly and horrifying time, and, to this day, few argentines really want to talk about it... to this day, it's said, when people who lived through that era see a black ford falcon - the standard vehicle used by the thugs who would snatch people off the streets - they will still involuntarily shudder...


Falcon de 1978 a 1981 "El clásico Argentino"

the streets of buenos aires are still full of ford falcons, many kept in good shape and now prized as collector's cars... there is an entire web site devoted to them that you can visit here...

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