A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - IDEAS AND STRUGGLES: Crimes Against Humanity at ESMA (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

A Warning on the Exercise of Power ---- This book could not be more 
timely, given that the United States is reverting to its old Monroe 
Doctrine methods and supporting far-right dictatorships in Latin 
America, which it considers its extended backyard. To preserve this 
backyard, they fomented coups d'état, as in Chile in 1973, supported 
highly authoritarian regimes, havens for Nazi leaders, as in Uruguay and 
Paraguay, and, as is our focus today, advised on techniques of 
repression, imprisonment, and torture inflicted upon opponents. French 
intelligence services also contributed (see Pablo Daniel Magee, *La 
plume du condor*, Ed. Syllepse, 2025), particularly in Argentina. After 
the 1976 coup d'état orchestrated by the armed forces under the 
leadership of the heads of the three branches of the military-Videla, 
Massera, and Agostini-the hunt for left-wing activists intensified until 
1983. Nearly 30,000 people were killed or disappeared.

Two academics, Marina Franco and Claudia Field, coordinated the 
publication of a book about a particularly odious clandestine detention 
center: the Naval Mechanics School in downtown Buenos Aires. Of the 
5,000 people detained there, only about 300 survived. In the aftermath 
of the dictatorship, often lengthy, though exemplary, trials condemned 
the perpetrators of these crimes. However, one can question the 
eradication of their ideology. Like the Nazis, they likely considered 
their actions justified. The pardons granted by President Menem and the 
policies pursued by Javier Milei amply demonstrate this through the 
trivialization, even the tacit approval, of these acts. Horror is still 
at our doorstep, and Brecht is still right! What Argentinians are 
experiencing today constitutes a challenge to social gains and progress.

Crimes Against Humanity

This book is essential for understanding. The Cold War had barely ended, 
and there was widespread panic surrounding far-left movements, an 
obsession with Cuba, and a focus on the internal and external enemy, 
subversion. In this context, the military, supported by the United 
States and France, deemed it necessary to establish state-sponsored 
counter-terrorism. Six hundred clandestine centers blanketed Argentina. 
The authors of *Crimes Against Humanity at ESMA*, published by Anamosa, 
employ a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on photographs, 
testimonies, written accounts, and confessions. They scrutinize the 
methods of arrest, the disposal of bodies through incineration or 
theft-deaths committed by helicopter, sometimes alive, sometimes not-the 
brutality of the torture, the forced labor, a form of slavery. Pregnant 
women give birth clandestinely, and their children are given to military 
families. Detainees are treated as objects, things subject to the whims 
of their torturers, like in Nazi concentration camps.

We delve into the workings of the repression: infiltration, the use of 
prisoners, financing through theft, document forgery, and close living 
quarters with the executioners. The complicity with government 
ministries, lawyers, and notaries is evident, allowing them to acquire 
real estate and fortunes abroad. ESMA even has a branch in Paris, with 
the complicity of the Argentine ambassador to France.

How can solidarity exist among the detainees? Mistrust, ambiguity, and 
confusion prevail.

This must be denounced again and again!

Sometimes things spiral out of control. Let's remember the assassination 
of the two French nuns, which forced France to protest. The organization 
of the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina provided an opportunity to 
denounce human rights abuses. In 1980, at the French National Assembly, 
survivors testified to the horrors committed. And it was the Falklands 
War, disastrous for the Argentine regime, that hastened its downfall.

Today, the ESMA building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, transformed 
into a museum and memorial, but it remains under threat from the Javier 
Milei regime. The fight is therefore never over, and the memory must not 
be lost.

And the authors call on us to remain vigilant.

"This book serves as a warning about what unlimited power can do to 
individuals, about the danger posed by the rise of authoritarianism that 
denies some people their right to exist, and about the most subtle forms 
that cruelty can take."

* Marina Franco and Claudia Field (eds.)
Crimes Against Humanity at ESMA
Anamosa, 2026

Marina Franco and Claudia Field will be guests on the radio program 
Femmes libres (Free Women) on Wednesday, March 11, from 6:30 p.m. to 
8:30 p.m. on Radio Libertaire.

https://monde-libertaire.net/?articlen=8842
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