Content-On-Demand: Argentinas Horrendous Junta Years

ESMA Museum

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Latin America underwent a period of political instability marked by military dictatorships and authoritarian governments, installed to fight against Communism in the context of the Cold War - and heavily supported by the United States!

In Argentina, after a long series of military dictatorships, a new coup d’etat declared on March 24, 1976, was the beginning of the most bloody repressive period of its history, also called the Dirty War, ending in 1983.

The ESMA Museum

The ex-ESMA is emblematic of the dark period in Argentina's history that left an estimated 30,000 people killed or forcibly disappeared, according to human rights groups. Of those, about 5,000 entered the site. Very few re-emerged. Established in 1928 to instruct naval officers and sailors, it was the largest and most active detention, torture, and extermination center operated by former genocidal soldiers being tried by civil courts to this day.

Shackled, handcuffed, and hooded, victims arrived at the building’s cellar first. For many, it was the last time they stepped on land before being taken away, disappeared, and thrown to their death. Here, prisoners were tortured, beaten, raped, kept in chains for months on end, hooded – all in the hopes they would give up other people suspected of being "subversives". Pregnant detainees had their babies taken and given to families with connections to the dictatorship. Several still don't know their true identities today.

And every week – generally on a Wednesday – detainees were rounded up for what they were told were "transfers" but were in fact so-called “death flights” during which prisoners were thrown out of planes over the Río de la Plata – both dead and alive.

This is the aft door of the Skyvan, from where people were tossed out to fall down into the ocean

The Junta (from Wikipedia):

The Junta, calling itself the National Reorganization Process, organized and carried out strong repression of political dissidents (or perceived as such) through the government's military and security forces. They were responsible for the arrest, torture, killings, and/or forced disappearances of an estimated 22,000 to 30,000 people.

With the help of Washington,the Junta was aided with $50 million in military aid!!!

Prior to the 1976 coup, the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, otherwise known as Triple A, was another far-right group that provoked many deaths and installed methods that continued to be used by the dictatorship.

Both, the juntas and Triple-A targeted young professionals, high school and college students, and trade union members. These groups became the main targets because of their involvement in political organizations that resisted the work of the right-wing group.

Additionally, 12,000 prisoners, many of whom had not been convicted through legal processes, were detained in a network of 340 secret concentration camps, located throughout Argentina. A vast majority of those who were killed disappeared without a trace and no record of their fate.

The military tried to regain popularity by occupying the disputed Falkland Islands. During theresulting Falklands War, the military government lost any remaining popularity after Argentina's defeat by Britain, forcing it to step aside in disgrace. Then allowed free elections to be held in late 1983. Since then democracy has ruled Argentina.

Under the presidency of Nestor Kirchner, the Argentine government re-opened its investigations on crimes against humanity and genocide in 2006 and began the prosecution of military and security officers.

Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo

(Spanish: Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) is a human rights organization to find their children stolen and illegally adopted during the 1976–1983 Argentine military dictatorship.

Since 1977, every Thursday at 3:30 pm, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo walk around the Pirámide de Mayo in the city center of Buenos Aires. The Mothers walk around the Pirámide de Mayo, wearing white headscarves, a symbol with which they have been identified for years, and demand to know the final fate of their children who were victims of enforced disappearance during the last civilian-military dictatorship.