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 subjected to the harsh and overcrowded conditions of the various detention centers. Once the kidnapped were forced into detention, they effectively
disappeared, becoming
los desaparecidos. While there was no standard for detention centers, all of them incorporated a torture room. Physical torture 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. In
Buenos Aires there were 60 centers, 59 in the
province of Córdoba and 22 in
Santa Fe. Five large centers were the axis of the whole system:
ESMA and
Club Atlético in the
City of Buenos Aires;
El Campito (Campo de Mayo) and
El Vesubio in
Greater Buenos Aires (
Province of Buenos Aires); and
Perla in
Córdoba. Despite their differences, the CCDs were organized with a similar structure and operating regime. All the CCDs had one or more torture rooms, large spaces to keep the disappeared in very precarious conditions, and a housing center for the torturers and guards. Almost all of them had some kind of medical service. In some cases there were permanent religious services for military personnel. The
Task Groups (in Spanish: Grupos de Tareas, GT, also known as "
patotas") were in charge of carrying out the kidnappings, generally at night. The disappeared detainees were immediately taken to the corresponding CCD, where they were constantly hooded and handcuffed. They were immediately severely tortured and interrogated by the GT members themselves. The length of this initial period of torture varied considerably, but in general terms it could be considered to be between one and two months. After this initial period of torture-interrogation, they would be held for one to two months: • Murder of the
detainee-disappeared. In all the CCDs the same euphemism was used to refer to the murder of the detainee-disappeared: "the transfer" (in Spanish: "
el traslado"). The methods used for the murder and disappearance of the corpses ranged from the so-called
death flights, mass shootings, mass graves, "NN" graves, incineration of corpses, etc. •
Blanqueo: the detainee-disappeared was legalized and placed at the disposal of the National Executive Power. From 1980 onwards, this situation could lead to
deportation and exile, through the use of the constitutional option (Art. 23), or to prosecution by military tribunals and prison sentences. • Freedom. • Continuity as a detainee-disappeared for various reasons (as slaves, collaborators, hostages, etc.). During their permanence in the CCD, the
detainees-disappeared were systematically
dehumanized through various means: substitution of a number for their name, rape, animalization, humiliation, overcrowding, intolerable housing conditions, isolation, forced nudity, racism, antisemitism, homophobia, etc. There was also a common policy and procedure for disappeared detainees who were pregnant. In this case, the murder was postponed and a clandestine childbirth took place with the suppression of the identity of the baby, who was handed over to people closely linked to the repressive system, and in some cases participants in the murder of the biological father and/or mother. . On December 1, 1977, the newspaper
Clarín published an article entitled "
La ardua recuperación" (The hard recovery) in which it extensively describes the visit of a group of journalists, invited by the Army, to a detention center that it does not identify, where they interviewed several detainees, whom it does not identify either and that it describes as "extremists who surrendered voluntarily". The article is accompanied by a photograph in which a young woman can be seen with her back turned sitting at a table, with a caption that reads:One of the detainees, in one of the reading rooms of the establishment, where they serve their sentence. 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. These initial conditions were meant to scare the victims into revealing socialist secrets. This was followed with a process of interrogation and more intrusive torture methods. Accounts of sexual abuse,
cigarette burns, and electric shocks were common during these eight years of victimization. Methods as extreme as throwing prisoners out of airplanes were employed to terrify victims witnessing the executions. As more political opponents were captured and tortured, there was no government opposition to the human rights violations that were transpiring. Most victims and their families remained silent to avoid further persecution. However, there was a movement called the
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (
Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo) that began in 1977, a year after the beginning of the Dirty War. 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. In many ways, this can be seen as a form of torture, the torture that the Mothers 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.
US 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. 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. Kissinger spoke openly to the leaders of Operation Condor and supported their efforts; he believed that "the quicker you succeed, the better." 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 torturers.
US inaction in Argentina In supporting the Argentine regime, the US remained silent in the face of human rights violations. The US government published a list of American people who were either dead or disappeared in 1978. However, no major American opposition movements followed this revelation. A year later, the US sent the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to Argentina to investigate the impact of human rights abuses on the nation as a whole. Kissinger consistently commented on the Dirty War without acting to change the situation. 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 which remained in operation. == City of Buenos Aires ==