Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics

Navy Petty-Officers School Of Mechanics

The Navy School of Mechanics (in Spanish, Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada, commonly referred to by its acronym ESMA, was a facility of the Argentine Navy employed as an illegal detention center during the National Reorganization Process (1976–1983), as well as an educational facility where most of the Argentine Navy Petty-Officers used to get their professional training before their duties on board.

The original ESMA was a complex located on Libertador Avenue, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in the barrio of Nuñez. It was the seat of Task Unit 3.3.2 - Unidad de Tareas 3.3.2, charged with multiple instances of forced disappearance, torture and illegal execution, as well as appropriation of children born to mothers imprisoned there, followed by identity forgery and illegal adoption. ESMA was the largest detention center of its kind during the Dirty War.

The premises of the Navy School of Mechanics in Buenos Aires were turned into a museum by law of the National Congress on 5 August 2004, which named it the Space for Memory and for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights.

The new facilities of the institucion, now named ESSA ESCUELA DE SUBOFICIALES DE LA ARMADA, a legitimate military teaching institution, are located in the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base, 28 km from the city of Bahía Blanca.