Government may move human rights office from ex-ESMA on eve of 50th coup anniversary

President Javier Milei’s government is evaluating transferring its Human Rights Undersecretariat from its current location at the former ESMA (Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada) clandestine detention centre in the same month that Argentina commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1976 military coup that brought a brutal dictatorship to power.

The decision is part of a series of proposals being considered by the Milei administration in the lead-up to the anniversary of the March 24, 1976 coup. The switch could be ordered before or after the commemorations take place.

According to reports in local media, which have yet to be confirmed by the government, the human rights office is set to be relocated to the former premises of the now-dissolved Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry in the Constitución neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.

The chosen spot is Cochabamba Street 54 where in 2020 the Alberto Fernández government announced the installation of Argentina’s first portfolio dedicated to women and minorities.

When Milei took office in December 2023, he shuttered the Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry. Its former offices are is currently closed. Remodelling of the building began in 2022, though in November 2023 a technical report recommended interruption of the work, considering it risky for the workers. In February 2024, the building was evicted.

Auctioning it off was later evaluated but it was finally transferred to the Justice Ministry, headed by Mariano Cúneo Libarona, which admits that the human rights move is under analysis. Within the corridors of power, the transfer is treated as a fact although without formal confirmation, according to a report by the Clarín newspaper.

Last May the Human Rights Secretariat was downgraded to an undersecretariat with dismissals and the non-renewal of contracts leading to a loss of around 40 percent of staff, according to government estimates. 

Rights policies

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei and his government have sought to challenge Argentina’s longstanding human rights tradition and the state policies of “Memory, Truth and Justice” relating to the dictatorship era and the crimes committed under the orders of the military junta.

The administration maintains that it is seeking a broader outlook on the 1970s and early 1980s under the doctrine of “complete memory,” which also incorporates the victims of guerrilla organisations prior to the 1976 coup.

The government’s stance was reflected in the official state messages issued to mark the March  24 anniversary in 2024 and 2025. Last year, an announcement was voiced by former SIDE intelligence chief Juan Bautista ‘Tata’ Yofre, who now heads the National Intelligence Academy. The previous year a video was released by the Casa Rosada that was authored by Agustín Laje, the president of the La Fundación Faro libertarian think tank, who argued for the need to revise the historical narrative.

Last December, the human rights office changed its leadership when Joaquín Mogaburu replaced ex-judge Alberto Baños, who had already explored the possibility of transfer. Mogaburu is an ex-official of Comodoro Py who worked with Luis Petri when Defence minister to promote courses of “complete truth.”

The Archivo Nacional para la Memoria archives, the Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA museum, the Espacio para la Memoria site and the Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, among other institutes, will all continue functioning within the 17 hectares of the ex-ESMA, according to reports.

The probable exit of the Undersecretaríat from the premises where the clandestine detention centre of ESMA operated would have a strong symbolic impact. At the end of her second term in late 2015, then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner hosted an event to mark the inauguration of the Secretariat’s offices, together with human rights organisations and ESMA survivors, a gesture of vindicating the policies of putting those responsible for crimes against humanity on trial,

A further change being evaluated by the government concerns the Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA, which functions in the former officers’ mess at the heart of the clandestine centre. Modifications in the guide and audiovisual material made available to visitors are reportedly being contemplated. The museum depends on the CIPDH (Centro Internacional para la Promoción de los Derechos Humanos) body and was inaugurated in 2015.

Meanwhile the government is also promoting the installation of more judicial institutions within the ESMA premises. Federal Judge Julián Ercolini, in charge of the ESMA mega-case, has authorised the transfer of the UFI-AMIA files to internal buildings while interim prosecutor-general Eduardo Casal has signed a resolution for his offices to occupy another sector of the complex.

In the last few weeks the City Ombudsman has published reports warning about the visible decay in different memory sites of the City such as the former detention centres Olimpo, Club Atlético, Virrey Cevallos and Automotores Orletti. ​

– TIMES/PERFIL/NA