Showing the "Crime Scene": statements of ESMA perpetrators and the memory of Argentina's Dictatorship

Abstract

The Naval Mechanics School (ESMA) is a familiar symbol of the horrific repression that took place during Argentina's last dictatorship (1976-1983). As the years passed after the dictatorship, ESMA acquired an increasingly prominent place in social memories, evolving into an emblematic site that is amply covered in narratives and the social imaginary surrounding state terrorism. In addition to the great number of victims at ESMA other factors contributed to its memorial status: the numerous testimonies of survivors, the actions of human rights organizations, the work of the National Commission on the Disappeared (Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas, or CONADEP), court cases, and the public policies that led to the creation of a site of memory there in 2004. This chapter focuses on a specific aspect of this process that has been highly influential in building memory yet insufficiently addressed in the literature: public statements by members of the ESMA task force about the crimes committed there. In most of their accounts, the perpetrators drew attention to the scenes where the crimes took place scenes where traces of what took place remained, in contrast to the poignant absence produced by the disappearances. This article will examine statements by former corporal Raúl Vilariño in the first months after democracy was reinstated (January and February 1984) and those of former lieutenant commander Adolfo Scilingo (March 1995). Their respective statements had different impacts and effects meaning-wise, and the intention here is to analyze three aspects of these. The first involves how the perpetrators statements increased the visibility of ESMA and the designation of both the site and the crimes committed there. The second involves what type of tensions and reconfigurations these statements elicited in regard to the truth about what happened at the clandestine detention centers during the dictatorship and, specifically, as regards ESMA. Finally, the third aspect to explore is the principal repercussions of these declarations, particularly how these helped reconfigure the memorial uses of ESMA. By combining these three aspects and thus integrating the central role of the perpetrators, the place, and the crime, the analytical weave allows for a comprehensive approach the memory-building process that has placed ESMA center stage.