Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founders’ Line suspended all cultural activities at their Casa Nuestros Hijos center after the Justice Ministry froze maintenance funds for the ex-ESMA memory compound on Thursday. The money pays the salaries of 176 workers including cleaners and some people who organize activities.

Casa Nuestros Hijos has an exhibition about the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and houses a La Plata University music school. It is open to the general public, and activities include school visits and theater performances.

Paula Maroni, director of the Casa Nuestros Hijos, told the Herald the center had to suspend its cultural activities because the funding cut had hit cleaning services and the building was not fit to receive visitors. However, they have fought to maintain educational activities: school visits continue and the music school remains open.

“We are not willing to suspend the educational activities, but the building is 2,500 square meters, and it has to be clean,” Maroni said. “We’ve been cleaning [the building] ourselves so the educational activities can continue normally.”

Employees affected also include security workers, receptionists and groundskeepers.

On Thursday, Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona announced he would suspend all maintenance payments at the ex-ESMA, claiming that human rights organizations were managing a AR$3.4 billion fund [US$3.1 million at the official rate, US$2.5 million at the MEP rate] with no oversight.

“Out of that money, 97% is used to pay salaries of people who work for the [ex-]ESMA,” said Paula Litvachky, executive director of the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS, by its Spanish initials), which is part of the site’s board. “The people waiting to receive their salaries are not employed by the human rights organizations.”

Maroni said that two days before Cúneo Libarona’s announcement, the three parties that form the ex-ESMA’s board — human rights organizations, the national government and Buenos Aires City government — had held their monthly meeting, during which they signed off on April’s transfers and expenditures.

After the announcement, the compound remained open, but the staff in question are now limiting their activities to essential security services.

“What Cúneo Libarona said is false,” Litvachky said. “The government’s goal is to delegitimize human rights organizations and defund memory policies, and they are using the workers as part of this dispute.”