Human Rights Secretary Alberto Baños said on Monday that there will be no changes to how the ESMA museum and memory site operates, seemingly putting an end to an idea floated by Vice President Victoria Villarruel that it could be used for other activities. 

“Everything that is functioning there, as well as the activities that take place, will not be modified,” he told Radio Mitre. 

Before winning the November 19 run-off, Villarruel had suggested the campus be used for other activities aside from paying homage to the victims who were tortured and killed there during the last military dictatorship.

The 17-hectare ESMA lot “could be enjoyed by all Argentines,” Villarruel had said during an interview on TN news channel. “Especially because originally it was supposed to be used for building schools, which is what we need more of now.”

The former ESMA (Spanish acronym for Argentina’s Navy School of Mechanics) was the largest clandestine detention and torture center that operated during the 1976–1983 dictatorship. The building kept nearly 5,000 detainees who were later dissapeared.

Baños explained that there can’t be any modifications to the ex-ESMA because “UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site devoted to the memory of detention, torture, and death of political adversaries.”

“There is a federal court-mandated order to not change anything on the entire lot; therefore, it can’t be touched,” he added.

The ESMA museum and memory site were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on September 19. The decision was announced at the World Heritage Committee’s 45th Convention in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Aside from the museum, there are several other buildings on the ESMA campus, including the Human Rights and Memory Institute, the Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands Museum, as well as other offices that were granted to different human rights organizations.

The human rights secretariat’s headquarters are in the ESMA campus, in the Núñez neighborhood. However, Baños said that his office will be in the justice ministry building, located near Casa Rosada.

Baños said that he will work from there because he wants to “broaden the paradigm of the secretariat” by focusing not only on victims of crimes against humanity during the dictatorship but also on “essential human rights like feeding, education, and living in sustainable environments.”

“We will focus on crime victims of any nature […] so that all Argentines feel like they can count on the secretariat,” he said, adding that they will offer victims physical and psychological support. At the same time, the secretariat will keep working as a plaintiff in crimes against humanity trials.

The Herald reached out to Baños’ press team for comments regarding this new paradigm.