So today way terribly overwhelming. My law program went to the Navy Mechanical School that was used as one of the detention centers for Los disaparecidos during the last dictatorship in the 70's and 80's. The officers' quarters functioned as the detention center for the political prisoners. The basement was used for many different things, mainly torture...the wall of that place saw so much darkness. You could still seethe residue of past evils clinging to the walls and hiding in corners. Honestly, I almost started crying multiple times during the tour. My emotions were just on a roller coaster because, as the turgid explained how the prisoners were taken in and paraded around this grand reception area with marble pillars and luxurious rooms, they were taken to a metal door laced with chains leading to the basement--although I didn't see the door in the lobby because the officers remodeled to hide the staircase and elevator leading to the basement in an attempt to avoid international scantions that were brought about by testimonies of some survivors...but I saw the corresponding door in the basement. It spoke of death and inability to escape.

The officers called themselves the "Lords of Life and Death." They forbid the prisoners from even taking their own lives, because that free act of will was removed from the individual and given to the oppressors.

To make matters worse, it was. Clandestine detention center housed in a functioning military school for young me. Both the students and the officers were involved with the torture falsification of documents. Even the prisoners themselves were tasked with forging papers that erased their own identities--which just added a whole new terrible level of hopelessness.

Also, this clandestine center was so terrifying because it was located on a prominent street in a building that housed sound trained members of the most powerful group in the country, the military. The general public had a hazy understanding of what happened behind closed doors, and they were terrified. And they had a right to be. Political "subverters" were kidnapped in broad daylight--whether at work, at home, or in public. There was no warning. You were just taken.


But I think the worst part is that the dictatorship resulted because the country was experiencing economic property and growth; thus, the reign of terror was established to stop the diminishing of the gap between rich and poor, the gap between the controlling power and the people. And one of the main civilian groups aiding And supporting the mility was the catholic church. They donated their places of "spiritual retreat" on El Tigre island to the military to use as detention and torture centers. Plus, during the torture, priests would come and bless the torture instruments. However, all priests weren't bad...but the ones fighting for justice got tortured for helping the poor because it was classified as organizing subversive action.

So, today was just...emotionally overwhelming because I was just so disgusted by the corrosive effects of power that leads to morally apprehensible destruction of the entire individual life...a life that is simply erased from existence.

Even the babies born in captivity were taken from the mothers and given to the officers to raise as their own. The children's true identity was shoved under the rug and forgotten. And, because of this, there is presently a campaign called Abueles del Plaza del Mayo to recover the identities of the lost children. So far, 105/500 have been uncovered. Nevertheless, it is incredibly controversial because the lost children are now 35 to 40 year old adults. And sometimes when they are "found", they have no desire to meet their true family.

It's just all such a mess.

We have it so good in the United States. You should all be so incredibly grateful to kbe granted the privilege to live in such a place. I know I am.