Introduction

To strengthen the province's tourism offering, the Tucumán Tourism Board is working with the Human Rights Secretariat to design a historical circuit that encourages the identification and visitation of sites and spaces where crimes against humanity were committed or planned, both during Operation Independence and the last civil-military dictatorship (1975-1983) and at other times in our history.

These actions, which involved the incorporation of signage and digital support to provide relevant information, are part of the public policies of Memory, Truth, and Justice that symbolize the commitment of the democratic State to publicize and condemn crimes against humanity, promote the prosecution of those responsible and recognize victims, survivors and their families.

These interventions in public space combine support and reparation for victims of illegal repression and the promotion of community participation in the construction of memory so that such harmful events do not happen again.

“Miguel de Azcuénaga” Arsenal

On land belonging to the “Miguel de Azcuénaga” Arsenal Company of the Argentine Army, located on the outskirts of San Miguel de Tucumán, on National Route No. 9 km 1300, in Las Talitas, Department of Tafí Viejo, a clandestine detention, torture and extermination center operated between 1976 and 1978.

The center began to operate as such in mid-1976. Later judicial investigations determined that the same repressive device mounted in the Escuelita de Famaillá (Little School of Famaillá) was moved to the capital. It was first installed in the School of Physical Education of the UNT, where a clandestine detention center operated during the first four months of 1976. Then it was moved along with its detainees to a place known as El Reformatorio, in the building of a home for orphaned children. Finally, in mid-1976, the "Arsenales" clandestine detention center was opened.

This concentration camp was the largest in the NOA. The National Gendarmerie was in charge of guarding the detainees, but also participated in interrogations, torture, and executions. The so-called Galpón Nº 9 was the place where the kidnapped people were housed.

The main construction of the camp was about 55 meters on each side and was surrounded by a 2.50-meter-high barbed wire fence. Parallel to this, another fence of the same material and height had been installed. Between the two there were guards with dogs. In one corner of the property, there was a watchtower and in each corner, there were prefabricated houses that were used as torture chambers.

This was the most important center on the outskirts of San Miguel and depended on the 5th Infantry Brigade. The guards were carried out by personnel of the National Gendarmerie. Between March and April 1976, a contingent of 40 members of the Mobile Squadron No. 1 of Campo de Mayo was sent to this place. A member of this group told CONADEP what life - or death - was like in this place, one of whose leaders was Lieutenant Colonel Cafarena.

(File No. 4,636):

“I once saw how a naked prisoner was buried alive, leaving only his head outside the hole, tamping down the earth after wetting it to compact it; this lasted 48 hours. It caused very painful cramps and skin affections. On two occasions I witnessed shootings in this camp. The one who fired the first shot was General Antonio Bussi. Afterward, he made all the highest-ranking officers participate. The place of executions was located about 300 or 400 meters from the Arsenal Company, deep in the woods. A security cordon was set up 20 meters away and another about 100 meters away. The shots were fired with 9 mm or 11.25 mm caliber pistols, always between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Every two weeks, between 15 and 20 people were murdered" (From the testimony of Omar Eduardo Torres - File No. 6,667).

In 2009, five mass graves used for the burial of the bodies of clandestine detainees were found 200 meters from Warehouse No. 9. Bullets from firearms and remains of clothing were also found. It was learned that the victims were mostly killed by gunfire and then their bodies were burned. The evidence also showed that three of the graves had been removed after their use, still during the dictatorship. In another of the graves, five cases of burning were identified. In the remaining one, the skeletal remains of 13 people were found, of which 12 were identified by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF).

Tucumán was the place most severely hit by the planning and systematization of state terrorism. Its ferocity was captured in the testimony of Dr. Alberto Augier, kidnapped on October 29, 1976, and held in the Arsenal, where he remained for five months:

“Today I deduce, from what I have experienced, that this sinister organization operated with the leaders ordering the capture of a citizen, an act they called “sucking” and was carried out by personnel from the Federal Police; they took them to clandestine prisons and handed them over to the internal guard made up of Gendarmerie personnel coming alternately from Mendoza, Córdoba or Buenos Aires. Once in captivity, the interrogations were carried out by officers of the Gendarmerie, Federal Police, or the Armed Forces, educated and prepared in the most sophisticated methods of torture…”

In the “Arsenales – Jefatura II” trial, in March 2014, the Court ruled for the first time in Tucumán that sexual crimes committed during state terrorism were an autonomous crime. These crimes were part of a generalized systematic attack plan against the population and constituted crimes against humanity.