This is the former messhall of the Officers’ Club. After 1976 the clandestine center coexisted with the Navy School of Mechanics. This is why we speak of a dual role of ESMA.
In this room the tour goes through a series of panels that explain the ideological education of the Argentine Armed Forces, which was inspired by the French doctrine that had been put into practice in Algeria and Indochina. The West believed that waging a global war against communism was necessary, since they regarded it as an enemy that could potentially conquer the «free» and «Christian» world. The Communist enemy started to be seen as a subversive «internal enemy” that would mix among the population and had to be annihilated. At the same time, the influence of the US National Security Doctrine grew in Latin America, where Argentine police and military were trained at North American military bases.
This room also described how the Navy School of Mechanics became one of the most emblematic clandestine centers in the country.