The Basement was the first place where prisoners were taken when they arrived at ESMA. It was also the last place they went through. Here, the kidnapped were brough in violently and subjected to interrogations under torture, and this is where they were held before the ‘transfers’, an euphemism navy officers used for the definitive disappearance of the detainees.
Torture was a systematic practice that began with the kidnapping, hooding and transportation to the Clandestine Center. Immediately afterwards, victims were taken to the basement to be tortured.
The area, which is now empty, used to be the place with the most functions. The torture rooms were next to facilities such as the infirmary, a photographic lab, a printing press and an audiovisual production room.
At the end of the Basement you can see what is known as ‘The Basterra Report’. Víctor Basterra was kidnapped in 1979. He was a graphic designer and photographer. He was forced into slave labor at ESMA, which included making credentials and taking photographs of Task Force members to forge documents. In late 1983 he managed to start taking home photos hidden in his clothes. A year later, with the country officially in a democracy again, he handed over the photographs to the courts. His testimony helped identify some of the detained-disappeared as well as members of the Task Force, providing a boost to the very first criminal investigations.