Milei removes ESMA museum director, sparking backlash

President Javier Milei removed the head of the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory from her post, triggering renewed outrage from human rights organisations and survivors of the former clandestine detention centre.

The decision was communicated by Ana Belén Mármora, who has begun taking decisions on behalf of the International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights (CIPDH), which was recently granted authority over the former death camp.

Rights groups, however, say Mármora holds no formal position.

Mayki Gorosito’s dismissal came just over a week after the museum marked its 10th anniversary. Located on the grounds of the former ex-ESMA Navy Mechanics School, the site was a central hub of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship’s plan of repression and state terrorism.

In 2023, during Gorosito’s tenure, the ex-ESMA and its museum was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site – the culmination of a yearslong process.

Since the change of government, the site has faced restructuring, funding cuts and dismissals as part of the Milei’s administration’s wider programme of human rights cuts. In mid-May, it was downgraded to an operational unit within the CIPDH.

Mármora – reportedly a legal professional with ties to anti-rights political factions – has taken up offices at the CIPDH despite not being officially appointed. It was she who informed Gorosito of her removal, local media reported, though there has been no formal announcement of the decision.

The move prompted immediate backlash from survivors of the detention centre, who issued a joint statement. “This act cannot be understood as an isolated administrative decision. It is a clear expression of systematic contempt for the policy of Memory, Truth and Justice,” it read.

The statement also accused the government of seeking to dismantle democratic symbols built through decades of struggle. “The ESMA Site of Memory is not a neutral space: it is a living testimony to the horror of the dictatorship, but also to the transformative power of justice and memory.”

Human rights organisations said such actions reflected the Milei administration’s, denialist and vindictive agenda, guided by an ideological stance aimed at undermining the democratic consensus restored since 1983.

At the recent event marking the museum’s ten-year anniversary, Gorosito had already warned of staff reductions and a lack of institutional support from the government. “We were 42; now we are 28 workers,” she said at the time, adding that the libertarian leadership had pledged not to interfere with the museum’s operations.

The museum is located on the grounds where an estimated 5,000 people were abducted and tortured during the dictatorship. Its symbolic, historical and educational importance has been recognised both nationally and internationally, particularly since its inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

– TIMES/PERFIL