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47 1 PUERTO MADERO A v. A n ta rt id a A rg e n ti n a A v . C o m o d o r o P y A v . d e l o s I n m i g r a n t e s Comando en Jefe de la Armada M y . A . P . L u i s o n i R a m o s M e j i a P. Zanni Av. Pte. R. Castillo Av. T. Edison 10 FCGSM 10 . Prison Ships: Bahía Aguirre and 33 Orientales During the last dictatorship several ships were used as prisons and as Clandestine Detention Centers (CDCs) . Testimonies exist relating to the following ships: the Muratore, the Ciudad de la Plata, the Bahía Aguirre , and the 33 Orientales. The last two were located in the port of Buenos Aires . Owing to their special circumstances , information about these Clandestine Detention Centers is scarce . Bahía Aguirre This merchant ship was built in a Canadian shipyard and incorporated into the Naval Transport Service of the Argentine Navy in 1950 . It was taken out of service in 1981 and scrapped by the Acindar steel company . On March 30, 1976, three plainclothes men arrested an employee of the National Atomic Energy Commission and identified themselves as personnel from Coordinación Federal (see p . 17) . They claimed to be doing a “background check, ” according to the employee’s testimony to the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons* (CONADEP) (see “Nunca Más Square and Cultural Center , ” p . 186) . The man was taken first to Police Station 35 (see “Police stations as sites of illegal detention, ” p . 255), where he was beaten and then forced into a Navy truck containing seven other people . They traveled along Avenida Libertador for roughly twenty minutes and then arrived at the port, where they were taken aboard the Bahía Aguirre . They were blindfolded, hooded, and tied to the berths by their wrists . The detainees were tortured . This man, who later testified before the CONADEP , was then driven to Devoto Prison (see p . 199) in a Federal Police car and on to Prison Unit No . 9 in the city of La Plata . His declaration reveals that the Bahía Aguirre also held women detainees , who were naked and covered in blood . He was released on October 8, 1976 . 33 Orientales This merchant ship was specially built in Cádiz, Spain, to navigate along the Río de la Plata . With luxurious facilities including a large bar, swimming pool, en suite cabins, and firstclass and tourist-class dining halls, it traveled between Buenos Aires and Montevideo and could even reach Rio de Janeiro . Between 1976 and 1977 the ship stopped carrying passengers and was turned into a prison ship . Several union and political leaders were held captive in it . One man who later declared before the CONADEP claimed he had been detained and disappeared on board this ship . He had gone there to inquire about his son’s disappearance . They arrested him on the spot, detained him for forty-five days on the ship, and then moved him to Police Station 18 . He was illegally detained there for a month and then transferred to Devoto prison . They later moved him to Unit 9 in La Plata and then back to Devoto, until they eventually released him and he went into exile . The 33 Orientales returned to passenger service in 1978 . It was used for cruises to Brazil until being moored and sold at auction in 1979 . After changing owners several times, in June 2006 it was sold as scrap in India . ...

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