UNESCO declared ESMA, the military compound in Buenos Aires where the largest clandestine detention center operated during the dictatorship, a "World Heritage Site".

The UN's Culture and Education Organization made the decision yesterday at the 45th session of its World Heritage Committee.

Thus, ESMA is now included in the list of sites of "outstanding universal value".

For UNESCO, the former Argentine Navy Engineering School is representative of the illegal repression in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is estimated that some 5,000 detainees passed through ESMA, most of whom are still missing today.

Today it houses a Museum of Memory, and is the headquarters of several entities dedicated to the defense and promotion of Human Rights.