Coordinación Federal (Federal Coodination) was the name given to the clandestine detention, torture and extermination centre that functioned in the headquarters of the Superintendencia de Seguridad Federal (Superintendence of Federal Security, SSF). The centre was operated by the same body, which was accountable to the Policía Federal Argentina (Argentine Federal Police). The nine-storey building was situated at No. 1417 Moreno Street in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

During the 1960s, but particularly after the 1966 coup d’état spearheaded by General Juan Carlos Onganía, the Coordinación Federal turned into a body that centralised the repression of social and political organisations. In 1974, it played an important role in centralising the investigation and persecution of political militants, with direct links to the Triple A or ‘Alianza Anticomunista Argentina’ (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance).

The Argentine Federal Police developed its repressive operative by firstly using the 8th police station as its centre, located in front of Ramos Mejía Hospital in Buenos Aires. It later moved its operations to Moreno Street in 1974.

In February 1974, Uruguayan national Antonio Viana Acosta- who had been living in exile in Argentina since 1973- was captured. He was taken to the premises of the Coordinación Federal, where he was tortured for two weeks by Argentine and Uruguayan officers.

On 29th October 1974, the bodies of three young people appeared half-buried in a field in the city of San Antonio de Areco (Buenos Aires Province). The bodies carried clear evidence that the victims had suffered from violence. They had multiple firearm wounds and were covered in quicklime. Almost 50 days had passed since their abduction.

At the end of 1975, Taskforce No.2 (GT 2) began its operations in the building on Moreno Street, under the Command of the First Army Corps. Following the coup d’état on 24th March 1976, the Coordinación Federal was strengthened, becoming one of the most active clandestine torture and detention centres. Of the hundreds of people who passed through this detention centre, it has been identified that 74 victims were linked to the regional repressive coordination.

The captured individuals were taken to the clandestine detention centre in vehicles via a patio that was connected to offices and an old elevator. The victims were taken to shared or individual cells where they were to remain for days, weeks or months. It has been identified that floors three to seven were mainly used as a clandestine torture and detention centre.

The Argentine Federal Police cooperated with other forces and allocated officers to the “fight against subversion”. Supported by the police structure, the force divided its activity in the building between administrative and legal police activities and undercover activities such as kidnappings, torture, assassinations and disappearances.

In July 1976, a particularly tragic event happened to victims of Argentine nationality. On this day, a bomb exploded in the dining hall of the building, causing the death of 27 police officers. The episode was attributed to the Montoneros guerrilla group. As a form of retaliation, in the early morning of 20th August 1976, 30 detainees in the clandestine centre were taken to a plot of land in a small town called Fátima, close to the city of Pilar in Buenos Aires Province. The detainees were executed and their bodies were blown up. This episode is known in Spanish as the Masacre de Fátima (Fátima Masacre).

In April 1984, a visual inspection was carried out by the Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons), together with survivors.

In April 2011, the building on Moreno Street was signposted as a site of memory according to the Law No. 26.691.

Alongside the information that arose from testimonies, three trials have taken place for the crimes committed by the repressors from the Coordinación Federal. On 10th February 2023, the Federal Oral Court No.6 of Buenos Aires City (Tribunal Oral en lo Criminal Federal N°6 de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires) began another trial that is labelled as “Superintendence of Federal Security III” (Superintendencia de Seguridad Federal III).