Verbitsky, Horacio 1942-

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Verbitsky, Horacio 1942-

PERSONAL:

Born 1942, in Argentina.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Buenos Aires, Argentina.

CAREER:

Investigative journalist and writer. Página/12 (journal), Buenos Aires, Argentina, writer.

MEMBER:

Human Rights Watch/Americas, New Iberoamerican Journalism Foundation, International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, Center for Legal and Social Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Latin American Studies Association Media Award, 1995; Hellman/Hammett Grant, 1998; International Press Freedom Award, Committee to Protect Journalists, 2001.

WRITINGS:

Prensa y poder en Peru, Extemporaneos (Mexico City, Mexico), 1975.

La última batalla de la tercera guerra mundial, Editorial Legasa (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1984.

Rodolfo Walsh y la prensa clandestina, 1976-1978, Ediciones de la Urraca (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1985.

La posguerra sucia: un analisis de la transicion, Editorial Legasa (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1985.

Ezeiza, Editorial Contrapunto (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1985.

Medio siglo de proclamas militares, Editora/12 (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1987.

Civiles y militares: memoria secreta de la transicion, Editorial Contrapunto (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1987.

La educacion presidencial: de la derrota del '70 al desguace del estado, Editora/12: Puntosur (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1990.

Robo para la corona: los frutos prohibidos del arbol de la corrupcion, Planeta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1991.

Hacer la corte: la construcción de un poder absoluto sin justicia ni control, Planeta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1993.

El vuelo, Planeta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1995.

The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior, translated into English by Esther Allen, New Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Un mundo sin periodistas: las tortuosas relaciones de menem con la ley, la justicia y la verdad, Planeta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1997.

Hemisferio derecho, Planeta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1998.

Malvinas: la ultima batalla de la tercera guerra mundial, Editorial Sudamericana (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2002.

El silencio: de paulo vi a bergoglio: las relaciones secretas de la iglesia con la ESMA, Sudamericana (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2005.

Doble juego: la argentina catolica y militar, Editorial Sudamericana (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2006.

Cristo vence: la Iglesia en la Argentina: un siglo de historia politica (1884-1983), Sudamericana (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2007.

La violencia evangélica, Editorial Sudamericana (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Horacio Verbitsky was born in Argentina in 1942. A writer and investigative journalist since 1960, he is stationed in Buenos Aires and has earned national acclaim for his well-written columns and for his tireless activist work for the benefit of a free press. Verbitsky's primary focus is to uncover corrupt government activities and to call attention to any restrictive laws that hinder his rights and the rights of other journalists to report their stories fairly and accurately. His attention to detail and relentless drive in the name of truth for his stories has earned Verbitsky the nickname "el perro," which means "the dog." Verbitsky first gained attention on a nationwide scale at the start of 1991, when a story that he wrote featured the brother-in-law of Argentina's President Carlos Menem, claiming the man had provided a company with a tax exemption and demanded they provide him with a payment for the exemption by way of a bribe. The resulting scandal was dubbed "Swiftgate." The accusation held up, forcing President Menem to clean his political house, eliminating approximately half of his cabinet members. Despite having questioned Verbitsky's information, Menem ultimately took a hard look at the question of corruption within the government and took real action toward eliminating the problem.

Verbitsky has continued to use his writing as a means of delving deep into corruption and cleaning up political inequalities. He writes a regular column for Página 12, an daily journal, and has also been active in a number of organizations that promote the free press, such as Periodistas, the former Latin American organization that advocated freedom of speech and access for journalists, and for which he served as one of the founders. In November, 2001, Verbitsky was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists for his efforts to promote free press in Argentina, and to uphold the rights given to them in their constitution. In addition to his journalistic work, he is the author of several books, primarily in Spanish and published in Argentina. However, The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior was also published in English in the United States, to a warm response, as well as in French, Portuguese, and Italian.

The Flight examines the so-called "Dirty War" that took place in Argentina between 1976 and 1983, a period during which the country's ruling dictatorship took a hard-line stance toward keeping order and control that involved torture and murder. At the root of the book is the confession of retired Lieutenant Commander Adolfo Scilingo, the first member of the Argentine military to break the code of silence that previously kept anyone from acknowledging the atrocities or even the actions of those in power. Verbitsky's interviews netted a collection of stories from Scilingo that throw a spotlight on some of the cruelest, most reprehensible behavior as practiced by the military government, including the dumping of naked prisoners of war into the Atlantic Ocean from airplanes, a system of execution that he insisted had been sanctioned by authorities within the Church. The Flight became a best seller in Argentina, and received both strong praise and some censure from critics. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called Verbitsky's book an "electrifying document." Booklist reviewer Thomas Gaughan noted that despite modern technology and means of communication, many American readers are ignorant of the ongoing atrocities committed in many parts of the world, including the succession of military coups that have taken place in Argentina during the twentieth century and the resultant torture and corruption. Regarding The Flight, he remarked that its power and impact for those readers has been "diminished because it is filled with legalistic, semantic hairsplitting about a staggering record of … crimes against humanity."