Editing Jacobo Timerman (section)

==Journeys and return to Argentina==
Sometime after the publication of ''The Longest War'', Timerman left Israel with his wife. According to journalist [[Amos Elon]], Timerman felt disappointed by the Israeli state—not "like a Jew coming home", as he had hoped. Nevertheless, said Timerman, "I am an Israeli citizen, I behave like an Israeli citizen, and I am always going to be an Israeli citizen."<ref name=Smith>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|153645726}} |last1=Smith |first1=Dave |title=Blunt-Spoken Writer Enlivens Conference: Jacobo Timerman, Stormy as Ever, Takes on His Adopted Israel |work=Los Angeles Times|date=5 October 1983 |page=c1 }}</ref>

He moved to [[Madrid]] and then to New York.

Timerman praised the [[Argentine general election, 1983|election]] of [[Raúl Alfonsín]], saying: "Alfonsín's victory has opened an era of democracy that is a completely new phenomenon in Argentina."<ref name=Oppenheimer1984 /> Judge Fernando Zavalia had, in July 1982, ordered the release of all others arrested in connection with the Graiver case. (However, not all had been freed.)<ref>Schoijet, "The Timerman Affair" (1983), p. 29.</ref>

On 7 January 1984, he and Risha returned to [[Buenos Aires]].<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p. 21.</ref> One son stayed in Israel and another settled in New York. A third returned to Argentina.

Timerman retained his Israeli citizenship, commenting soon after his return to Buenos Aires: "I am an Israeli citizen. If the Argentine government voluntarily decides to give me my Argentine citizenship back, I will accept it only as long as I can keep my Israeli nationality."<ref name=Oppenheimer1984>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|547134280}} |last1=Oppenheimer |first1=Andres |title=Timerman: 'I Never Expected Justice Would Be one So Soon' in Argentina |work=The Hartford Courant |date=29 January 1984 |page=A21 }}</ref>

Upon returning to Argentina, Timerman testified to the [[National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons]] (''Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas'', CONADEP) about his experience in prison. With Rabbi [[Marshall Meyer]] (co-chair of the commission along with [[Ernesto Sabato]]), he re-visited the prisons where he underwent torture.<ref name=DukeMeyer>"[http://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/ihavenorighttobesilent/ihavenorightobesilent/conadep CONADEP: 'An Extraordinary Appointment'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207093753/http://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/ihavenorighttobesilent/ihavenorightobesilent/conadep |date=7 December 2014 }}", ''[http://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/ihavenorighttobesilent 'I Have No Right to Be Silent' – The Human Rights Legacy of Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer]'', ''Duke University Libraries'', traveling exhibit</ref>

In 1985 the government prosecuted numerous people for crimes committed during the [[Dirty War]] in the [[Trial of the Juntas]], and major figures were convicted and sentenced to prison. In 1986 Congress passed [[Ley de Punto Final]], stopping the prosecutions and "putting a line" under the events.

Timerman became director of ''La Razón'' (The Reason), but also published articles in other papers.<ref name="dia"/> As a journalist, Timerman continued to criticize the government of Israel for what he considered its shortcomings. A 1987 op-ed by Timerman in ''[[El País]]'' described Israel as "intoxicated", akin to a European colonial power in its exploitation of Palestinian labor.<ref>Jacobo Timerman, [http://elpais.com/diario/1987/09/08/opinion/558050407_850215.html "Israel, intoxicado"], ''El Pais'', 8 September 1987.</ref>

He noted that Israelis and some Americans who had formerly given him awards were unhappy with his criticism of Israel. During this period, he said in an interview with the journalist Richard Curtiss,
<blockquote>"How am I received now by those American organizations that gave me awards a few years ago? My old friends meet with me and whenever I visit the States I'm still invited to speak to some Jewish groups about the problems with Israel. Privately many of them agree that Israel isn't everything we wanted it to be. What they don't realize is that if we want it to change, we have to say so. Until the American Jewish community realizes this, there's no role in Israel for people like me."<ref name="Curtiss"/></blockquote>

===''Chile: Death in the South''===
In 1987, Timerman released ''Chile: Death in the South'', a critical examination of life under the dictator [[Augusto Pinochet]]. The book highlights the poverty, hunger, and violence inflicted by Pinochet's military dictatorship. It also argues that Chilean society had lost cultural depth in the environment of political repression.<ref>[[Marjorie Agosín]], "[http://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0411/dbjuco.html Timerman on Pinochet's Chile]", ''Christian Science Monitor'', 11 April 1988.</ref>

Timerman argues that Chilean centrists and right-wing must be prepared to step in and govern in place of the military. He also suggested that the Catholic Church would play an important role in renewal of the country.<ref>[[J. M. Coetzee]], “[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/10/books/they-wanted-to-terrify-me.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm 'They Wanted to Terrify Me']”, ''New York Times'', 10 January 1988.</ref> The book was translated into English by Robert Cox and published in the United States and London.

===''Cuba: A Journey''===
Timerman's 1990 book on Cuba criticized both the Communist government and the adverse effects of the US blockade on Cuba. He suggested that little political change could be achieved in the country until Castro's rule ended.<ref>David Rieff, “[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/21/books/a-suffocating-and-demoralized-island.html  A Suffocating and Demoralized Island"], ''New York Times'', 21 October 1990.</ref>

===Dissident once more===
Timerman was an early critic of [[Carlos Saúl Menem]] of the [[Justicialist Party]], who became a presidential candidate after serving as governor of La Rioja Province. In 1988, during the presidential campaign, Timerman criticized Menem's plan to establish a [[free port]] at [[Isla Martin Garcia]], saying it would encourage drug trafficking and money laundering. Menem filed a libel suit against the journalist that year. Timerman was acquitted in the trial, as well as in an appeals trial.<ref name="3trials">[http://elpais.com/diario/1996/03/30/internacional/828140409_850215.html Juan Jesús Aznarez, "El Supremo argentino manda detener a Timerman, denunciado por Menem"], ''El Pais'', 30 March 1996, accessed 4 June 2013</ref> Timerman opposed Menem during his [[Argentine general election, 1989|election campaign in 1988]].<ref>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|398104543}} |last1=Cohen |first1=Roger |title=Peronist Lead Narrows in Argentine Race --- Leftist Attack Hurts Menem's Presidential Chances |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=14 February 1989 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|110475042}} |last1=Timerman |first1=Jacobo |title=Peronism, Without Violence |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/28/opinion/peronism-without-violence.html |work=The New York Times |date=28 July 1988 }}</ref>

Menem was elected with 47.5% of the vote, defeating the [[Radical Civic Union]] candidate. In 1991 he pardoned major figures who had been convicted of kidnapping, disappearances and torture committed during the Dirty War and sentenced to prison. Timerman condemned Menem for giving the pardons. He wrote in a 1991 editorial:

<blockquote>In April 1977, General Carlos [[Guillermo Suárez Mason]] ordered my kidnapping in Buenos Aires. A few days ago this man, the cruelest leader of the dirty war, was released from prison, pardoned by President Carlos Saúl Menem. Argentina had obtained his [[extradition]] from the US, charged with 43 murders and the kidnapping of 24 people who have since [[forcibly disappeared|disappeared]]. During those months of 1977, Colonel [[Ramon Camps]], the most brutal torturer of the dirty war, was in charge of the torture I suffered during interrogation. A few days ago he too was set free, pardoned by Mr. Menem. He had been accused of 214 extortionist kidnappings; 120 cases of torture, 32 homicides; two rapes; two abortions resulting from torture; 18 thefts; and the kidnappings of 10 minors who have disappeared.<ref name=Timerman1991>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|187242914}} |last1=Timerman |first1=Jacobo |title=Once more into a gory spiral: Now that Menem has pardoned the schemers of genocide in Argentina Jacobo Timerman, a victim of the cruellest torturers, predicts that the Peronist democracy is well down the dictatorial road again |work=The Guardian |date=10 January 1991 |page=19 }}</ref> </blockquote>

Timerman warned that Argentina was slipping back into totalitarianism, and wrote "I hardly live in Argentina anymore" due to fear of meeting a former torturer.<ref name=Timerman1991 />
"Almost all the torturers were free before this latest batch of pardons", wrote Timerman, "but now the leaders who conceived, planned, and carried out the only [[genocide]] recorded in Argentinian history are also at large."<ref name=Timerman1991 />

In 1992 Timmerman testified against Menem in a case regarding the citizenship of arms dealer [[Monzer al-Kassar]].<ref>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|187376781}} |last1=Chaudhary |first1=Vivek |title=Menem 'had links with terrorist' |work=The Guardian |date=13 November 1992 |page=14 }}</ref> The journalist began spending more time outside the country. His health was failing; he had a heart attack and later surgery after a stroke.<ref name="3trials"/>

In 1996, with journalist [[Horacio Verbitsky]], novelist [[Tomás Eloy Martínez]], and others, Timerman co-founded a press freedom organization in Buenos Aires known as ''Periodisitas''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Belejack |first1=Barbara |title=Latin American Journalists Under the Gun |journal=NACLA Report on the Americas |date=July 1998 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=6–10 |id={{ProQuest|74869493}} |doi=10.1080/10714839.1999.11722750 }}</ref>

In March 1996, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial in the libel case first opened in 1988 by Menem and twice won by Timerman. Menem's attorneys had alleged procedural errors. Timerman had written to the Court, declining to defend the case again, from Uruguay, where he had retired. Timerman said there was no arrest warrant against him and that he had been persecuted and condemned to "a second exile." He said he had not written for years, nor appeared on TV or in lectures, and had been ill. He noted that the President of the Supreme Court was an associate of Menem's in their law practice in La Rioja. ''Periodistas'', the Association for the Defense of Independent Journalism, protested the order for the trial.<ref name="3trials"/>

===Death===
Severely depressed following his wife's death in 1992,<ref name=Curtiss /><ref name=Forward /> Timerman suffered failing health in his last years, but continued to fight for press freedom. He died of a heart attack in [[Buenos Aires]] on 11 November 1999.

===Later events===
In 2003 the Argentine Congress repealed the 1986 [[Ley de Punto Final]]. The government re-opened prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War. In 2006 [[Miguel Etchecolatz]], Director of Investigations, in the provincial police, who had overseen Timerman's arrest and torture, was convicted and sentenced to prison. In its sentencing, the 3-judge tribunal described the actions of Etchecolatz against political prisoner as genocide, the first time the term was applied that way in Argentine trials.<ref name="klein">Klein, Naomi. [https://books.google.com/books?id=b1uQNYbE8DkC&dq=rozanski+court+genocide&pg=PA100 ''The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism'']. Macmillan, 2007; {{ISBN|0-8050-7983-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8050-7983-8}}, pp. 100–102: "The presiding member of the court, [[Genocides in history#Dirty War in Argentina|Carlos Rozanski]], described the offences as part of a systematic attack intended to destroy parts of society that the victims represented and as such they constituted genocide. Rozanski noted that the International [[Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide]] (CPPCG) does not include in its list of offences the elimination of political groups (that category was removed at the behest of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]), but the court based its decision on the 11 December 1946 United Nations General Assembly Resolution, unanimously adopted by member-nations, barring acts of genocide 'when racial, religious, political and other groups have been destroyed, entirely or in part', adding that the court considered the original UN definition to be more legitimate than the politically compromised CPPCG definition."</ref>

On 9 October 2007, the Catholic priest [[Christian Von Wernich]], personal confessor of provincial chief of police [[Ramón Camps]] and holding rank of inspector under Etchecolatz, was convicted of involvement in the abduction and torture of Timerman and numerous other political prisoners in the 1970s. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.<ref>{{cite news |title='Dirty War' priest gets life term |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7035294.stm |work=BBC News |date=10 October 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Reclusión perpetua para Von Wernich |trans-title=Life imprisonment for Von Wernich |url=https://www.clarin.com/ultimo-momento/reclusion-perpetua-von-wernich_0_H1yxHIky0te.html |work=Clarin |date=9 October 2007 |language=es }}</ref>