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#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Daniel Hernández-Salazar is used to waiting. Two decades ago he abandoned his photojournalistic career to devote himself to documenting the search for justice in the wake of Guatemala's 36-year civil war. He stood at exhumations alongside indigenous Maya, as they waited to spy a bracelet or scrap of muddy fabric that would allow them to finally locate the bones of a loved one. More recently, he stood among them in a Guatemala City courtroom as the former dictator, Gen. EfraÃn RÃos Montt, was sentenced to 80 years for genocide and crimes against humanity.
When the verdict was read, he could barely comprehend it.
“I have been waiting all my life for something like this,†he said. “Now we truly have a chance to change and have the country become more inclusive, where all of us have more rights and where those who have been dominating the country up to now have to step back a bit.â€
Mr. Hernández-Salazar grew up in a country that never knew peace: from 1954's C.I.A.-backed coup against Jacobo Ãrbenz, though the civil war where General RÃos Montt presided over an early 1980s scorched-earth policy and up to today's lawless urban landscape. Last week's verdict, he said, offered a chance that the country may finally straighten itself.
The verdict marked the first time a former head of state was convicted in his own country for such crimes. As such, Mr. Hernández-Salazar likens it to the Nuremberg trials, with significance for other countries in the region, which lived through violent conflicts where civilians were killed and disappeared.
His own documentary work - from exhumation sites and forensic labs to protests and religious rituals - reminded people of the toll of Guatemala's war, which officially ended in 1996. Many of the supposed perpetrators enjoyed impunity - either though silence or stature. General RÃos Montt, an outspoken evangelical Christian, was untouchable by law during his postwar tenure as president of the country's Congress.
Those circumstances led Mr. Hernández-Salazar to create four striking images featuring an angel whose wings were made from shoulder blades exhumed from a mass grave. The angel was shown covering his eyes, mouth and ears - to see, speak and hear no evil. But the last image, hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone, urged people to speak out.
He called it, “So That All Shall Know,†and he took it to Auschwitz and Bosnia to connect his country's tragedy to others.
“One of the things he has done is using that image of speaking the truth in Guatemala and connecting it with struggle all over the world to find justice for human rights crimes,†said Kate Doyle, a senior analyst with the National Security Archive, a United States research group that provided Guatemalan prosecutors with documents that helped build the case. “His photos from the trial show the hope and anguish of survivors and the power of Guatemalan society to fight the impunity they have lived with for so long.â€
Working inside a packed courtroom Mr. Hernández-Salazar singled out faces filled with anxiety, hope and pain. In one, Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum holds both hands of an older indigenous woman. In another, a crying woman clutches the old black and white portrait of her brother, who disappeared decades ago. Several show General RÃos Montt testifying alone at a small desk. And when the verdict was announced, his picture shows a jubilant crowd.
The one image that sticks with him is a wide shot of the crowded courtroom. In a tiny spot, surrounded by spectators and photographers, General RÃos Montt is barely visible (Slide 1).
“That photo shows the dimensions this event has, even as it shows how small RÃos Montt is,†Mr. Hernández-Salazar said. “All the people there represent the numbers which he killed and allows you to judge that defenseless person in the middle. He did not invent this tragedy. He was part of a great mechanism. To an extent, he was used by the military and the oligarchy.â€
Not that it is over. In the wake of the verdict, supporters of the military and General RÃos Montt have voiced outrage. And Mr. Hernández-Salazar worries that the nation's behind-the-scenes powers are not ready to accept judgment for the crimes of the past.
“We are seeing those hidden powers a bit,†Mr. Hernández-Salazar said. “It's the tip of the iceberg.â€
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