18 guerrilla, or formed part of or collaborated with the latter, and therefore ran the risk of being eliminated.” 46. Between 1989 and 1992, several agreements were signed between the Government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front and, finally, after 12 years of armed conflict, the Peace Accords putting an end to hostilities were signed in Chapultepec, Mexico, on January 16, 1992, under the aegis of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.32 Under these accords, on April 27, 1991, it was decided to create the Truth Commission with a mandate to investigate the serious acts of violence that had taken place starting in 1980 and to draft legal, political and administrative recommendations that could be related to specific cases or be of a more general nature. The Truth Commission published its report in 1993. 47. The Truth Commission described the patterns of violence during the armed conflict perpetrated by both State agents and FMLN members. Of the complaints received by the Truth Commission,33 “[m]ore than 60% of the total correspond to extrajudicial executions; more than 25% to forced disappearances, and more than 20% include reports of torture.” Regarding the perpetrators, the complaints attribute almost 85% of the cases to State agents, paramilitary groups allied with them, and death squads. Similarly, members of the Armed Forces were accused in almost 60% of the complaints; members of security forces in approximately 25%; members of military escorts and civil defense forces in approximately 20%, and members of death squads in more than 10% of the cases. The complaints registered attributed responsibility to the FMLN in approximately 5% of the cases. B. 1980-1983: “the institutionalization of violence” 48. The Truth Commission also gave an account of the chronology of the violence. The first period, from 1980 to 1983, when the facts of this case took place, was characterized by “the institutionalization of violence,” when “the systematic establishment of violence, terror, and distrust in the civilian population […] were the essential characteristics of this period. The dismantling of any opposition or dissident movement through arbitrary detentions, assassinations, and the selective and indiscriminate disappearance of leaders became common practice.” According to the Truth Commission, this period saw “the greatest number of deaths and human rights violations.” 49. In this regard, the Truth Commission observed that around 50% of the total number of complaints analyzed took place during the first two years (1980 and 1981) and more than 20% occurred in the following two years (1982 and 1983). In other words, “the first four years of the decade saw a concentration of more than 75% of the serious incidents of violence denounced before the Truth Commission.” 50. Thus, the Truth Commission received direct testimony of numerous mass executions that took place over the years 1980, 1981, and 1982 in which, during counterinsurgency operations, members of the Armed Forces, “executed peasants, men, women, and children who gave no resistance, simply because they were considered to be collaborating with the guerrillas.” The Truth Commission dismissed “all possibility that these were isolated 32 Cf. United Nations. El Salvador Accords, supra note 30, (evidence file, volume IV, attachment 6 to the pleadings, motions and evidence brief, folio 2623). 33 Although the Truth Commission recorded more than 22,000 complaints of serious incidents of violence that took place in El Salvador from January 1980 to July 1991, “these complaints d[id] not represent all the incidents of violence,” as the Commission was only able to receive a significant sample during its three-month period receiving testimony.