58 252. In the present case, it has been proved through convincing evidence that on February 27, 1997, at the Bijao hamlet, the peasant Marino López was tortured and murdered by members of the Elmer Cárdenas paramilitary group. In actual fact, they detained him and pinned him by the arms; he asked them to let him go, and they forced him to take off his shirt and boots, tied his hands behind his back, kicked him about, and violently pushed him to the banks of the river. Then with a machete "they drew a line in the direction of his neck as if to cut off his head" and Marino received a cut on the left shoulder and began to bleed. Marino López jumped into the river, and after being threatened, came back to the bank and stretched out his hand to be helped out, but was beheaded with a machete. The upper body of Marino López remained on the river bank, they cut off his arms up to his elbows, his two legs up to his knees, and with the point of the machete they opened his stomach and left the body to roll down the bank until it reached the water. His hands stayed entangled in the branches of an fallen orange tree, they carried his head like a trophy and threw it into an open space: saying "look, he has the face of a monkey, the s.o.b." and showed his head to the population as a warning sign, and when it fell to the floor, they kicked it between themselves like a ball, passing it to each other for approximately ten minutes. 253. The Commission reiterates that in the present case, the torture and death of Marino López were not isolated incidents but occurred in a premeditated context with the specific aim of terrorizing the population to cause their forced displacement. 254. The Commission concludes, in the first place, that beyond the assessment of the evidence on the material responsibility for the torture and death of Marino López, it is appropriate to apply the criteria of State responsibility for the acts committed by members of a paramilitary group, given that it did not diligently adopt the measures necessary to protect the civilian population in terms of the 274 circumstances described. Therefore, it is proper to conclude that acts of violence committed by the private individuals who tortured and murdered Marino López are attributable to the State. 255. In the second place, the Commission observes that it was the State itself that ordered and carried out a military operation whose bombardment caused damages to the civilian population, without protective or preventive measures being taken. Creating such an objective situation of danger for the civilian population increased the context of violence in which the torture and death of Marino López occurred. Therefore, the Commission concludes that the State is responsible for the violations of the rights to personal integrity and life of Marino López, committed as a result of the acts or omissions of its agents. 256. Finally, it is appropriate to reiterate that from a comprehensive reading of the context, background and events of the present case, the Commission observes - in the area and the period of the events - the existence of a systematic pattern of operations of the nature described throughout the present report. Therefore, it is appropriate for the IACHR to emphasize that - just as the Inter-American Court has acknowledged - the commission of an extrajudicial execution in the context of systematic 275 attacks against a civilian population constitutes a crime against humanity . The International Criminal 274 I/A Court H.R., Case of the Pueblo Bello Massacre. Judgment of January 31, 2006. Series C No. 140, para. 140. IACHR Report No. 75/06 Jesús María Valle Jaramillo of October 16, 2006, para. 69. 275 The Court stated in the Case of Almonacid-Arellano that the prohibition on committing crimes against humanity is a jus cogens rule and the punishment of such crimes is obligatory, in accordance with general principles of international law. In its decision, the Court acknowledged the elements established in the Nüremberg Charter with respect to the characterization of the deprivation of life in the context of generalized or systematic attacks against civilians, as a 'crime against humanity'. Specifically, Article 6 sets out that "the Tribunal established by the Agreement referred to in Article 1...shall have the power to try and punish persons who, acting in the interests of the European Axis countries, whether as individuals or as members of organizations, committed any of the following crimes: [...] (c) [c]rimes against humanity, namely: murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of domestic law of the country where perpetrated." Similarly, in 1950, the International Law Commission of the United Nations included murder among the acts which could represent a crime against humanity in its Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nüremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal. Report of the International Law Commission, A/1316 (A/5/12), 1950, Part III, paras. 95-127, Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1950, Vol. II. Available at: http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/documentation/english/a_cn4_34.pdfSee I/A Court H.R., Case of Almonacid-Arellano et al. v. Chile. Continues…