framework of the case and the State’s acknowledgement of the facts, and taking into consideration the pleadings and motions brief of the representatives and the body of evidence. To this end, it will proceed to determine the proven facts that constituted the massacres and the displacements, and will then analyze their legal consequences. In Chapter VIII, the Court will determine the facts relating to the investigation opened into the massacres and the exhumations performed, and will also analyze the respective legal arguments. A. The facts of the case 1) The armed conflict in El Salvador 62. From approximately 1980 until 1991 El Salvador was immersed in an internal armed conflict,37 and it is estimated that more than 75,000 members of the Salvadoran population were its victims.38 63. The year 1980 marked the beginning of “several indiscriminate attacks against the noncombatant civilian population and collective summary executions [by security forces] that particularly affect[ed] the rural population.”39 The violence in the rural areas, in the early years of the 1980s, “was extremely indiscriminate.”40 64. In October and November 1980 the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (hereinafter also “FMLN”) was created, bringing together the five armed political opposition groups: Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación, Fuerzas Armadas de Resistencia Nacional and Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores de Centroamérica. In 1981, the FMLN organizations decided to launch an offensive to promote a popular uprising and overthrow the Governing Junta.41 Even though it failed to achieve this objective, the FMLN ended up controlling several villages, established areas of political influence, and achieved international recognition as a fighting force.42 65. The peace negotiation process began when the five Central American Presidents requested the intervention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, asking him to intervene in order to achieve peace in Central America. Between 1989 and 1992, various agreements were signed by the Government of El Salvador and the FMLN and, finally, following 12 years of armed conflict, on January 16, 1992, the Peace Agreement ending the hostilities was signed in Chapultepec, Mexico, sponsored by the Secretary-General of the United Nations43 (infra paras. 266 to 272). 66. In its report published on March 15, 1993, the Truth Commission, created by the agreement signed in Mexico on April 27, 1991, which began its activities on July 13, 1992, 37 Cf. Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of March 1, 2005. Series C No. 120, para. 48.1, and Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, para. 41. 38 Cf. United Nations. El Salvador Agreements: on the road to peace, 1992, 1992 (evidence file, tome IX, annex 6 to the pleadings and motions brief, folio 5805). 39 Cf. Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From madness to hope: the 12-year war in El Salvador, 1992-1993 (evidence file, tome II, annex 1 to the submission of the case, folio 1096). 40 Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From madness to hope: the 12-year war in El Salvador, 19921993 (evidence file, tome II, annex 1 to the submission of the case, folio 1119). 41 Cf. Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Mission to El Salvador. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/7/2/Add.2, 26 October 2007, para. 12 (evidence file, tome X, annex 11 to the pleadings and motions brief, folio 6708), and Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From madness to hope: the 12-year war in El Salvador, 1992-1993 (evidence file, tome II, annex 1 to the submission of the case, folio 1100). 42 Cf. Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Mission to El Salvador. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/7/2/Add.2, 26 October 2007, para. 12 (evidence file, tome X, annex 11 to the pleadings and motions brief, folio 6708). 43 Cf. United Nations. El Salvador Agreements: on the road to peace, 1992 (evidence file, tome IX, annex 6 to the pleadings and motions brief, folio 5810) 21