18 47. Thus, the Court recalls that from 1980 to 1991, El Salvador was mired in an internal armed conflict. Between 1989 and 1992, several agreements were signed between the Government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN); finally, after twelve years of armed conflict, on January 16, 1992, the Peace Accords putting an end to the hostilities were signed in Chapultepec, Mexico, under the aegis of the Secretary General of the United Nations. 38 The Truth Commission, which was created under the Peace Accords on April 27, 1991 and began its activities on July 13, 1992, described in its report published on March 15, 1993, the patterns of violence perpetrated by both State agents and FMLN members during the armed conflict. For methodological reasons, the time span examined (1980-1991) is divided into four periods: from 1980 to 1983; 1983 to 1987; 1987 to 1989; and 1989 to 1991. The period from 1980 to 1983, which provided the context for the events of this case, was termed “the Institutionalization of Violence”, when “the systematic establishment of violence, terror and distrust in the civilian population […] were the essential characteristics of this period.”39 48. It was in this context that the Immediate Response Infantry Battalions of the Salvadoran Armed Forces were created, such as the Atlacatl Battalion in March 1981. These were specially trained anti-guerrilla units that had completed their training with the advisory services and support of United States military personnel.40 According to the Truth Commission, this period saw “the greatest number of deaths and human rights violations.”41 Thus, the Truth Commission received direct testimonies of numerous mass executions that took place over the years 1980, 1981 and 1982, during counterinsurgency operations in which members of the Armed Forces “executed peasants, men, women and children, who offered no resistance, simply because they were considered to be collaborating with the guerrillas.”42 The Truth Commission dismissed “all possibility that these were isolated incidents or excesses committed by soldiers or their immediate commanding officers. […] Everything indicates that these deaths took place as part of a pattern of conduct, a deliberate strategy to eliminate or terrorize the peasant population in areas where the guerrillas were active in order to deprive them of a source of supplies and information, as well as of the possibility of disguising themselves or hiding among the population.”43 According to the Truth Commission, “it cannot be argued that this pattern of conduct could be attributed only to local leaders and that their superior officers were unaware of it, as the massacres of the peasant population were repeatedly denounced with no evidence that any effort was made to investigate them.”44 49. The Court emphasized that, in the context of the armed conflict and the phenomenon of forced disappearance of persons, there was also a more specific pattern, acknowledged by the State (supra para. 19), relating to the forced disappearance of children, who were abducted and illegally held by members of the Armed Forces during counterinsurgency operations. Likewise, it has been established that, in many cases, this practice implied the appropriation of children and their registration under a Cf. Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 46, and Case of the Massacres of El Mozote and nearby places v. El Salvador, supra, para. 65. 38 Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 48, citing the Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, 1992-1993. 39 Cf. Case of the Massacres of El Mozote and nearby places v. El Salvador, supra, para. 67, citing the Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, 1992-1993. 40 Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 48, citing the Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, 1992-1993. 41 Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 50, citing the Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, 1992-1993. 42 Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 50, citing the Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, 1992-1993. 43 Cf. Case Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 50, citing the Report of the Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, 1992-1993. 44