UN Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, Report, 15 March 1993, in UN Secretary General, Letter to the President of the Security Council (S/25500), Annex. (PDF link)
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I. 1980-1983: THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF VIOLENCE
INTRODUCTION
The Commission on the Truth had the task of investigating and analysing serious acts of violence that had occurred in El Salvador between January 1980 and July 1991.
In taking into account "the exceptional importance that may be attached to the acts to be investigated, their characteristics and impact, and the social unrest to which they gave rise", 8/ the Commission, for methodological reasons, divided the years 1980-1991 into four periods, namely: 1980-1983, 1983-1987, 1987-1989 and 1989-1991. Each of these periods corresponds to political changes in the country, developments in the war and the systematic nature or frequency of certain practices that violated human rights and international humanitarian law.
NOTES:
8/ United Nations, Mexico Agreements, 27 April 1991, Commission on the Truth, "Functions" section, para. 2 (a). Document A/46/553-S/23130, p. 16.