Civil War Massacres Aftermath In December 1991, preliminary talks began between the Salvadoran government and the leftist guerrilla militia, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), with UN secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar overseeing the negotiations.

Since its independence in 1838,[4] El Salvador experienced years of political strife mostly due to the unequal spread of wealth throughout the country, a long-term effect of Spanish colonization.

[4] General Andrés Menéndez assumed the presidency, however after only five months another revolt took place leaving Colonel Osmín Aguirre y Salinas in control, marking another period of unrest in the country.

[4] The two-day revolt was opposed and suppressed by Hernández Martínez, who authorized the execution of thousands of Salvadorans, in what is commonly referred to as la matanza.

[5] On 24 March 1980, Salvadoran archbishop Óscar Romero, an outspoken human rights advocate was assassinated during a Mass ceremony in San Salvador.

[5] By late 1979, tensions once again rose in El Salvador, with the government of General Carlos Humberto Romero committing various human rights abuses, leading Catholic clergymen to speak out against the injustices.

In late 1980 the United States began to show an increasing interest in Salvadoran affairs, fearing the country was susceptible to Communist control leading to "another Nicaragua" situation.

[10] The United States government continued to finance the war in El Salvador throughout the 1980s, providing approximately $4.5 billion in military and other aid.

[6] According to Benjamin Schwarz, America's involvement in El Salvador was the most "prolonged and expensive military endeavour in the period between the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf conflict".

The battle employed egregious indiscriminate violence throughout San Salvador, leading to one of 16 November 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests and two women were executed by soldiers who entered their residence under the pretense that they were aiding leftist fighters.

[12] The massacre garnered widespread international coverage of the atrocities in El Salvador, urging pressure for negotiations between the conflicting sides.

[5][13][14][15] With increasing international pressure and Cristiani's doubt over the military's abilities to stifle the FMLN, UN-mediated peace talks began in July 1990 when both signed the Agreement on Human Rights.

The commission was established in accordance with the Mexico Agreement of 1991, assigned to investigate "serious acts of violence that had occurred between January 1980 and July 1991" that required "public knowledge of the truth".

[17] Three international public figures were appointed as commissioners by the Secretary-General: The commission opened offices throughout the country in Chalatenango, Santa Ana and San Miguel.

They realized that the Secretary-General... had not been wrong in seeking to preserve the Commission's credibility by looking beyond considerations of sovereignty and entrusting this task to three scholars from other countries, in contrast to what had been done in Argentina and Chile after the military dictatorships there had ended.

Exhumation took place from 13 to 17 November 1992 under the supervision of Dr. Clyde Snow, Dr. Robert H. Kirschner, Dr. Douglass Scott, and Dr. John Fitzpatrick of the Santa Tecla Institute of Forensic Medicine and of the Commission for the Investigation of Criminal Acts.

[3] In the exhumation the doctors worked alongside Patricia Bernardi, Mercedes Doretti and Luis Fondebrider of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team.

[2] Controversially, the commission named over 40 senior members of the military, judicial system, and armed opposition in the report for their involvement in the conduction of the mass atrocities.

With the release of From Madness to Hope in March 1993, human rights advocates in El Salvador and the United States accepted and applauded the commission for its analysis of the atrocities, and for its recommendations.

[21] In 1992 Salvadoran sculptor Ruben Martinez was commissioned to create a monument dedicated to "the birth of an era of peace in El Salvador.

"[22] Following the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords, Carlos "Santiago" Henriquez Consalvi, a Venezuelan journalist, proposed an initiative to preserve and commemorate Salvadoran history.