Subversive groups in Peru, particularly Shining Path, were alleged by the government to have been responsible for some 20,000 deaths during the 1980s, and these were continuing; in August of 1990 alone, there had been 769 victims, and in 1989 alone, 46 mayors had been murders and, following the municipal elections held in that year, 27 mayors-elect had met violent deaths. These and other criminal actions were primarily to produce a violence-generating effect.