Abstract

This chapter outlines the panorama of reparation and criminal justice policies in Chile (1973-2019). Pointing out how the military dictatorship itself, at the end of the state of siege (1973-1978), endeavored to restrict the debate and demands for justice for the crimes committed during that period, decreeing a wide-ranging amnesty for those responsible for all the murders committed during that period. The authors reveal the tensions that built up during the transition to democracy between the cultivators of a policy of forgetting the past and those who defended policies of justice and reparation for victims. A diplomatic strategy of rapprochement with international human rights organizations also triumphed over human rights organizations based on the ratification of various conventions and significant changes to criminal legislation. They describe the different policies and measures for reparation for different victims: relatives of disappeared and executed victims, the people who were dismissed from their employment for political motivation, the victims of political imprisonment and torture, and the judicial process against victimizers