Not only has Chile accepted as legally binding principles of international law that grant universal jurisdiction for certain crimes by ratifying the Convention against Torture, but it was precisely the inability of the relatives to get redress in their own country that led them to pursue legal proceedings in Spain. Chilean human rights organizations have strongly condemned the stance taken by the Chilean government. The record of impunity in Chile is staggering. Although several cases of human rights violations have been brought to the courts, the majority of cases have been closed by the application of the 1978 Amnesty Law. This case, however, was specifically excluded from the amnesty law after pressure from the United States and other international pressure.
Impunity remains virtually total in Chile.
The DINA is believed to have been implicated in around 2,000 cases of serious human rights violations. Over the years, intergovernmental organizations have recommended that Chile takes measures to redress this situation, to no avail. So have recommendations made over many years by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Chilean government is at pains to stress that it is not defending Augusto Pinochet's human rights record.