Kennedy Amendment

After evidence of severe repression by the military regime following the overthrow of President Salvador Allende Gossens in September 1973, the United States Congress in 1974 adopted the Kennedy Amendment, prohibiting all security assistance and sales to Chile. This restriction was made much more general in the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976, prohibiting transfers to any country ""which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,"" except in extraordinary circumstances.