The present work seeks to approach the problem of exile as a legal-political category. To do this, we study the notion of exile itself as a penalty from its origins in the archaic Roman law. We are particularly interested in the place that this punitive institution has had in Latin American politics, at the time of its political birth under nation-states, and during the last military dictatorships in the region. In order to develop a situated philosophical analysis, we will review the way in which exile was juridically instituted during the last dictatorial periods, especially in the case of Argentine and Chile.