Treaty of Tlatelolco is the name given to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is an agreement signed on February 14, 1967 by which the Latin American and Caribbean nations that joined declared the zone as free of nuclear weapons..
The Cold War was at its most tense. The two world powers that emerged from the Second World War indirectly clashed across the planet, supporting like-minded sides in local conflicts. Between the two countries, he had gathered an arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of destroying the world several times..
In addition to the two superpowers, other countries had also developed nuclear weapons. France, Great Britain and China did it soon, and then other nations such as Pakistan, India or Israel joined..
The missile crisis in Cuba was one of the moments when nuclear war was closest. Given this, Mexico took the initiative to draw up a treaty that would declare all of Latin America and the Caribbean denuclearized. After the previous works, the agreement entered into force on April 25, 1969.
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World War II ended with a never-before-seen display of destructive power. The atomic bombs dropped on Japan showed the world that the next war could lead to the total destruction of the planet.
After the United States, the Soviet Union rushed to develop its own nuclear arsenal. The two powers were followed by other countries.
World geopolitics after the Second World War was characterized by the division of the planet into two great camps. On one side, the United States and the rest of the Western and capitalist countries. On the other, the Soviet Union and the communist bloc. The tension between the two blocs, with some serious incidents, was known as the Cold War.
Although the two superpowers never clashed openly militarily, they did so indirectly in the different local conflicts. Each supported their allies, trying to weaken their rival.
Despite avoiding open conflict, at times it seemed that the world was doomed to nuclear war. The US and the Soviet Union were joined by other countries with nuclear weapons, such as France, Great Britain, China, Israel, Pakistan or India..
To avoid war, the two blocs developed a tactic called "mutual assured destruction." In short, everyone knew that in the next war there would be no winners or losers, only destruction..
Before the work began to elaborate the Treaty of Tlatelolco, there was a precedent that could advance the agreement. Just before the missile crisis, the Brazilian government presented a proposal at the UN to make Latin America a nuclear-weapon-free territory. However, it was not very successful.
Later, it was Mexico that took the initiative. Thus, its president Adolfo López Mateos wrote a letter in March 1963 to four Latin American governments: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Ecuador. In it, he invited them to make a statement announcing his intention to lead a joint action to rid the region of any nuclear weapon.
The presidents of the four nations that received the letter responded positively. Thus, on April 29 of the same year, the Declaration was announced simultaneously in the five capitals.
Only five days later, the Secretary General of the United Nations, U Thant, welcomed the Declaration of the Latin American presidents. They went to the UN headquarters to present their brief, explaining their objectives in detail. The reception was almost unanimously positive.
With this, the five countries obtained the explicit support of the United Nations to continue with their work..
The work to prepare the preliminary draft of the Treaty began at the beginning of October 1963. This first draft had the contributions, first, of the representatives of the five countries that had signed the Declaration. Later, the members of the Latin American Group also contributed their ideas.
After finishing it, it was presented to the First Committee of the Assembly, with the sponsorship of eleven Latin American delegations: Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, Uruguay and Mexico.
During eight sessions, the project was analyzed at the United Nations. The Commission decided to approve it on November 19, without changing anything in the original brief..
A week later, the General Assembly expressed its support and encouraged its Secretary General to provide the Latin American countries with all the necessary resources for the Treaty to come to fruition..
The final text was entrusted to an institution created for this purpose: the Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America (COPREDAL). Its presidents were Jorge Castañeda and Álvarez de la Rosa, and the headquarters were set in Mexico City.
In just four sessions, COPREDAL finalized the required text. On February 12, 1967, it was made available to the countries for signature on February 14. The Treaty entered into force on April 25, 1969.
The event that led Latin American countries to draw up the Treaty of Tlatelolco was the Cuban missile crisis, which occurred in the context of the Cold War..
In October 1962 the nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union was closer than ever. The Soviets agreed with Castro's Cuba to establish nuclear missiles in their territory, a few kilometers from the United States..
The response of Kennedy, president of the United States, was to declare a naval blockade of the islands. In the event that the Soviet Union tried to break the blockade, the United States threatened to attack.
Nikita Khrushchev and Kennedy established direct talks to try to avoid conflict. Meanwhile, the whole planet was waiting.
The United States called for the withdrawal of the project. The USSR, for its part, demanded that the rockets installed by the Americans in Turkey be dismantled, in addition to asking for guarantees so that Cuba would not be invaded..
In November, the Soviet shells were dismantled and the crisis ended without causing further damage..
The crisis not only caused Mexico to take the initiative to establish that Latin America and the Caribbean were free of nuclear weapons. It also led to Washington and Moscow creating a direct and fast communication system: the famous hotline..
The Treaty of Tlatelolco was signed on February 14, 1967 at the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Mexico, in the city that gives it its name. In principle, although it was ratified by most Latin American countries, it did not have Cuban support..
On October 23, 2002, Cuba decided to ratify it, with which the success of Mexican diplomacy was complete..
The main consequence of the signing of the Treaty of Tlatelolco was that Latin America, including the Caribbean, became the first zone on the planet, except Antarctica, free of nuclear weapons..
In its articles it was established that the signatory countries renounced the promotion or authorization of the use, test, manufacture, production, possession or control of any weapon of this type. They even promised not to participate, not even indirectly, in those activities..
Its article 5 established the definition of nuclear weapons as "any device that is capable of releasing nuclear energy in an uncontrolled manner and that has a set of characteristics inherent to use for warlike purposes.".
The protocol of the Treaty itself was already a true declaration of intent:
"The military denuclearization of Latin America and the Caribbean - understanding as such the international commitment contracted in this Treaty to keep their territories forever free of nuclear weapons will constitute a measure that prevents their peoples from wasting their nuclear weapons in terms of nuclear weapons. limited resources and that it protects them against eventual nuclear attacks on their territories; a significant contribution to preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and a valuable element in favor of general and complete disarmament "
To date, all 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries have ratified the Treaty. In addition, it contains two protocols that concern the powers that have nuclear weapons..
The first concerns those nations with, de facto or de jure, have territories in the region: the United States, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. All of these countries pledged not to deploy nuclear weapons in those possessions..
The second of the protocols affects all countries with a nuclear arsenal, including China and Russia. In this article, these nations agree not to use their weapons and not to threaten the countries of the region with them..
To control compliance with the Treaty, a new organization was created: the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (OPANAL). In addition, the International Atomic Energy Organization also began to participate in the checks.
Other parts of the planet followed the example of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. Thus, in the following years other agreements were signed that sought to eliminate nuclear weapons from various regions of the world..
Among the most important agreements are the South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty or the Rarotonga Treaty, signed in 1985; the African Treaty of the Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, also known as the Pelindaba Treaty, ratified in 1996 or the Treaty of a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Central Asia, signed in 2006.
As has been pointed out, the Treaty of Tlatelolco was proposed by the president of Mexico, Adolfo López Mateos, although the real promoter was the Mexican diplomat Alfonso García Robles. The latter, in recognition of his efforts, won the 1982 Nobel Peace Prize.
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