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Treaty Text Opened for
Signature: February 14, 1967
Entered into Force: April 25, 1969
Number of
States Parties:
33 (all the countries in Latin America and
Caribbean)
The
Latin America and Caribbean NWFZ was the first NWFZ covering a densely populated
area. After Cuba's long awaited ratification in October 2002, all 33
countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are members to the treaty.
Early movement toward establishment of the
Latin America and Caribbean NWFZ began in 1958, when Costa Rica first proposed a
Latin American nuclear arms control arrangement to the
Organization for the
American States (OAS). The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962
heightened concerns over the nuclear arms race and catalyzed efforts to
establish a NWFZ. The UN General Assembly approved a resolution on
denuclearization of Latin America submitted by 11 Latin American states on
November 27, 1963. After four years of negotiations to work out the details,
the Treaty of Tlatelolco was opened for signature on February 14, 1967.
Although the majority of state signed the treaty within the first year of its
opening for signature, it took almost 30 years for the treaty to secure
universality in the entire
zone of application. Cuba refused to sign the treaty until 1995, and
did not formally
ratify until 2002, making it the final state in the region to become party
to the treaty. Thus, the complete implementation of the treaty with all 33
states in the region was finally realized 35 years after it was opened for
signature.
Parties to the Treaty of Tlatelolco have agreed not to test, use, manufacture,
produce, or acquire nuclear weapons, or to receive, store, install, or deploy
nuclear weapons in their territory. In order to verify if each member state is
in compliance with these pledges, each state must accept IAEA full-scope
safeguards. In addition to the IAEA safeguards, the treaty also establishes a
regional inspection organization, the
Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons in Latin America (OPANAL). An amendment in August
1992 designated the IAEA as the sole authority to carry out
special
inspections of parties to the treaty. Unlike other NWFZs, the Treaty of
Tlatelolco allows so-called peaceful nuclear explosives (PNEs)
under controlled circumstances. However, the NPT, which entered into force after Tlatelolco,
and which all the states in the
Latin America and Caribbean NWFZ have joined, prohibits PNEs in
non-nuclear-weapon states.
In addition to securing the
nuclear-weapons-free status of Latin America, the Treaty of Tlatelolco also
contributed to the entry of Argentina and Brazil into the international nuclear
nonproliferation regime. Beginning in the 1950s, both Argentina and Brazil,
longtime rivals in the region, pursued ambitious nuclear programs for
both peaceful and military purposes. During the 1960s and 1970s, both countries
were ruled by military governments, both of which pursued nuclear weapons.
However, in the 1980s, with the return of democratically elected governments in
both countries and an improvement in bilateral relations, the halting of both
nuclear weapon programs became a possibility.
In the 1980s, the two nations began to discuss nuclear issues and
in 1991 they signed a bilateral agreement promising to only use nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes. This agreement established the
Brazilian-Argentine Accounting and
Control Commission (ABACC) to verify compliance through mutual inspections of nuclear facilities.
Argentina and Brazil both joined the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1994 and later
acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon states (Argentina in 1995 and Brazil in
1998).
The Treaty of Tlatelolco includes two protocols:
- Protocol I states that outside nations with territories in Latin America
must respect the treaty's denuclearization requirements with respect to
those territories;
- Protocol II provides that nuclear weapons states must pledge not to use or
threaten to use nuclear weapons against states within the NWFZ -- this pledge is known as a
negative security assurance.
All five nuclear weapons states
have signed and ratified both Protocol I and II, guaranteeing all states within
the NWFZ negative security assurances. The Treaty of
Tlatelolco has served as a model for the establishment of NWFZs in other areas.
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