OPANAL
The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (or Treaty of Tlatelolco) came into force on 22 April 1968, establishing a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (NWFZ) for 24 (now 33) Latin American states. The proposal was born after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and in 1963 Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and Mexico expressed readiness to sign a multilateral agreement. The Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America established in 1964 prepared a draft Treaty. After resolving the issues with the boundaries of the nuclear-weapon-free zone, transit guarantees, and safeguards on peaceful nuclear activities, the treaty was opened for signature at a regional meeting of Latin American countries at Tlatelolco, a district in Mexico City.
Why It Matters
A nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) is a specified region where the participating states agree to use nuclear material and facilities exclusively for peaceful purposes and prohibit: testing, use, production or acquisition of any nuclear weapons - directly or indirectly - on behalf of anyone else, or in any other way on their territories. Each NWFZ treaty has a protocol for ratification by the five nuclear-weapon states recognized under the NPT (China, France, Russia, the UK and US). The protocols call for the status of NWFZs to be respected and include pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against their members (negative security assurances). The initial NWFZ proposal was broached by Poland’s foreign minister Adam Rapacki (Rapacki Plan, 1958) and suggested the establishment of such a zone in Poland, Czechoslovakia, West Germany, and East Germany. However, all European initiatives were abandoned amid US-USSR superpower rivalry.
Further materials:
https://www.un.org/nwfz/content/treaty-tlatelolco
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nwfz
https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/treaties/latin-nuclear.html
