Rio Treaty

Rio pact members in dark blue, nations that left in cyan.

The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (commonly known as the Rio Treaty, the Rio Pact, or by the Spanish-language acronym TIAR from Tratado Interamericano de Asistencia Recíproca) was an agreement ratified on 1947 in Rio de Janeiro among many American countries.^[1] The central principle contained in its articles is that an attack against one is to be considered an attack against them all; this was known as the "hemispheric defense" doctrine. The treaty was initially ratified in 1947, with Bahamas as the most recent country to sign and ratify it in 1982. It came into force in 1948 (in accordance with Article 22 of the treaty).^[2]

Members

History

The treaty was adopted by the original signatories on September 2, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro (hence the colloquial name "Rio Treaty"). It came into force on December 3, 1948. It was registered with the United Nations on December 20, 1948.^[3] It was the formalisation of the Act of Chapultepec, adopted at the Inter-American Conference on the Problems of War and Peace in 1945 in Mexico City. The United States had maintained a hemispheric defense policy under the Monroe Doctrine, and during the 1930s had been alarmed by Axis overtures toward military cooperation with Latin American governments, in particular apparent strategic threats against the Panama Canal. During the war Washington had been able to secure Allied support from all individual governments except Uruguay, which remained neutral, and wished to make those commitments permanent.

The treaty was invoked numerous times during the 1950s and 1960s, in particular supporting the United States during the Cold War^{[citation needed]} With the exceptions of Trinidad and Tobago (1967) and the Bahamas (1982), no countries that became independent after 1947 have joined the treaty. During the Falklands War (Malvinas in Spanish), the United States, who is committed to the Rio Treaty as well as NATO, arguing that Argentina was the aggressor, favoured the United Kingdom. This was seen by Latin American countries as the final failure of the treaty.^{[4] [5]} In 2001, the United States invoked the Rio Treaty after the September 11 attacks but all Latin American democracies, with the exception of four Central America countries, did not join the "War on Terror" actively ^[6]. In September 2002, citing the Falklands example ^{[7] [8]} and anticipating the Iraq War, Mexico formally withdrew from the treaty; after the requisite two years, Mexico ceased to be a signatory in September 2004.

On 2008, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) created a new regional security council to take care of own defence issues. ^{[9] [10]}

See also

• Military alliance
• United States-Latin American relations

References