Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance

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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 [1] among many American countries. 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).

1 Signatories
2 Background
3 History
4 References
5 See also
6 External link

[edit] Signatories

Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.

[edit] Background

The treaty was adopted by the original signatories on 1947-09-02 in Rio de Janeiro (hence the colloquial name "Rio Treaty"). It came into force on 1948-12-03. It was registered with the United Nations on 1948-12-20. [2] 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.

With the exceptions of Trinidad and Tobago (1967), Belize (1981), and the Bahamas (1982), no countries that became independent after 1947 have joined the treaty.

[edit] History

The treaty was invoked numerous times during the 1950s and 1960s, in particular supporting the United States during the Cold War^{[citation needed]}

During the Falklands War, 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.^[1] In 2001, the United States invoked the Rio Treaty after the September 11 attacks but Latin American democracies did not join the "War on Terror" actively.

In 2002, citing the Falklands example 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.

[edit] References

^ [http://socialsciences.scielo.org/scielo.php?pid=S0717-14982006000100001&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en The deep weakening of hemispheric relations occurred due to the American support, without mediation, to the United Kingdom in the Malvinas war in 1982, which definitively turned TIAR in dead letter.]