Cuba and Latin America: Zone of Peace and Nuclear Weapon Free
News from Cuba | Monday, 22 February 2016
In 1967 Latin America and the Caribbean agreed the Treaty of Tlatelolco banning nuclear weapons from the whole region.
This commitment was reaffirmed last month, January 2016, by all 33 countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC). The CELAC Special Declaration 21: ‘On the commitment to advance in the multinational negotiations on nuclear disarmament’, reaffirms Latin America and the Caribbean as a “Zone of Peace” and urges for a Nuclear Weapon Free World. You can download the full declaration here.
The Treaty of Tlatelolco, one of the most comprehensive in the world, prohibits the testing, use, manufacturing, production and acquisition as well as the receipt, storage installation and deployment of nuclear weapons.
At the UN General Assembly on 12 October 2015, CELAC, issued a call for Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zones around the world based on the example of the Treaty of Tlatelolco.
Cuba has consistently reaffirmed its position for a nuclear disarmament. In 2013, Rodolfo Benitez, Cuba’s deputy representative to the United Nations said:
“The huge resources currently being allocated to producing weapons, including atomic armament, could be used instead to fight extreme poverty, which is affecting 1.4 billion people in the world…. resources that could also be used to feed the over 1 billion people that go hungry on the planet, avoid the death of 11 million children that die from hunger or preventable diseases every year, or to teach some 759 million illiterate adults how to read and write.”
CND are organising a national anti-Trident demonstration on 27 February 2016 in London. Supporters of Cuba and Latin America may wish to join others including Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign and Viva! Bradford supporters at Marble Arch, 11.15am who will be distributing leaflets on the Latin America Zone of Peace.
