Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (commonly known as the Rio Treaty or by the Spanish-language acronym TIAR) was an agreement made in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro among many American countries that states among its articles that an attack against one would be considered an attack against them all; this was known as the hemispheric defense doctrine.
The treaty was ratified in 1948, with Bahamas as the last country to sign and ratify in 1982.
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Signatories
- Argentina, Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Uruguay
Background
The treaty 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 exception of the Bahamas, no country that became independent after 1947 has joined the treaty.
History
The treaty was invoked numerous times during the 1950s and 1960s, but fell into disuse as Cold War threats subsided. During the Falklands War actions favoring the United Kingdom by the United States, obligated to the Rio Treaty as well as NATO, effectively violated the provisions of the treaty. In 2001, the United States invoked the Rio Treaty after the September 11 attacks. In 2002, citing the Falklands example and anticipating the Iraq War, Mexico formally withdrew from the treaty, ceasing to be a signatory in September 2004.
External links
- The treaty text hosted by the Organization of American States (http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/Treaties/b-29.html)es:Tratado Interamericano de Asistencia Recíproca
