In this unique volume on Latin America’s relations with the nuclear powers Mexico’s distinguished Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs has compiled the text and many of the documents relative to the formulation and ratification of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America. His introduction is a precise delineation of the steps by which the instrument, better known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco, came into existence. Bearing the impress of the Center for International Studies of El Colegio de México, this work is as authoritative as any official documentary collection.
Alfonso García Robles was the treaty’s architect, although several other persons were obviously associated with the historic pact. President Adolfo López Mateos first proposed the idea on March 21, 1963, in a letter to the chiefs of state of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador, and President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz later forcefully endorsed the proposal in his inaugural address. Historians may question whether this treaty stems from Bolivarian or Cold War origins, but it is obviously a classic manifestation of the idealism so characteristic of latino statecraft. When the treaty was signed on February 14, 1967, the United States praised it as a “milestone” in the cause of disarmament and on April 1, 1968, adhered to Protocol II, which guarantees the denuclearization status of Latin America.
The author has previously published several of the documents in his Desnuclearización de la América Latina, which the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has made available in English. Superior editing is characteristic of both works. One might have wished for a wider range of documents (neither of the sources referred to above appears), but that responsibility may more properly be left to the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. This book, like the Treaty of Tlatelolco, is a personal triumph for its author.