The Contribution of Latin America and the Caribbean to Multilateral Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament

Abstract

This article addresses the developments and interconnections between regional and global-level negotiations to prohibit nuclear weapons. Ambassador Sergio Duarte, who has been one of the leading negotiators on nuclear weapons disarmament and nonproliferation since the 1960s and is the current president of the Pugwash movement, traces the history of Latin American and Caribbean efforts to forge stronger ties and foster regional cooperation. He goes back to the first quarter of the nineteenth century to show how those ties laid the ground for the conception of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the first Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in a populated area, and facilitated the region’s active role in nuclear affairs. He also dives into other successful arrangements, such as the creation of a binational agency (ABACC) that ensures control of nuclear materials in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to build confidence and increase cooperation in the nuclear field, and he describes the region’s key role in enabling the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 “Brazil also favors, in principle, the establishment of denuclearized zones in the world […]. Latin America might form such a zone.” Statement by Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco, Head of the Brazilian Delegation to the XVII Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 20 1962. Brazil in the United Nations 1946-2011. L.F. de Seixas Corrêa, org. (Brasília: Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão (FUNAG), 2013, Page 221, http://funag.gov.br/loja/download/1031-Brazil_in_the_United_Nations_1946_-_2011.pdf Access on April 15 2017.

2 More information available under https://www.abolition2000.org/en/about/abolition-2000/. Accessed on 29 February 2024.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sergio Duarte

Sergio Duarte is a President of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs. Former United Nations high-Representative for Disarmament Affairs University. E-mail: [email protected]