48th Anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco

Ambassadors and Representatives of States Party to the Treaty of Tlatelolco

Ambassadors and delegates of OPANAL Member States, with representation in Mexico, brought together on Saturday, February 14, 2015, at Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco, Mexico City, to commemorate the 48th Anniversary of the opening for signature of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco).

"Today we are in this place to commemorate the 48 years of a transcendent political and moral gesture, when the Latin American and Caribbean nations had the courage to decide that they would never have nuclear weapons and that they would not admit them in our region", Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares, Secretary-General of OPANAL, said before the Representatives of Member States and residents of Tlatelolco who attended the ceremony.

"Here the people of Latin America and the Caribbean said NO to nuclear weapons and called on countries that have such weapons to respect that decision", OPANAL Secretary-General added.

Patricio López Araujo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Ecuador in Mexico and President Pro-Tempore of OPANAL Council, affirmed that "the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), responsible for enforcing the control and verification system for non-proliferation, should play a central role in consolidating the international nuclear-weapons-free zone regime."

The commemoration of the 48th Anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco closed with the raising of the 33 flags of the Latin America and the Caribbean States.