Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance

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The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), also called the Rio Treaty, is a purely defensive agreement, that is, a Inter-American mutual defense pact signed on September 2, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro. The geographical area of action of the treaty includes the American continent and up to 300 nautical miles from the coast, including the region between Alaska, Greenland, in the north, and in the arctic zone up to the Aleutian Islands. In the south, the Antarctic regions, and the islets of San Pedro and San Pablo and Trinidad Island (detailed in article 4 of the Treaty).

According to article 3.1 in case of «(…) an armed attack by any State against an American Country, it will be considered as an attack against all the American Countries, and consequently, each of the Contracting Parties undertakes to help to face the attack in exercise of the immanent right of individual or collective legitimate defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations”.

This is the first treaty of its kind after World War II. The signing of the North Atlantic Treaty corresponds to 1949. Not all member states of the Organization of American States have signed it.

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States acts provisionally as a body. It is the consultation mechanism, but only the contracting parties to the TIAR participate in the vote. The Council is in charge of evaluating whether the conditions exist to convene a consultation meeting of the members of the TIAR or the application of the corresponding measures.

During the Malvinas war, the TIAR was invoked and promulgated in favor of Argentina but it could not be applied because this country was considered an aggressor by the United States, which supported the United Kingdom within the NATO framework. However, there have been many other cases where the treaty has not been respected.

History

The TIAR has been invoked at least 20 times during the 1950s and 1960s. Particularly during the blockade of Cuba in 1962 and the war between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969. However, it was never put into action due to threats from the Cold War.

Falklands War

Main articles: Falklands War and Operation Rosario.

On April 2, 1982, Argentina recaptured the Malvinas and South Georgia islands, evicting the occupying British authorities. The United Kingdom responded by sending an expeditionary fleet to restore colonial rule in the archipelagos. The archipelagos objects of the dispute were part of the area of jurisdiction of the TIAR.

During the movements prior to the landing in Stanley, the president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, unsuccessfully requested the Argentine dictator, Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, to stop the operation. After the occupation of the archipelagos, the US government sent its Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, to initiate an intermediary management between the two countries in conflict.

It is worth mentioning that the same day of the landing, the Security Council of the United Nations approved Resolution 502. It requested, among other things, the immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Argentine forces from the zone of the Falklands.

In his first meeting with Nicanor Costa Méndez, the Argentine foreign minister, Haig asked him not to call TIAR and told him that the United States believed in stopping the British fleet and withdrawing Argentine troops from the islands to make way for a transitional administration.

On April 28, the TIAR body approved, with 17 votes in favor and four abstentions —Chile, Colombia, the United States and Trinidad and Tobago—, a nine-point resolution that called on the United Kingdom to cease “hostilities » [sic] and warned Argentina not to take any action that could worsen the situation. The same resolution recognized Argentina's sovereignty over the islands. Two days later, Haig reported the end of his mission at the time that Reagan described Argentina as an "aggressor". The United States also announced the suspension of military aid to the South American country and the willingness to satisfy the military requirements of Great Britain.

The US position was similar to that of Chile and Colombia, which also argued that the TIAR is a purely defensive agreement in accordance with article 3.1. This did not mean the withdrawal of the United States from the TIAR as there was no official communication to the OAS of its resignation as a party (Article 25 of the TIAR). It was a de facto non-compliance with the obligations of the treaty.^{[citation needed]} However, the condition of the TIAR as an instrument of multilateral defense of the American continent was seriously delegitimized.

End of the Cold War

The last invocation of TIAR was made by the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001, with the aim of having American allies in the offensive it was preparing against Iraq. President George W. Bush asked Vicente Fox that Mexico participate in the preparations, but he refused to do so and, to avoid falling into any breach with respect to the TIAR, declared that this was an "obsolete" mechanism from the time of the Cold War, formalizing the exit of Mexico in 2002.

On June 5, 2012, the presidents of ALBA announced the en bloc withdrawal of the treaty.

Venezuelan crisis

In 2017, Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's foreign minister, announced her country's withdrawal from the OAS for its "intrusive actions against sovereignty." During the 2019 presidential crisis, the Venezuelan National Assembly considered irregulars the elections of the previous year and declared Nicolás Maduro usurper of the position of the Presidency. Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, was sworn in as president in charge of Venezuela based on the Constitution. However, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Bolivarian National Armed Forces do not recognize Guaidó's new position. By voting at the OAS, the majority of member countries recognized Juan Guaidó as interim president of their country and removed Asbina Marín Sevilla, the representative designated by the Government by Maduro, from her duties. On May 29, 2019, the National Assembly of Venezuela, approved in a first discussion the return of the country to the TIAR. On August 16, 2019, Gustavo Marcano, appointed as interim representative of the Guaidó administration, reported the official incorporation of Venezuela to the OAS. Later, the Guiadó government would announce the possibility of invoking the TIAR to militarily remove Maduro from office.