Mexico Calls for Replacement of Inter-American Defense Treaty

Mexican President Vicente Fox on Friday called for the replacement of the Inter-American Treaty on Reciprocal Assistance, a Cold War-era Western Hemisphere defense pact, with a new regional security structure to deal with economic backwardness, extreme poverty and organized crime.

The 1947 treaty, which is also known as the Rio Treaty, is widely regarded as the Western Hemisphere's NATO treaty.

"The treaty today represents a serious case of obsolescence and uselessness," Fox told a gathering at the Washington-based Organization of American States.

"The treaty is no longer useful as it grew out of factors and situations which have disappeared. The challenges to regional and international security have radically changed," Fox said.

"We don't confront an extracontinental enemy that obliges us to defend ourselves through a military alliance," said Fox, who is on his third day state visit to the United States.

Fox said Mexico is considering withdrawing from the treaty and promoting the building of a new regional structure to deal with the common adversaries that most of American nations now face.

"We do have shared adversaries that we should be combating ceaselessly and with all the determination of our nations: the lack of economic development and extreme poverty, transnational organized crime, breaks in democratic rule and the systematic violation of humanitarian law, the destruction of the environment and being left defenseless in the face of calamities and natural disasters," Fox said.

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