MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

OAS meeting: Brazil's armed forces displeased by invoking of TIAR

The countries that comprise the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty (TIAR) have approved the Brazilian government's initiative to mobilize the countries of the Americas to respond together to last week's attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The proposal was approved by 22 ambassadors who met in the United States' capital. The accord envisages the mutual defence of the continent's countries when one of them is attacked.

"The TIAR is a legal landmark. We would be worse off without it," explains Brazilian Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Walter Pecly. He acknowledges that there are problems in adapting the agreement to modern times. The TIAR was born in the post-war period (1947) and was used to contain the "advance of communism" on the continent - the backdrop to US interventions in its "backyard". Now it is hoped that it will prevent the USA from taking unilateral decisions in the western hemisphere...

The idea of using the TIAR came from the Foreign Ministry, 19 years after the last time the TIAR was thought of. In 1982, Argentina sought, unsuccessfully, the solidarity of the Americas to recover the Falkland Islands. The USA stood beside its British allies, arguing that the Argentine armed forces had invaded the islands and that there had been no armed aggression against the continent.

The [current] initiative did not please the Brazilian armed forces. Defence Ministry sources say that they were not consulted and that the TIAR is being invoked without assessing the consequences to Brazil.

The treaty goes against the plan being discussed in the Defence Ministry to create an area of peaceful military cooperation in South America...

Brazil disputes leadership

Brazil's haste in satisfying the Americans is part of a diplomatic move to recover its leadership in Latin America. Mexican President Vicente Fox, during a visit to the USA three weeks ago, announced that his country might reject the TIAR, since he considers it to be obsolete. He proposed a hemispheric meeting on security. With the proposal, Mexico assumed the leadership of the continent. Despite the Brazilian retort to the second largest country in Latin America, i