Uruguay will leave the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR, also known as Rio Pact) due to an “obvious attempt” by the other signatories to use it to threaten Venezuela with the use of force, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said at a press conference in Montevideo on Tuesday.
In a meeting convened by the Organization of American States, 16 of the 19 states party to the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, a 1947 pact known as the Rio Treaty, backed using the pact to collaborate on law-enforcement operations and economic sanctions against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and associates, accusing his regime of criminal activity including drug trafficking and money laundering.