POLíTICA NUCLEAR
Panama Canal Zone. The us did offer willingness to inelude Guan–
tánamo within me zone assuming Cuba adhered to the agreement.
With the election al President Carter .expressing a strong commit–
ment to non-proliferation Latin American supporters of the treaty
(including me
OPANAL
Secretary General), supporters within the
us Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the efforts of some
outside tlle us government were successlul in bringing the issue be–
fore the spedal State Department group led by Joseph Nye.
On April 14, 1977 in a speech to me Organization of American
States, President Carter announced that me us would sign the
Protocol. Shortly o.ver a month later the President formally signed
me Protocol in a White House ceremony in which he repeated that
the us pledge was without qualification: "We wilI not deploy nu–
clear weapons in the Caribbean or in the Central or South Ameri–
can continent". In May of 1978, following a one year delay neces–
¡jitated by the completion oI the Panama Canal Treaty, President
Carter formally submítted the Protocol to the us Senate for its ad–
vice and consent to ratification. In his May 24, 1978 mess3ge to
the us Senate President Carter stated:
1 am convinced that it is in the best interest of the United States to
ratify Protocol l. Such a step
wil!
strengthen our relations with our Latn
American neighbors, further our global non-proliferation and arms control
objetives and contribute to the full realízation of the Latin American
nuclear free zone. It is my sincere hope that adherence by the UniLed States
to Protocol 1
will
induce other countries, eligible Lo become parties to the
treaty or its Protocols, to take the necessary steps so that the Lreaty may
enter into full force and effect for the entire zone of application.
The us ratificatíon of Protocol
1
was offered with the same under–
Itandings and declarations attached to its earlier ratification of
Protocol
II
particularly with a reafirmation of its transit and trans–
port privileges, exersize of
the
freedom oE me seas, and passage
through territorial waters. In summary me us through ratification
of Protocol
1
is applying articles
1, 3,
:>
and
13
of me Tlatelolco
Treaty to its territories within the zone of application (those te–
rritories being Puerto Rico, me Virgin Islands, Guantánamo and
me Panama Canal Zone (until entry into forme of the Panama
Canal Treaties) .
210
