Ecuador withdrew from the Inter-American Treaty of reciprocal assistance

Ecuador withdrew from the continental treaty of military Defense, Rio Treaty ,signed in 1950 during the cold war for considering it “anachronistic”, according to a resolution passed on Tuesday by the ruling majority of the Assembly.

The agreement reported by the National Assembly, at the request of the Government of Rafael Correa, provides that members of the Organization of American States (OAS) respond in a single front to any extra-continental aggression.

“The Rio Treaty never had another reality that simply make an hemispheric commitment to combat and anti-communist crusade”, said Fernando Bustamante, President of the Legislative Commission of international relations, through a press release.

In June of 2012, on the occasion of a meeting of the OAS in the Bolivian town of Tiquipaya, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela – members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the peoples of our America (ALBA) – agreed to withdraw from the Rio Treaty.

Correa’s Government said the Treaty lost force after the 1982 war between Argentina and Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, when United States refused to support Buenos Aires. He also expressed that the Inter-American system of human rights and the OAS itself, are organisms protected by Washington.