UN General Assembly
1967

55. It is nevertheless encouraging, in the midst of this gloomy picture, to record the adoption at Mexico City, on 14 February of this year, of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America. For Colombia the paramount interest of this Treaty lies in the fact that it prevents nuclear competition among the Latin American countries in that it imposes upon them the obligation to refrain in future from possessing or manufacturing such weapons. Our peoples are overwhelmed with need, even to achieve minimum conditions for leading a life worthy of human beings and for enjoying the benefits of civilization. All that we can invest in this effort is a mere trifle compared with the magnitude of the need, and if one of the countries of Latin America were to decide to manufacture nuclear weapons we should soon see the others following suit, committing a large part of their scanty resources to it. We do not, therefore, want to be confronted with this state of affairs, which would be fatal for a region that is desperately striving to achieve development and which would thus see all its hopes of recovery shattered.