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Costa Rica urges Latin America to ratify treaty

Costa Rica is urging all of Latin America _ currently nuclear-weapon free _ to ratify the nuclear test-ban treaty, its ambassador to Austria said Monday.
Ana Teresa Dengo, Costa Rican ambassador to Vienna, said Costa Rica aims to turn the region into a nuclear-free zone during its two-year-term as head of the preparatory commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Her announcement came a day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government was building a nuclear reactor with Russia’s help.
Chavez has insisted that his plans are for a peaceful nuclear energy program. But his announcement may have raised some eyebrows in the U.S., which currently has strained ties with both countries.
Chavez also has strongly defended Iran’s nuclear program and argues that Western powers do not have the right to prevent developing countries from pursuing nuclear technology.
The United States and the European Union are concerned that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons despite the country’s insistence that it is pursuing nothing more than nuclear energy.
No Latin American country currently has nuclear weapons, although Brazil announced in August that it would develop a nuclear-propelled submarine to protect the oil reserves found recently off its coast.

Venezuela signed the test-ban treaty in 1996 and ratified it in 2002. Brazil signed the accord in 1996 and ratified it in 1998.
Among other Latin American countries, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, San Vicente and the Grenadines have not signed the treaty, and Guatemala has not ratified it.
Since 1996, 180 countries have signed the treaty and 145 countries have ratified it.