Chapultepec, Act of

Chapultepec, Act of, signed at the pan-American conference in Mexico City held 21 February– 8 March 1945. The conference was held in a museum on Chapultepec Hill, hence the Act's name, and was first proposed by Argentina the government of which was not recognized by the Allied powers. The US secretary of state, Edward Stettinius, regarded Argentina's request to have the conference to discuss its relations with other American powers as a ‘brazen and insincere move’, but Mexico pressed for the conference to be held in order to discuss existing problems as the war approached its end. But Argentina was not invited and discussion about it was relegated to the penultimate item on the agenda.

‘The problems at the heart of the conference were those of world organization, the future of the inter-American system, and the social and economic difficulties of Latin America both during and after the transition from war to peace’ ( R. Humphreys, Latin America and the Second World War, Vol. 2, London, 1982, p.213). The first matter to be agreed, concerned the harbouring of war criminals, was never held to. ‘Under the resolutions adopted here,’ Stettinius stated, ‘no Axis leader, official, or agent who is guilty of crimes against law and civilization in this war will be able to escape punishment by finding refuge in this hemisphere.’ (see Barbie, Eichmann, Mengele).

The Act, which was signed at the end of the conference, stated that any act of aggression on any American state, from without or within, would be considered an act of aggression on all. The conference also recommended an Inter-American Defence Treaty and one was eventually signed at Rio de Janeiro in 1947. As a result of a motion passed at the conference, Argentina declared war on the Axis powers and signed the Act, and on 9 April its government was recognized by the UK and USA. See also Latin America.