Vice president of Bolivia visits Hiroshima, pledges to work together for nuclear abolition
Apr. 17, 2015
by Masanori Wada, Staff Writer
On April 15, Vice President García Linera of Bolivia visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the first time and toured Peace Memorial Museum. Mr. Linera stressed, “Nuclear weapons must never be used again.”
Guided by Yasuyoshi Komizo, the chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, Mr. Linera made his way through the museum, looking closely at a model of the city center in the aftermath of the atomic bombing and a bridge beam twisted by the bomb blast. After the tour, he offered flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.
Bolivia signed the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (the so-called Treaty of Tlatelolco, which came into force in 1968) with other Central and South American nations, the first treaty of its kind. The impetus for this agreement was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the United States and the former Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war. Mr. Linera said, “I understand the desire of the people of Hiroshima for a world free of nuclear weapons. I want to work together to achieve this goal.”
According to the Hiroshima City Office, his visit to Hiroshima was arranged at his personal request.
(Originally published on April 16, 2015)
On April 15, Vice President García Linera of Bolivia visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the first time and toured Peace Memorial Museum. Mr. Linera stressed, “Nuclear weapons must never be used again.”
Guided by Yasuyoshi Komizo, the chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, Mr. Linera made his way through the museum, looking closely at a model of the city center in the aftermath of the atomic bombing and a bridge beam twisted by the bomb blast. After the tour, he offered flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.
Bolivia signed the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (the so-called Treaty of Tlatelolco, which came into force in 1968) with other Central and South American nations, the first treaty of its kind. The impetus for this agreement was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the United States and the former Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war. Mr. Linera said, “I understand the desire of the people of Hiroshima for a world free of nuclear weapons. I want to work together to achieve this goal.”
According to the Hiroshima City Office, his visit to Hiroshima was arranged at his personal request.
(Originally published on April 16, 2015)
