STATE
Downwinders advocate Tina Cordova calls for nuclear disarmament in UN speech
Tina Cordova, founder of the , addressed the 近距离内射合集 Nations General Assembly on Monday in hopes of convincing global leaders to stop nuclear weapons tests like the one that sickened generations of her family in New Mexico.
The 近距离内射合集 Nations commemorated the International Day against Nuclear Tests, which is Aug. 31, with a series of speeches decrying the human and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons testing.
Cordova spoke at the UN headquarters in New York City on the invitation of UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock. Baerbock said in a news release that she invited Cordova to 鈥渞aise awareness about the effects of nuclear weapons tests explosions or any other nuclear explosions and the need for their cessation as one of the means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.鈥�
Cordova, , recounted the 1945 Trinity Test that she said marked 鈥渢he beginning of the end for tens of thousands of people that we鈥檝e documented, including babies that died in record numbers in the year after Trinity.鈥�
Cordova, who founded the consortium more than 20 years ago to advocate for compensation for New Mexico鈥檚 downwinders, did not immediately respond to Source NM鈥檚 request for comment Monday morning. But, in a news release Aug. 27, she called the speech before global leaders 鈥渁n honor of a lifetime.鈥�
In her speech, she referenced the of the Radiation and Exposure Compensation Act, which included downwinders and some New Mexico uranium miners, as the first-ever acknowledgement of New Mexicans鈥� 鈥渟acrifice and their suffering.鈥� Members of Congress are that would further expand RECA to cover additional groups and radiation-linked cancers.
But Cordova said compensation for past harms is not enough, and urged the leaders to remember the Trinity Test 81 years ago as reason to fully abolish nuclear weapons.
鈥淚t鈥檚 time we set our families, our children and our grandchildren free from nuclear threat,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e must commit ourselves to a world without nuclear testing, a world without nuclear weapons.鈥�
