Additional Protocol to the Cartagena Agreement "Andean Community Commitment to Democracy"

(This Protocol finished being signed by the Andean Foreign Ministers on June 10, 2000 and will enter into effect once it has been ratified by the Congresses of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and the respective instruments have been deposited with the General Secretariat of the Andean Community.)

The Governments of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela,

REAFFIRMING the Cartagena Agreement, which states that the Member Countries agree to sign the Subregional Integration Agreement "Founded on principles of equality, justice, peace, solidarity, and democracy";

STRESSING that the Andean Community is a community of democratic nations that have shown a sustained will to promote democratic living and the constitutional state, both in the Andean Subregion and in Latin America and Caribbean ever since the birth of their integration movement;

ASSERTING that the aim of the Andean Community’s political action and of its common foreign policy is to develop, improve, and consolidate democracy and the constitutional state; and

RATIFYING the Presidential Declaration on the Andean Community Commitment to Democracy, signed in Bogota on August 7, 1998,

AGREE as follows:

Article 1.- Democratic institutions and a constitutional state that are fully effective are essential to the political cooperation and the process of economic, social, and cultural integration carried out within the framework of the Cartagena Agreement and of other instruments of the Andean Integration System.

Article 2.- The provisions of this Protocol shall be applicable if the democratic order is disrupted in any of the Member Countries

Article 3.- In the event of developments that could be considered a disruption of the democratic order in any Member Country, the other Andean Community Member Countries shall consult with each other and, if possible, with the country involved in order to examine the nature of those developments.

Article 4.- If the consultations cited in the previous Article so establish it, the Council of Foreign Ministers shall be convened to ascertain whether the developments in question constitute a disruption of the democratic order, in which case appropriate measures shall be adopted for its prompt reestablishment

These measures specifically concern the relations and commitments deriving from the Andean integration process. They shall be taken in accordance with the seriousness and the evolution of political developments in the country in question and shall include:

Suspension of the Member Country’s participation in any of the bodies of the Andean Integration System;
Suspension of its participation in the international cooperation projects carried out by the Member Countries;
Extension of the suspension to other System bodies, including its disqualification by Andean financial institutions from obtaining access to facilities or loans;
Suspension of rights to which it is entitled under the Cartagena Agreement and of the right to coordinate external action in other spheres; and
Other measures and actions that are deemed pertinent under International Law.

Article 5.- The measures cited in the previous article shall be adopted by the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers through a Decision, without the participation of the Member Country involved. That Decision shall become effective on the date of its approval and the country in question shall be notified immediately thereof.

Article 6.- Without prejudice to the foregoing, the Governments of the Member Countries shall continue to take diplomatic steps to bring about the reestablishment of democratic order in the Member Country in question.

Article 7.- Measures adopted pursuant to Article 4 shall cease through a Decision once the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers ascertains that democratic order has been reestablished in the Member Country in question.

Article 8.- The Andean Community shall seek to incorporate a democratic clause in the agreements it signs with third parties, in accordance with the criteria set out in this Protocol.

Article 9.- This Protocol shall enter into force when all of the Member Countries have deposited their respective instruments of ratification with the General Secretariat of the Andean Community.

Done at Oporto, Portugal on the twenty-seventh of October of nineteen ninety-eight, in five original copies, all equally authentic.

For the Republic of Bolivia

For the Republic of Colombia

For the Republic of Ecuador

For the Republic of Peru

For the Republic of Venezuela