This democratic vocation has been reaffirmed over the years in a variety of pronouncements, such as the Andean countries’ contribution to the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua and their rejection of the attempt by Colonel Natush Bush to overthrow the Bolivian Government.

A further expression of that vocation were the efforts of Colombia, Peru and Venezuela to secure peace and democracy in Central America through the Contadora and Support Groups backed by the Andean Group, which later gave way to the creation of the Political Consultation and Coordination Mechanism, initially known as the Group of Eight and, as of its enlargement, as the Group of Río.

In 1980, when the rule of law had been reestablished in all of the Andean countries, the Andean Presidents, in Riobamba, Ecuador, signed the Code of Conduct establishing the democratic nature of the Subregion’s political systems, together with the Member Countries’ commitment to respect human, political, economic and social rights as their basic norm of national behavior.

Among the more recent events, attention should be drawn to the Declaration of the Andean Council of Presidents on Democracy and Integration, signed in Bogotá on August 7, 1998, during Andrés Pastrana’s Presidential inauguration.

That Declaration reiterates the CAN’s commitment to democracy by establishing that “the Andean Community is a community of democratic nations” and “that among its main objectives are the development and consolidation of democracy and the rule of law, as well as respect for human rights and basic freedoms.”

Along this same line, an area of Common Foreign Policy action in the political terrain is the affirmation of democracy as a requirement for consolidation of the subregion’s integration process and for helping to strengthen democracy and human rights through the Andean Community’s international dialogue and cooperation activities.

The Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, at the request of the Andean Presidents, drew up a draft Additional Protocol to the Cartagena Agreement, the “Andean Community Commitment to Democracy.” Four of the Member Countries signed this document in Oporto, Portugal, on October 17, 1998 and the last one signed it at the Twelfth Meeting of the Andean Council of Presidents on June 9 and 10, 2000.

The Protocol stipulates that “the full effectiveness of the democratic institutions and the rule of law” are an essential precondition for political cooperation and integration and indicates the procedures to be followed in the event that the democratic order is disrupted in any of the Member Countries.

Those measures range from the suspension of the country’s participation in any of the bodies of the Andean Integration System and its “ineligibility to accede to the facilities or loans of the Andean financial institutions,” to the “suspension of rights deriving from the Cartagena Agreement and the coordination of external measures in other spheres.”

Drawing their inspiration from this Protocol and from the Southern Common Market’s 1998 Protocol of Usuaia, the Presidents of the Andean Community and the Mercosur countries approved, on September 1, 2000 in the city of Brasilia, the so-called “democratic clause” in paragraph 23 of the Communiqué, which states that “Maintenance of the rule of law and full respect for the democratic system in each of the twelve countries of the region constitute an objective and a shared commitment, which as of today is a prerequisite for participation in future South American meetings.” The Presidents went on to add that “Respecting the existing regional mechanisms, they agreed, in that connection, to hold political consultations if a disruption of the democratic order in South America is threatened.”

This “South American democratic clause” is a key element for the integration of this community of democratic nations in South America and commits them to the exercise of democracy and the rule of law in the region.

At their March 2001 meeting in Lima, the Andean Community Foreign Ministers reiterated their countries’ strong democratic vocation and agreed upon the need to further strengthen the institutions and to promote respect for human rights.

After underscoring the importance of the application in full of the “Andean Community Commitment to Democracy,” the Foreign Ministers reiterated their support for Peru’s initiative to adopt an “Inter-American Democratic Charter.” This was accomplished on September 11, 2001, during the Special General Assembly of the Organization of American States, in Lima.

Furthermore, our leaders, at the Thirteenth Andean Council of Presidents, held in Valencia, Venezuela on June 23 and 24, 2001, reiterated their firm intent to continue strengthening democratic rule in the Andean countries.

They agreed that the democratic governance of their respective countries is an absolute priority and, accordingly, reiterated their commitment to resolve, by constitutional means, any temporary difficulty that could arise in the Andean region.

The Heads of State, moreover, in the Machu Picchu Declaration on Democracy, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the War against Poverty, signed on July 29, 2001 on the occasion of Alejandro Toledo’s Presidential inauguration in Peru, expressed their firm conviction that democracy, development and respect for human rights and basic freedoms are interdependent and mutually strengthening.

In this connection, they reiterated their intention to reinforce democracy as a system of government and as an irreplaceable element of our political identify, to promote democratic values as a way of life and to defend democratic institutions and the rule of law in Latin America and the Caribbean. They further reaffirmed that the effective exercise of democracy requires the strengthening of its participatory nature.

As pointed out above, an immediate precedent to be considered is the Riobamba Code of Conduct, signed on September 11, 1980 by the Presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela and the Personal Representative of the President of Peru.

In that document, the Andean countries reaffirmed that respect for human, political, economic and social rights is a fundamental domestic rule of conduct of the Andean States and that its defense is an international obligation to which the Status are bound, and that, as a result, joint action taken to protect those rights does not violate the principle of non-intervention.

It should be recalled that the Andean countries have been promoters and signers of most of the international instruments for the protection and promotion of human rights, within both the United Nations and the Organization of American States, and this has become an important basis for the design of a Community policy on the subject.

Among the notable instruments in which the Andean countries have played a significant role, is the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action. Its key principles include the responsibility of the international community for promoting and defending human rights, the holistic conception of those rights, and the connection between democracy, human rights and development.

The Andean Presidents have followed this course of international pronouncements at their consecutive annual meetings of the Andean Council of Presidents. At the Thirteenth Andean Council of Presidents in Valencia, Venezuela, on June 23 and 24, 2001, our leaders announced their decision to approve an Andean Human Rights Charter to ensure the effective exercise of human rights, reinforce democratic governance and the rule of law, and firmly establish a culture of peace in the Andean nations.

They, accordingly, instructed the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to draw up this Charter, which was to contain the principles and main lines of a Community policy on the subject and a cooperation program to expedite specific actions aimed at ensuring the observance of and respect for those rights in the Andean region, within the framework of the 1980 American Human Rights Convention and the Riobamba Code of Conduct.

The intention was for this Andean Charter to, among other things, strengthen the rule of law and improve the administration of justice; promote a culture of peace through dialogue, tolerance and concerted decisions, as social consensus-building instruments; reinforce the right to development; and build up institutions for the defense and promotion of human rights in the Member Countries, particularly the Offices of the Ombudsmen.

In the cited Machu Picchu Declaration on Democracy, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the War against Poverty, signed on July 2001, for its part, the Presidents renewed their governments’ commitment to the exercise of and respect for human rights. They also reiterated their will to strengthen the Inter-American Human Rights System, including the possibility of the progressively permanent operation of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, and to foster the universality of the Inter-American system for the protection of human rights.

It is important to draw attention to the Presidents’ support for all efforts to promote and protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the indigenous peoples, among them: the right to their own spiritual, cultural and linguistic identity and traditions; their social, political, cultural and economic rights; their right, as peoples, not to be divested of their historical cultural heritage; their right to their systems and knowledge of traditional medicine and to its practice, including the right to protection of their ritual sites and sacred places; their right to an education that respects their differences; and the right to be elected to and to hold public office.

The Heads of State also expressed their intention to safeguard these rights within the public order and in compliance with existing constitutional and legal provisions, among other significant agreements.

It is important to emphasize here that the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, at its Twelfth Regular Meeting, held on May 7, 2004 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, adopted Decision 586 “Working Program for the Dissemination and Execution of the Andean Charter for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,” that establishes specific goals for the Promotion of the Andean Charter; for its national and international implementation; for its follow-up; and for its projection in the medium and short terms. In addition, it contains a general timetable and indicates ways to seek the financing needed for the program’s implementation.

As a result of that Program, the Andean Charter is available in Quechua and Shuar, prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, and in Spanish, from the Andean Labor Advisory Council.