The Presidents of the Republic of Argentina, the Republic of Bolivia, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Colombia, the Republic of Ecuador, the Republic of Paraguay, the Republic of Peru, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as the representatives of the Heads of State of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, the Republic of Suriname, and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, gathered in Guayaquil on the occasion of the Second Meeting of Presidents of South America on July 26 and 27, 2002;

Bearing in mind the transcendence of the historical meeting in Guayaquil one hundred and eighty years ago, on July 26, 1822, between the Liberators José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, under whose guiding spirit they have come together at this gathering of the highest order;

Convinced that peace, security and cooperation should be grounded in commitments that reinforce mutual trust and promote development and the overall well-being of their peoples and of the region as a whole;

In view of the initiatives of various governments and regional groups, such as the Andean Peace, Security and Cooperation Commitment contained in the Declaration of Galapagos, of December 1989; the Declaration of Mercosur, Bolivia and Chile as a Peace Zone, signed in Ushuaia in July 1998; and the Lima Commitment, Andean Charter for Peace and Security signed on June 17, 2002; and

Recalling the commitment to create a South American Peace Zone, adopted in the Brasilia Communiqué on September 1, 2000,

HEREBY DECLARE:

South America to be a Zone of Peace and Cooperation, a historical event that reflects the best traditions of understanding and peaceful coexistence among the peoples of the region,

That, in the spirit of the above-mentioned instruments, in South America the use of, or the threat of the use of, force between States shall be banned, in keeping with the principles and the provisions of the United Nations Charter and of the Charter of the Organization of American States. The siting, development, manufacture, possession, deployment, testing, and use of any type of mass-destruction weapon, including nuclear, chemical, biological and toxic weapons, shall also be banned, as well as their transport through the countries of the region, in accordance with the Treaty of Tlatelolco and other international conventions on this matter.

That they likewise commit to establishing a gradual system of elimination that will lead, in the shortest time possible, to the complete eradication of antipersonnel mines, according to the provisions of the Ottawa Convention, and to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons.

That the Bases and Actions for the Project to Create a South American Peace and Cooperation Zone, formulated at the First Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Andean Community-Mercosur and Chile, held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on July 17, 2002, constitute an adequate set of guidelines geared to building that Peace Zone on firm foundations supported by the consensus of the whole region and based, among various other measures, on the fostering of trust, cooperation and ongoing consultations in the areas of security, defense, coordinated actions at the relevant international forums on disarmament and transparency and gradual limitations of arms purchases, under the system established in the Inter-American Convention on Transparency in Conventional Weapons Acquisitions, in the United Nations Register on Conventional Arms, and other procedures established in the regional and international conventions related to this important topic.

Guayaquil, July 27, 2002

Eduardo Duhalde
Republic of Argentina 

Jorge Quiroga
Republic of Bolivia

Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Federative Republic of Brazil 

Andrés Pastrana
Republic of Colombia

Ricardo Lagos
Republic of Chile 

Gustavo Noboa Bejarano
Republic of Ecuador

Luis Angel González Macchi
Republic of Paraguay 

Alejandro Toledo
Republic of Peru

Hugo Chávez Frías
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 

Luis Hierro López
Eastern Republic of Uruguay

Samuel R. Insanally
Cooperative Republic of Guyana 

Maria Elizabeth Levens
Republic of Suriname