Cusco Dec. 7, 2004. CAN Secretary General Allan Wagner reported that last night the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers approved Chile’s request to participate as an Observer in the Andean Community.

The request of the Chilean government was addressed in a communication to the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which occupies the Pro Tempore Secretariat of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers.

Wagner recalled that Chile had originally been a member of the Andean Community, called at that time the Andean Pact or Cartagena Agreement, and had withdrawn in 1976. “Now, in a context in which the countries and integration groups are beginning to coordinate with each other, Chile has asked to join us as an Observer, on the way to forming an association with the CAN,” he stressed.

Chile is not the only country to possess the status of Observer. Panama’s request for acceptance as such was approved at the Eighth Meeting of the Andean Presidential Council, held in Trujillo in 1996.

Furthermore, in compliance with the Directive of the Andean Presidential Council, meeting in Quito on July 12, 2004, a special meeting of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, held in New York on September 21, 2004, agreed to extend an invitation to Mexico to assume an Observer status.

Other countries have participated as Special Guests in meetings of the Andean Presidential Council. Paraguay participated in the 1997 meeting in Sucre, Bolivia, and Brazil in the 2003 meeting in Quirama, Colombia.

It should be added here that although it is not a member of the CAN, Chile continues to participate in some institutions of the Andean Integration System (SAI) and to be ruled by some of the provisions of the Andean legal system.

The country participates in the Andean Health Body - Hipólito Unanue Convention, which is part of the Andean Integration System. Chile is also a shareholder –category C-- in the Andean Development Corporation, the SAI’s financial institution.

The possibility of inviting governments of third countries to participate as observers is provided for in the regulations of both the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the CAN Commission. Although no written regulation exists in the case of the Andean Presidential Council, it has been a recognized customary practice for the past several years, thereby confirmed the viability of that participation.