Text of resolution adopted at Seventh Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held at San José, Costa Rica, August 22-29,1960

The Seventh Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs

1. Condemns energetically the intervention or the threat of intervention, even when conditional, by an extra-continental power in the affairs of the American republics and declares that the acceptance of a threat of extra-continental intervention by any American state endangers American solidarity and security, and that this obliges the Organization of American States to disapprove it and reject it with equal vigor.

2. Rejects, also, the attempt of the Sino-Soviet powers to make use of the political, economic, or social situation of any American state, inasmuch as that attempt is capable of destroying hemispheric unity and endangering the peace and security of the hemisphere.

3. Reaffirms the principle of nonintervention by any American state in the internal or external affairs of the other American states, and reiterates that each state has the right to develop its cultural, political, and economic life freely and naturally, respecting the rights of the individual and the principles of universal morality, and as a consequence, no American state may intervene for the purpose of imposing upon another American state its ideologies or its political, economic, or social principles.

4. Reaffirms that the inter-American system is incompatible with any form of totalitarianism and that democracy will achieve the full scope of its objectives in the hemisphere only when all the American republics conduct themselves in accordance with the principles stated in the Declaration of Santiago, Chile, approved at the Fifth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the observance of which it recommends as soon as possible.

5. Proclaims that all member states of the regional organization are under obligation to submit to the discipline of the inter-American system, voluntarily and freely agreed upon, and that the soundest guarantee of their sovereignty and their political independence stems from compliance with the provisions of the Charter of the Organization of American States.

6. Declares that all controversies between member states should be resolved by the measures for peaceful solution that are contemplated in the inter-American system.

7. Reaffirms its faith in the regional system and its confidence in the Organization of American States, created to achieve an order of peace and justice that excludes any possible aggression, to promote solidarity among its members, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their political independence, since it is in this Organization that its members find the best guarantee for their evolution and development.

8. Resolves that this declaration shall be known as "The Declaration of San José, Costa Rica."

STATEMENTS

Statement of Mexico

Regarding the "Declaration of San José, Costa Rica," the Delegation of Mexico wishes to make it a matter of record that, in voting in favor of the said Declaration, it has done so with the following understanding:

"The Delegation of Mexico believes that, in reaffirming that each state has the right to develop its cultural, political, and economic life freely and naturally, it has removed even the most remote possibility that that inseparable attribute of sovereignty, which is the right of self-determination, can be impugned, even theoretically.

"The Delegation of Mexico is also of the opinion that the principle of nonintervention-the irreplaceable basis of peace and understanding among states-has been strengthened very effectively.

"Finally, the Delegation of Mexico is convinced that this is a resolution of a general character for all the members states of the Organization, and that in no way is it a condemnation or a threat against Cuba, whose aspirations for economic improvement and social justice have the fullest support of the Government and the people of Mexico."

Statement of Guatemala

The Delegation of Guatemala, in voting in favor of the Declaration of San José, Costa Rica, does so in an eminently American spirit, although it is convinced that the action of the Government of the Republic of Cuba, in adopting a policy inclined toward the Soviet Union and contrary to the inter-American system, is endangering the peace and the security of America, and that the American states would have been justified in assuming a stronger attitude in order to protect the interests of the hemisphere, in compliance with the Charter, agreement, and resolutions of the Organization of American States.

(1) Adopted on August 28, 1960, by a vote of 19-0. The Dominican Republic did not participate In the Seventh Meeting, and Cuba withdrew before the vote was taken. Back

Note - Other resolutions were also adopted at San José.