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Resolutions Adopted at the Twelfth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Washington, D.C., June 19-September 24, 1967

Resolution- I.-Adopted June 19, 1967

The Twelfth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

CONSIDERING:

The note dated June 1, 1967, addressed by the Representative of Venezuela to the Chairman of the Council of the Organization and the statement made by the Special Delegate of Venezuela during the plenary session held today,

RESOLVES:

1. To authorize its President to appoint a committee to go to Venezuela, gather additional information, and make such verification as it considers advisable of the events that took place in Venezuela and that were denounced by the government of that country in its note of June 1, 1967, to the Chairman of the Council of the Organization of American States, which was considered at the special meeting held by that Organ on June 5.

2. To request the American governments and the Secretary General of the Organization to cooperate with the Committee, which shall begin working as soon as it has been constituted.

3. That the Committee shall submit a report to the Meeting of Consultation as soon as possible.

4. To inform the United Nations Security Council of the text of the present resolution, in accordance with the provisions of Article 54 of the Charter of the United Nations.

Resolution II.-Adopted July 10, 1967

The Twelfth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs

RESOLVES:

1. To establish an eight-member committee to prepare a report on the events related to the so-called Afro-Asian-Latin American Peoples' Solidarity Conference that have occurred since the report of November 25 1966, presented by the Special Committee to Study Resolutions II.1 and VIII of the Eighth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

2. To authorize the President of the Twelfth Meeting of Consultation to designate the states that should compose the aforementioned committee.

3. To request the Secretary General of the Organization to give the Committee the assistance it needs to achieve the objective stated above.

Resolution III.-Adopted September 24, 1967

WHEREAS:

The report of Committee I of the Twelfth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs establishes among its conclusions that "it is clear that the present Government of Cuba continues to give moral and material support to the Venezuelan guerrilla and terrorist movement and that the recent series of aggressive acts against the Government of Venezuela is part of the Cuban Government's continuing policy of persistent intervention in the internal affairs of other American states by fostering and organizing subversive and terrorist activities in their territories";

Committee II of the Twelfth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, responsible for preparing a report on events related to the so-called First Afro-Asian-Latin American Peoples' Solidarity Conference, stated that the so-called First Latin Peoples' Solidarity Conference, held in Havana from July 31 to August 10, 1967, "represents a further step in the efforts of communism and other subversive forces in the hemisphere to promote, support, and coordinate guerrilla, terrorist, and other subversive activities directed against established governments" and gives "testimony once again to the efforts of the Government of Cuba to control and direct these subversive activities in our hemisphere."

During the course of the Twelfth Meeting of Consultation the Government of Bolivia has presented proof of intervention by the Government of Cuba in the preparation, financing, and organization of guerrilla activities in its territory;

The precarious social and economic conditions under which the peoples of Latin America live serve communism as a means for promoting internal subversion that distorts the legitimate aspirations for justice and for change in our countries;

The affirmation that the democratic system is the appropriate path for achieving the desires of the Latin American peoples must be supported by adequate actions and programs that will promote the structural changes necessary for progress and for all strengthening of the system itself;

Economic cooperation among the American states to accelerate and harmonize development is essential to the stability of democracy and the consolidation of the inter-American system in the fact of the subversive aims of international communism; and

Respect for and observance of human rights constitute a basic universal as well as inter-American juridical principle essential to the effective security of the hemisphere, and in spite of this, events occur n practice that are incompatible with the system of protection and guarantee that all countries are obligated to establish in behalf of the individual,

The Twelfth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs

RESOLVES:

1. To condemn emphatically the present Government of Cuba for its repeated acts of aggression and intervention against Venezuela and for its persistent policy of intervention in the internal affairs of Bolivia and of other American states, through the incitement and active and admitted support of armed bands and other subversive activities directed against the governments of those states.

2. To request friendly states not members of the Organization of American States that share the principles of the inter-American system to restrict their commercial and financial operations with Cuba, as well as sea and air transport with that country, especially transactions and transport conducted by state entities, until such time as the Cuban regime ceases its policy of intervention and aggression, and to indicate to them that the granting of state credits or credit guarantees to private firms conducting such transactions cannot be viewed as a friendly gesture by the member states of the Organization. In this sense it is recommended to the governments of the member states that, individually or collectively they reiterate this position to the governments of those states.

3. To request the governments that support the formation of the so-called Afro-Asian-Latin American Peoples' Solidarity Organization (AALAPSO) to withdraw their support or adherence from that organization, as well as from the "Second Tricontinental Conference,' scheduled to be held in Cairo in January 1968. To denounce these activities as contrary to the sovereignty, peaceful relations, and social and economic development of the peoples. To declare that the support by extra continental countries for activities conducive to subversion in Latin America jeopardizes solidarity among the developing countries, the increasing importance of which is reflected particularly in the efforts being made to restructure international trade on more equitable bases.

4. To express to the states not members of the Organization of American States that support the Government of Cuba the serious concern of the member states of the Organization, inasmuch as that support tends to stimulate the interventionist and aggressive activities of the Cuban regime against the countries of the Western Hemisphere, and since the cause of peaceful relations will be jeopardized so long as those activities continue. To this end, it is recommended to the governments of the member states of the Organization that they carry out joint or individual representations directed to the states that support the Government of Cuba, in order to manifest this concern to them.

5. To recommend to the governments of the member states of the Organization of American States that they apply strictly the recommendations contained in the First Report of the Special Committee to Study Resolutions II.1 and VIII of the Eighth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of July 3, 1963, relative to the prevention of propaganda and of the movement of funds and arms from Cuba and other illegal sources to other American countries, as well as to the strengthening of controls on travel to and from Cuba in order to prevent the movement of subversive elements, and that they coordinate more effectively their efforts aimed at preventing such movements and shipments.

6. To recommend to the governments of the member states of the Organization that, in accordance with their domestic legislation, they adopt or intensify, as appropriate, measures of vigilance and control on their respective coasts and borders, in order to prevent the entry into their own territory, or the exit, of men, arms, or equipment coming from Cuba and intended for purposes of subversion and aggression.

7. To recommend to the governments of the member states of the Organization that, in accordance with their constitutional and legal provisions, they maintain within their territory the strictest vigilance over the activities of the so-called Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO) and its "national committees."

8. To recommend to the governments of the member states of the Organization the application, where pertinent, of all the recommendations contained in the Report of the Special Committee to Study Resolutions II.1 and VIII of the Eighth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, on the so-called First Afro-Asian-Latin American Peoples' Solidarity Conference and its Projections ("Tricontinental Conference of Havana"), dated November 25, 1966.

9. To recommend to the governments of the member states that they take such steps as they deem pertinent in order to coordinate, among neighboring countries, the measures of vigilance, security, and intelligence indicated in paragraphs 5, 6, 7, and 8 above.

10. To recommend to the governments of the member states that they decline to ship any governmental or government-financed cargo in any vessel that, following the date of this resolution, has engaged in the shipment of cargo to or from Cuba, and that, in addition, they take necessary measures to prohibit the bunkering of any such vessel in their ports, with the exception of those cases in which shipments are made for humanitarian purposes.

11. To reaffirm that the maintenance of order and of internal and external security is the exclusive responsibility of the government of each member state without prejudice to its reiterated adherence to the principle of collective and mutual security for the preservation of peace, in accordance with the treaties on this subject.

12. To express its concern that the growth rates of the developing countries of Latin America and the level of their participation in international trade do not keep up with the corresponding rates of growth and trade expansion of the industrialized countries of the world, and that this situation could result in new and more acute social conflicts that could be used to advantage to provoke or intensify subversion and violence and to disturb the development of the hemisphere.

13. To reaffirm that the principal means of achieving security and prosperity in the hemisphere is development by peaceful and democratic methods, and that the subversion promoted by Cuba disturbs that process.

14. To reiterate its conviction that economic and social development can and should be achieved only within a system that respects democracy and human rights' and on the basis of actions and programs that will coordinate domestic efforts with international cooperation, to satisfy the undeferrable aspirations and needs of the peoples of the Americas.

15. To instruct the Secretary General of the Organization of American States to transmit to the United Nations Security Council the text of this resolution and of the reports of Committees I and II of this Meeting of Consultation, in accordance with Article 54 of the Charter of the United Nations.

Resolution IV.-Adopted September 24, 1967

WHEREAS:

Article 34 and the first paragraph of Article 35 of the Charter of the United Nations read as follows:

Article 34. The Security Council may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute, in order to determine whether the continuance of the dispute or situation is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.

Article 35. Any Member of the United Nations may bring any dispute, or any situation of the nature referred to in Article 34, to the attention of the Security Council or of the General Assembly.

Resolution 2131 (XX) of the United Nations General Assembly states the following in paragraphs 1 and 2 of its declarative part:

1. No State has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State. Consequently, armed intervention and all other forms of interference or attempted threats against the personality of the State or against its political, economic and cultural elements are condemned;

2. No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights or to secure from it advantages of any kind. Also, no State shall organize, assist, foment, finance incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed activities directed towards the violent overthrow of the regime of another State, or interfere in civil strife in another State;

and

Under the auspices of the present Government of Cuba, the so-called Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO), meeting recently in Havana, passed resolutions and adopted decisions to promote subversive movements in the Latin American countries,

The Twelfth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs

RESOLVES:

1. To recommend to the member states of the Organization of American States that they bring to the attention of the competent organ of the United Nations the acts of the present Government of Cuba that contravene the provisions cited of Resolution 2131 (XX) of the General Assembly.

2. To request the countries of the Latin American group in the

United Nations that are not members of the Organization of American States to cooperate in the implementation of this resolution.

Resolution V.-Adopted September 24, 1967

DECLARATION

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting here reaffirm the dedication of their governments to the cause of the economic and social development of their peoples, within a framework of freedom and democracy, and declare that the efforts of those governments will not be deterred by the aim of any state or organization to subvert their institutions-an aim that the Foreign Ministers meeting here unanimously repudiate.

Source:
Inter-American relations; collection of documents, legislation, descriptions of inter-American organizations, and other material pertaining to inter-American affairs.
Compiled by Barry Sklar and Virginia M. Hagen
Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1972



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