Declaration of the Electoral Authorities and Bodies of Latin America and the Caribbean regarding the crisis in our sister nation Honduras

We, ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES AND BODIES OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, regarding the current situation in Honduras,

CONSIDERING Resolution 953 (1700-09) of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, approved in a session held June 28, 2009;

CONSIDERING the statementof the government of Chile in its role as President Pro Tempore of UNASUR issued Sunday, June 28, 2009;

CONSIDERING the Proclamation of the Extraordinary Presidential Council of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), approved in Managua, Republic of Nicaragua, Monday, June 29, 2008;

CONSIDERING the statement of the government of Paraguay in its role as President Pro Tempore of MERCOSUR issued Monday, June 29, 2009;

CONSIDERING Resolution A/63/L.74 of the General Assembly of the United Nations, approved in a session held June 29, 2009;

REMEMBERING that full vigilance of democratic institutions and the utmost respect for human rights are essential conditions for the construction of a common future of peace and the profound exercise of democracy;

CONVINCED of the necessity of maintaining respect for constitutional rules and laws as the fundamental principles to strengthen democracy.

We agree to:

CONDEMN AND REPUDIATE the breach of constitutional order taking place in the sister Republic of Honduras;

RATIFY as principle our guiding role as guarantors of the sovereign expression of the people, expressed through free, universal, and secret votes as the only way and source of governmental legitimacy;

RATIFY our institutional commitment to strengthen all channels of democratic participation for the authentic expression of the will of the people.

Signed:

Alejandro Tullio, Director of the National Electoral Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Argentina

Alberto August, Chairman of the Elections & Boundaries Commission of Belize

Roxana Ybarnegaray, Member of the National Electoral Court of Bolivia

National Register of Colombia

Kondwani Williams, Member of Electoral Office of Dominica

Omar Simón Campaña, President of the National Electoral Council of Ecuador

Nadica Mc Intyre, President of the Parliamentary Election Office of Grenada

Frantz Gerald Verret, President of the Provisional Electoral Council of Haiti

Roberto Rivas, President of the Supreme Electoral Council of Nicaragua,

Superior Board of Electoral Justice of Paraguay

Claudios Francis, Member of the Electoral Office of Saint Lucia

Michael Flood, Member of the Electoral Office of Saint Lucia

Jennifer Van Dijk-Silos, Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Council of Suriname

Wilfredo Penco, Minister of the Electoral Court of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay

Washington Salvo, Minister of the Electoral Court of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay

National Electoral Council of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela