The Republics of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, Reasserting the principles and objectives of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty.
Taking into account the advisability of institutionally improving and strengthening the cooperation process developed under the auspices of the aforementioned instrument, do hereby agree to:
i) Create the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (acto), with corporate body status, and empowered to enter into agreements with Contracting Parties, non-member States and other international organizations.
ii) Modify Article xxii of the text of the Treaty as follows:
The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization will have a Permanent Secretariat based in Brasilia, which will be responsible for implementing the objectives established in the Treaty in conformity with the decisions taken at the meetings of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Amazon Cooperation Council.
Paragraph one: The powers and functions of the Permanent Secretariat and of its head will be established in the regulations, which will be approved by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Contracting Parties.
Paragraph two: The Permanent Secretariat will prepare – in coordination with the Contracting Parties – its work plans and program of activities, as well as its budget-program, which will need to be approved by the Amazon Cooperation Council.
Paragraph three: The Permanent Secretariat will be headed by a Secretary General, who will be empowered to enter into agreements, on behalf of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, whenever the Contracting Parties unanimously authorize him/her to do so.
iii) This amendment will be subject to compliance with the internal constitutional requirements of all Contracting Parties and will enter into force on the date of the receipt, by the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil, of the last note by means of which the compliance with such requirements is advised.
Undersigned in Caracas, this fourteenth day of the month of December of nineteen ninety-eight, in eight (8) original copies, in the languages of Spanish, English, Portuguese and Dutch, all equally authentic.