Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of American States met in Lima, Peru, September 10 for a two-day session to approve a document aimed at protecting democracy. The document was drafted by the OAS Permanent Council by mandate from the OAS General Assembly, and will be signed today.

The pact will keep corrupt Latin American leaders from staying in power. Any member nation guilty of meddling with the democratic process with political trickery will be suspended from the organization.

The document, called the Inter-American Democratic Charter, provides sanctions against government leaders who dissolve legislatures, meddle with legal proceedings, alter constitutions, rig elections or pressure voters. The charter was first proposed during the Americas Summit in Quebec last April.

The session has not focused exclusively on government reform. Yesterday, María Soledad Alvear Valenzuela, the Chilean Foreign Affairs Minister, signed a protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights regarding the end of the death penalty in Chile.