Treaty of Defensive Alliance (Bolivia–Peru)

by Peru and Bolivia

The Republics of Bolivia and Peru, desirous of drawing together in a solemn manner the bonds which unite them, thus augmenting their strength and mutually guaranteeing certain rights, formulate the present treaty of Defensive Alliance; for which object the President of Bolivia has conferred power adequate for such a negotiation to Juan de la Cruz Benavente, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Peru, and the President of Peru has conferred like powers to Jose de la Riva-Aguero; who have agreed on the following stipulations:

Article I. The High Contracting Parties unite and league together mutually to guarantee their independence, their sovereignty and the integrity of their territories respectively, obliging themselves by the terms of the present treaty to defend themselves against all foreign aggression, whether emanating from one or several independent states or from a force without flag and obeying no recognized power.

Article II. The Alliance will be made effective to preserve the rights expressed in the preceding article and especially in the cases of offense which follow:

1° In acts directed to deprive either of the high contracting parties of a portion of its territory with the aim of appropriating its dominion or of ceding it to another power.

2° In acts directed to submit either of the high contracting parties to protectorate, sale or cession of territory, or establishing over it any supremacy right or preeminence which diminishes or offends the ample and complete exercise of its sovereignty and independence.

3° In acts directed to annul or vary the form of government, the political constitution or the laws which the high contracting parties have given or shall give themselves in exercise of their respective sovereignties.

Article III. Both contracting parties, recognizing that every act of alliance, is based on justice, establish for each one of them, respectively, the right to decide whether the offense received by the other is comprehended in the definition of the foregoing article.

Article IV. A "casus federis" having been declared, the high contracting parties promise immediately to sever their relations with the offending state, to hand passports to her Diplomatic Ministers, to cancel the patents of the Consular Agents, to prohibit the importation of her natural or industrial products and to close their ports to her ships.

Article V. The same parties will likewise name Plenipotentiaries to adjust, by protocol, the precise arrangements determining the subsidies, the contingents of land and sea forces, or assistance of whatever class which should accrue to the attacked or offended Republic; to the manner in which these forces shall operate and the aid to be lent and all measures which tend to the success of the defense.

The meeting of the Plenipotentiaries will be effected in a place decided upon by the offended party.

Article VI. The high contracting parties bind themselves give to the offended or attacked party the means of defense which each one of them considers disposable, in any case considered urgent, even though the arrangements prescribed in the preceding article have not been already effected.

Article VII. The "casus federis" having been declared, the party offended shall not celebrate any peace agreement, truce or armistice without the concurrence of the ally which has, in such instance, taken part in the war.

Article VIII. The high contracting parties further bind themselves.

1° To employ, preferably, whenever possible, all means of conciliation to avoid a rupture or to terminate the war, even if the rupture has taken place, considering between these means, as most effective, the arbitration of a third power.

2° To neither concede to, nor accept from, any nation or government, protectorate or supremacy which diminishes their independence or sovereignty, nor to cede nor lease in favor of any nation or government any part of their territory save in the cases pf better definition of boundaries.

3° Not to conclude boundary treaties or other territorial agreements without previous knowledge of the other contracting party.

Article IX. The stipulations of the present treaty do not extend to acts commited by political parties or resulting from internal commotions independent of the intervention of foreign governments, since the present treaty of alliance, having for its principal object the reciprocal guarantee of the sovereign rights of both nations, none of its clauses should be interpreted in opposition to its primary intention.

Article X. The high contracting parties shall solicit together or separately, when they so declare by a latter protocol, the adhesion of another or other American States to the present treaty of defensive Alliance.

Article XI. The present treaty will be exchanged in Lima or in La Paz, as soon as it is rendered constitutionally affective and will be in full effectiveness twenty days after the exchange. Its duration will be indefinite, each of the parties reserving the right of terminating it when considered desirable. In such case the party will notify its resolution to the other party and the treaty and the treaty will be be annulled in four months counting from the date of notification.

In faith of which the respective Plenipotentiaries sign and seal it in duplicate with their private seals.

– Effected in Lima, the sixth day of February of one thousand eight hundred and seventy three.

Juan de la Cruz Benavente. – J. de la Riva-Agüero

Additional Article. The present treaty of Defensive Alliance between Bolivia and Peru shall be secret until the two high contracting parties by common accord consider its publication necessary.^[1]

Juan de la Cruz Benavente. – J. de la Riva-Agüero

Notes

1. The original "unneccessary" in Gonzalo Bulnes's book doesn't make sense. There seems to be a translation error and it has been changed to "neccessary" by Wikisource.