This is CBS Eye on the World with John Bacheler. Here's John Bacheler.

New World Report with Professor Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute

helping me interpret the events of Central and South America

these last months. There's been much turmoil, and it continues. But there is now a bright note,

a promising note for the first time in many years, a meeting in Bellem, that is Bethlehem

Portuguese, Bellem, Brazil. This is a gathering of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization,

a summit bringing together representatives and leaders from eight nations bordering

the Amazon. Guyana, for example, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Suriname,

and if I've left anything out, forgive me for having left it out, Venezuela, of course.

Professor, a very good day to you. I want to be as positive as possible, given the world's

news is never, never that bright. But this is a meeting of leadership with nations of various stripes

and difficulties of their own, coming together in one city to talk about something that is pressing

on planet Earth, which is the fate of the Amazon. Am I right as an amateur to be encouraged

by this conversation? Good evening to you. Good evening to you, John. Well, there are certainly

some positive indications of what happened at the event in the Bellem declaration that

came out of it. But important emphasize a couple things. So number one, often with the focus

on the Amazon of Brazil, but the broader Amazon basin in which the Andes mountain chain

and others, that whole water system that really flows in and empties into the Amazon river,

remembering that it affects a broad number of nations, virtually the entire continent of South America.

So as you greatly point out, the fact you have eight nations which have pieces of the Amazon,

Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Serename, and Venezuela is important. Now,

all of those nations are troubled and have different problems and issues,

...