1917 Constitution of Mexico

Citizens for a Constitutional Republic
Firebase For Freedom

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1917 Constitution of Mexico

(As Amended)

(A note on hyperlinks in this text: All of the Titles, Chapters, Sections, and Articles in this constitution are marked with hyperlink bookmarks. The marking conventions are as follows: Titles are marked with the word "Title" followed by the roman numeral, for example TitleI; chapters are marked by the title number plus chapter number, for example TitleIChapterI; the four sections of Title III Chapter II are marked simply with their number, for example SectionI; articles are marked with the word "Article" followed by their number, for example Article27; the section of Transitory Articles is marked with the word "transitory"; and the individual Transitory Articles are marked with "transart" and their number, for example transart1. This means that you can link from other documents to specific sections of the text with a URL such as http://www.ilstu.edu/class/hist263/docs/1917const.html#Article123.
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Contents

TITLE I

Chapter I Individual Guarantees

Chapter II Mexicans

Chapter III Foreigners

Chapter IV Mexican Citizens

TITLE II

Chapter I National Sovereignty and Form of Government

Chapter II Integral Parts of the Federation and of the National Territory

TITLE III

Chapter I Division of Powers

Chapter II The Legislative Branch

Section I Election and Installation of Congress

Section II Introduction and Enactment of Laws

Section III Powers of Congress

Section IV The Permanent Committee

Chapter III The Executive Branch

Chapter IV The Judicial Branch

TITLE IV Responsibilities of Public Officials

TITLE V The States of the Federation

TITLE VI Labor and Social Security

TITLE VII General Considerations

TITLE VIII Amendments to the Constitution

TITLE IX The Inviolability of the Constitution

Transitory Articles

Constitution of Mexico

TITLE ONE

Chapter I

Individual Guarantees

Article 1. Every person in the United Mexican States shall enjoy the guarantees granted by this Constitution, which cannot be restricted or suspended except in such cases and under such conditions as are herein provided

Article 2. Slavery is forbidden in the United Mexican States. Slaves who enter national territory from abroad shall, by this act alone, recover their freedom and enjoy the protection afforded by the laws.

Article 3.⁽¹⁾ The education imparted by the Federal State shall be designed to develop harmoniously all the faculties of the human being and shall foster in him at the same time a love of country and a consciousness of international solidarity, in independence and justice.

Freedom of religious beliefs being guaranteed by Article 24, the standard which shall guide such education shall be maintained entirely apart from any religious doctrine and, based on the results of scientific progress, shall strive against ignorance and its effects, servitudes, fanaticism, and prejudices. Moreover:

It shall be democratic, considering democracy not only as a legal structure and a political regimen, but as a system of life founded on a constant economic, social, and cultural betterment of the people;

It shall be national insofar as -- without hostility or exclusiveness -it shall achieve the understanding of our problems, the utilization of our resources, the defense of our political independence, the assurance of our economic independence, and the continuity and growth of our culture; and

It shall contribute to better human relationships, not only with the elements which it contributes toward strengthening and at the same time inculcating, together with respect for the dignity of the person and the integrity of the family, the conviction of the general interest of society, but also by the care which it devotes to the ideals of brotherhood and equality of rights of all men, avoiding privileges of race, creed, class, sex, or persons.

Private persons may engage in education of all kinds and grades. But as regards elementary, secondary, and normal education (and that of any kind or grade designed for laborers and farm workers) they must previously obtain, in every case, the express authorization of the public power. Such authorization may be refused or revoked by decisions against which there can be no judicial proceedings or recourse.

Private institutions devoted to education of the kinds and grades specified in the preceding section must be without exception in conformity with the provisions of sections I and II of the first paragraph of this article and must also be in harmony with official plans and programs.

Religious corporations, ministers of religion, stock companies which exclusively or predominantly engage in educational activities, and associations or companies devoted to propagation of any religious creed shall not in any way participate in institutions giving elementary, secondary and normal education and education for laborers or field workers.

The State may in its discretion withdraw at any time the recognition of official validity of studies conducted in private institutions.

Elementary education shall be compulsory.

All education given by the State shall be free.

The Congress of the Union, with a view to unifying and coordinating education throughout the Republic, shall issue the necessary laws for dividing the social function of education among the Federation, the States and the Municipalities, for fixing the appropriate financial allocations for this public service and for establishing the penalties applicable to officials who do not comply with or enforce the pertinent provisions, as well as the penalties applicable to all those who infringe such provisions.

Article 4. No person can be prevented from engaging in the profession, industrial or commercial pursuit, or occupation of his choice, provided it is lawful. The exercise of this liberty shall only be forbidden by judicial order when the rights of third parties are infringed, or by administrative order, issued in the manner provided by law, when the rights of society are violated. No one may be deprived of the fruits of his labor except by judicial decision.

The law in each state shall determine the professions which may be practiced only with a degree, and set forth the requirements for obtaining it and the authorities empowered to issue it.

Article 5.⁽²⁾ No one can be compelled to render personal services without due remuneration and without his full consent, excepting labor imposed as a penalty by the judiciary, which shall be governed by the provisions of clauses I and II of Article 123.

Only the following public services shall be obligatory, subject to the conditions set forth in the respective laws: military service and jury service as well as the discharge of the office of municipal councilman and offices of direct or indirect popular election. Duties in relation to elections and the census shall be compulsory and unpaid. Professional services of a social character shall be compulsory and paid according to the provisions of law and with the exceptions fixed thereby.

The State cannot permit the execution of any contract, covenant, or agreement having for its object the restriction, loss or irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of man, whether for work, education, or religious vows. The law, therefore, does not permit the establishment of monastic orders, whatever be their denomination or purpose.

Likewise no person can legally agree to his own proscription or exile, or to the temporary or permanent renunciation of the exercise of a given profession or industrial or commercial pursuit.

A labor contract shall be binding only to render the services agreed on for the time set by law and may never exceed one year to the detriment of the worker, and in no case may it embrace the waiver, loss, or restriction of any civil or political right.

Non-compliance with such contract by the worker shall only render him civilly liable for damages, but in no case shall it imply coercion against his person.

Article 6. The expression of ideas shall not be subject to any judicial or administrative investigation, unless it offends good morals, infringes the rights of others, incites to crime, or disturbs the public order.

Article 7. Freedom of writing and publishing writings on any subject is inviolable. No law or authority may establish censorship, require bonds from authors or printers, or restrict the freedom of printing, which shall be limited only by the respect due to private life, morals, and public peace. Under no circumstances may a printing press be sequestrated as the instrument of the offense.

The organic laws shall contain whatever provisions may be necessary to prevent the imprisonment of the vendors, newsboys, workmen, and other employees of the establishment publishing the work denounced, under pretext of a denunciation of offenses of the press, unless their guilt is previously established.

Article 8. Public officials and employees shall respect the exercise of the right of petition, provided it is made in writing and in a peaceful and respectful manner; but this right may only be exercised in political matters by citizens of the Republic.

Every petition shall be replied to in writing by the official to whom it is addressed, and said official is bound to inform the petitioner of the decision taken within a brief period.

Article 9. The right to assemble or associate peaceably for any lawful purpose cannot be restricted; but only citizens of the Republic may do so to take part in the political affairs of the country. No armed deliberative meeting is authorized.

No meeting or assembly shall be deemed unlawful which has for its object the petitioning of any authority or the presentation of a protest against any act; nor may it be dissolved, unless insults be proffered against said authority or violence is resorted to, or threats are used to intimidate or compel such authority to render a favorable decision.

Article 10. The inhabitants of the United Mexican States are entitled to have arms of any kind in their possession for their protection and legitimate defense, except such as are expressly forbidden by law, or which the nation may reserve for the exclusive use of the army, navy, or national guard; but they may not carry arms within inhabited places without complying with police regulations.

Article 11. Everyone has the right to enter and leave the Republic, to travel through its territory and to change his residence without necessity of a letter of security, passport, safe-conduct or any other similar requirement. The exercise of this right shall be subordinated to the powers of the judiciary, in cases of civil or criminal liability, and to those of the administrative authorities insofar as concerns the limitations imposed by the laws regarding emigration, immigration and public health of the country, or in regard to undesirable aliens resident in the country.

Article 12. No titles of nobility, or hereditary or prerogatives or honors shall be granted in the United Mexican States, nor shall any effect be given to those granted by other countries.

Article 13. No one may be tried by private laws or special tribunals. No person or corporate body shall have privileges or enjoy emoluments other than those given in compensation for public services and which are set by law. Military jurisdiction shall be recognized for the trial of crimes against and violation of military discipline, but the military tribunals shall in no case have jurisdiction over persons who do not belong to the army. Whenever a civilian is implicated in a military crime or violation, the respective civil authority shall deal with the case.

Article 14. No law shall be given retroactive effect to the detriment of any person whatsoever.

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, possessions, or rights without a trial by a duly created court in which the essential formalities of procedure are observed and in accordance with laws issued prior to the act.

In criminal cases no penalty shall be imposed by mere analogy or by a prior evidence. The penalty must be decreed in a law in every respect applicable to the crime in question.

In civil suits the final judgment shall be according to the letter or the juridical interpretation of the law; in the absence of the latter it shall be based on the general principles of law.

Article 15. No treaty shall be authorized for the extradition of political offenders or of offenders of the common order who have been slaves in the country where the offense was committed. Nor shall any agreement or treaty be entered into which restricts or modifies the guarantees and rights which this Constitution grants to the individual and to the citizen.

Article 16. No one shall be molested in his person, family, domicile, papers, or possessions except by virtue of a written order of the competent authority stating the legal grounds and justification for the action taken. No order of arrest or detention shall be issued against any person other than by the competent judicial authority, and unless same is preceded by a charge, accusation, or complaint for a credible party or by other evidence indicating the probable guilt of the accused; in cases of flagrante delicto, any person may arrest the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities. Only in urgent cases instituted by the public attorney without previous complaint or indictment and when there is no judicial authority available, may the administrative authorities, on their strictest accountability, order the detention of an accused person, turning him over immediately to the judicial authorities. Every search warrant, which can be issued only by judicial authority and which must be in writing, shall specify the place to be searched, the person or persons to be arrested, and the objects sought, the proceedings to be limited thereto; at the conclusion of which a detailed statement shall be drawn up in the presence of two witnesses proposed by the occupant of the place searched, or by the official making the search in his absence or should he refuse to do so.

Administrative officials may enter private homes for the sole purpose of ascertaining whether the sanitary and police regulations have been complied with; and may demand to be shown the books and documents required to prove compliance with fiscal rulings, in which latter cases they must abide by the provisions of the respective laws and be subject to the formalities prescribed for cases of search.

Article 17. No one may be imprisoned for debts of a purely civil nature. No one may take the law into his own hands, or resort to violence in the enforcement of his rights. The courts shall be open for the administration of justice at such times and under such conditions as the law may establish; their services shall be gratuitous and all judicial costs are, accordingly, prohibited.

Article 18.⁽³⁾ Arrest is permissible only for offenses punishable by imprisonment. The place of detention shall be completely separate from the place used for the serving of sentences.

The federal and state governments shall organize the penal system withintheir respective jurisdictions on the basis of labor, training, and education as a means of social readjustment of the offender. Women shall serve their sentences in places separate from those intended for men for the same purpose.

Governors of States, subject to the provisions of the respective local laws, may conclude agreements of a general nature with the federal government, under which offenders convicted for common offenses may serve their sentence in establishments maintained by the federal executive.

The federal government and the state governments shall establish special institutions for the treatment of juvenile delinquents.

Article 19. No detention shall exceed three days without a formal order of commitment, which shall state the offense with which the accused is charged; the substance thereof; the place, time and circumstances of its commission; and the facts brought to light in the preliminary examination. These facts must be sufficient to establish the corpus delicti and the probable guilt of the accused. All authorities who order a detention or consent thereto, as well as all agents, subordinates, wardens, or jailers who execute it, shall be liable for any breach of this provision.

The trial shall take place only for the offense or offenses set forth in the formal order of commitment. Should it develop, during the course of the proceedings, that another offense, different from that charged, has been committed, a separate accusation must be brought. This, however, shall not prevent the joinder of both proceedings, if deemed advisable.

Any ill-treatment during arrest or confinement; any molesting without legal justification; any exaction or contribution levied in prison are abuses which shall be punishable by law and repressed by the authorities.

Article 20. In every criminal trial the accused shall enjoy the following guarantees:

He shall be freed on demand and on furnishing bail which shall be fixed by the judge, according to his status and the gravity of the offense with which he is charged, provided, however, that such offense is not punishable with more than five years' imprisonment. No requisites shall be necessary other than placing the stipulated sum at the disposal of the proper authorities or giving adequate security or personal bond for acceptance of which the judge is responsible.

The security or bond shall be not more than 250, 000 pesos except for offenses by which the offender profits or the victim suffers financially; for such offenses the security shall be at least three times the amount of the profit obtained or the damage suffered.⁽⁴⁾

He may not be forced to be a witness against himself; wherefore denial of access or other means tending to this end is strictly prohibited.

He shall be publicly notified within forty-eight hours after being turned over to the judicial authorities of the name of his accuser and the nature of and cause for the accusation, so that he may be familiar with the offense with which he is charged, and reply thereto and make a preliminary statement.

He shall be confronted with the witnesses against him, who shall testify in his presence if they are to be found in the place where the trial is held, so that he may cross-examine them in his defense.

All witnesses and other evidence which he may offer shall be heard in his defense, for which he shall be given the time which the law deems necessary for the purpose; he shall furthermore be assisted in securing the presence of the persons whose testimony he may request, provided they are to be found at the place where the trial is held.

He shall be entitled to a public trial by a judge or jury of citizens who can read and write and are also residents of the place and district where the offense was committed, provided the penalty for such offense exceeds one year's imprisonment. The accused shall always be entitled to a trial by jury for all offenses committed by means of the press against the public peace or against the domestic or foreign safety of the nation.

He shall be furnished with all information on record which he may request for his defense.

He shall be tried within four months, if charged with an offense whose maximum penalty does not exceed two years' imprisonment; and within one year, if the maximum penalty is greater.

He shall be heard in his own defense, either personally or by counsel, or by both, as he may desire. Should he have no one to defend him, a list of official counsel shall be submitted to him, in order that he may choose one or more to act in his defense. If the accused does not wish to name any counsel for his defense, after being called upon to do so at the time of his preliminary examination, the court shall appoint his counsel for the defense. The accused may name his counsel immediately upon arrest, and shall be entitled to have him present at every stage of the trial; but he shall be obliged to make him appear as often as required by the court.

In no event may imprisonment or detention be extended through failure to pay counsel fees or for any other monetary obligation, on account of civil liability, or for other similar cause.

Nor shall detention be extended beyond the time set by law as the maximum for the offense charged.

The period of detention shall be reckoned as a part of the term of imprisonment imposed by sentence.

Article 21. The imposition of all penalties is an exclusive attribute of the judiciary. The prosecution of offenses pertains to the public prosecutor and to the judicial police, who shall be under the immediate command and authority of the public prosecutor. The punishment of violations of governmental and police regulations pertains to the administrative authorities, which punishment shall consist solely of imprisonment for a period not exceeding thirty-six hours or of a fine. Should the offender fail to pay the fine, it shall be substituted by a corresponding period of detention, which in no case may exceed fifteen days.

If the offender is a day laborer or a workman, his punishment cannot consist of a fine exceeding the amount of his wages, for one week.

Article 22. Punishment by mutilation and infamy, branding, flogging, beating with sticks, torture of any kind, excessive fines, confiscation of property and any other unusual or extreme penalties are prohibited.

Attachment proceedings covering the whole or part of the property of a person made under judicial authority to cover payment of civil liability arising out of the commission of an offense or for the payment of taxes or fines shall not be deemed a confiscation of property.

Capital punishment for political offenses is likewise prohibited; as regards other offenses, it can only be imposed for high treason committed during a foreign war, parricide, murder that is treacherous, premeditated, or committed for profit, arson, abduction, highway robbery, piracy, and grave military offenses.

Article 23. No criminal trial shall have more than three instances. No person, whether acquitted or convicted, can be tried twice for the same offense. The practice of absolving from the instance⁽⁵⁾ is prohibited.

Article 24. Everyone is free to embrace the religion of his choice and to practice all ceremonies, devotions, or observances of his respective faith, either in places of public worship or at home, provided they do not constitute an offense punishable by law.

Every religious act of public worship must be performed strictly inside places of public worship, which shall at all times be under governmental supervision.

Article 25. Sealed correspondence sent through the mail shall be exempt from search and its violation shall be punishable by law.

Article 26. No member of the army shall in time of peace be quartered in private dwellings without the consent of the owner, nor may he impose any obligation whatsoever. In time of war the military may demand lodging, equipment, provisions, and other assistance, in the manner laid down in the respective martial law.

Article 27. Ownership of the lands and waters within the boundaries of the national territory is vested originally in the Nation, which has had, and has, the right to transmit title thereof to private persons, thereby constituting private property.

Private property shall not be expropriated except for reasons of public use and subject to payment of indemnity.

The Nation shall at all times have the right to impose on private property such limitations as the public interest may demand, as well as the right to regulate the utilization of natural resources which are susceptible of appropriation, in order to conserve them and to ensure a more equitable distribution of public wealth. With this end in view, necessary measures shall be taken to divide up large landed estates; to develop small landed holdings in operation; to create new agricultural centers, with necessary lands and waters; to encourage agriculture in general and to prevent the destruction of natural resources, and to protect property from damage to the detriment of society. Centers of population which at present either have no lands or water or which do not possess them in sufficient quantities for the needs of their inhabitants, shall be entitled to grants thereof, which shall be taken from adjacent properties, the rights of small landed holdings in operation being respected at all times.

In the Nation is vested the direct ownership of all natural resources of the continental shelf and the submarine shelf of the islands; of all minerals or substances, which in veins, ledges, masses or ore pockets, form deposits of a nature distinct from the components of the earth itself, such as the minerals from which industrial metals and metalloids are extracted; deposits of precious stones, rock-salt and the deposits of salt formed by sea water; products derived from the decomposition of rocks, when subterranean works are required for their extraction; mineral or organic deposits of materials susceptible of utilization as fertilizers; solid mineral fuels; petroleum and all solid, liquid, and gaseous hydrocarbons; and the space above the national territory to the extent and within the terms fixed by international law.⁽⁶⁾

In the Nation is likewise vested the ownership of the waters of the territorial seas, within the limits and terms fixed by international law; inland marine waters; those of lagoons and estuaries permanently or intermittently connected with the sea; those of natural, inland lakes which are directly connected with streams having a constant flow; those of rivers and their direct or indirect tributaries from the point in their source where the first permanent, intermittent, or torrential waters begin, to their mouth in the sea, or a lake, lagoon, or estuary forming a part of the public domain; those of constant or intermittent streams and their direct or indirect tributaries, whenever the bed of the stream, throughout the whole or a part of its length, serves as a boundary of the national territory or of two federal divisions, or if it flows from one federal division to another or crosses the boundary line of the Republic; those of lakes, lagoons, or estuaries whose basins, zones, or shores are crossed by the boundary lines of two or more divisions or by the boundary line of the Republic and a neighboring country or when the shoreline serves as the boundary between two federal divisions or of the Republic and a neighboring country; those of springs that issue from beaches, maritime areas, the beds, basins, or shores of lakes, lagoons, or estuaries in the national domain; and waters extracted from mines and the channels, beds, or shores of interior lakes and streams in an area fixed by law. Underground waters may be brought to the surface by artificial works and utilized by the surface owner, but if the public interest so requires or use by others is affected, the Federal Executive may regulate its extraction and utilization, and even establish prohibited areas, the same as may be done with other waters in the public domain. Any other waters not included in the foregoing enumeration shall be considered an integral part of the property through which they flow or in which they are deposited, but if they are located in two or more properties, their utilization shall bedeemed a matter of public use, and shall be subject to laws enacted by the States.⁽⁷⁾

In those cases to which the two preceding paragraphs refer, ownership by the Nation is inalienable and imprescriptible, and the exploitation, use, or appropriation of the resources concerned, by private persons or by companies organized according to Mexican laws, may not be undertaken except through concessions granted by the Federal Executive, in accordance with rules and conditions established by law. The legal rules relating to the working or exploitation of the minerals and substances referred to in the fourth paragraph shall govern the execution and proofs of what is carried out or should be carried out after they go into effect, independent of the date of granting the concessions, and their nonobservance will be grounds for cancellation thereof. The Federal Government has the power to establish national reserves and to abolish them. The declarations pertaining thereto shall be made by the Executive in those cases and conditions prescribed by law. In the case of petroleum, and solid, liquid, or gaseous hydrocarbons no concessions or contracts will be granted nor may those that have been granted continue, and the Nation shall carry out the exploitation of these products, in accordance with the provisions indicated in the respective regulatory law.⁽⁸⁾

It is exclusively a function of the general Nation to conduct, transform, distribute, and supply electric power which is to be used for public service. No concessions for this purpose will be granted to private persons and the Nation will make use of the property and natural resources which are required for these ends.⁽⁹⁾ (Note: A transitory provision of the amendment adding the foregoing paragraph to Article 27 states:

"A regulatory law shall establish the rules to which concessions granted prior to the enactment of the present law (amendment) shall be subject".)

Legal capacity to acquire ownership of lands and waters of the Nation shall be governed by the following provisions:

Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership of lands, waters, and their appurtenances, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines or of waters. The State may grant the same right to foreigners, provided they agree before the Ministry of Foreign Relations to consider themselves as nationals in respect to such property, and bind themselves not to invoke the protection of their governments in matters relating thereto; under penalty, in case of noncompliance with this agreement, of forfeiture of the property acquired to the Nation. Under no circumstances may foreigners acquire direct ownership of lands or waters within a zone of one hundred kilometers along the frontiers and of fifty kilometers along the shores of the country.

The State, in accordance with its internal public interests and with principles of reciprocity, may in the discretion of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs authorize foreign states to acquire, at the permanent sites of the Federal Powers, private ownership of real property necessary for the direct services of their embassies or legations.⁽¹⁰⁾

Religious institutions known as churches, regardless of creed, may in no case acquire, hold, or administer real property or hold mortgages thereon; such property held at present either directly or through an intermediary shall revert to the Nation, any person whosoever being authorized to denounce any property so held. Presumptive evidence shall be sufficient to declare the denunciation well founded. Places of public worship are the property of the Nation, as represented by the Federal Government, which shall determine which of them may continue to be devoted to their present purposes. Bishoprics, rectories, seminaries, asylums, and schools belonging to religious orders, convents, or any other buildings built or intended for the administration, propagation, or teaching of a religious creed shall at once become the property of the Nation by inherent right, to be used exclusively for the public services of the Federal or State Governments, within their respective jurisdictions. All places of public worship hereafter erected shall be the property of the Nation.

Public or private charitable institutions for the rendering of assistance to the needy, for scientific research, the diffusion of knowledge, mutual aid to members, or for any other lawful purpose, may not acquire more real property than actually needed for their purpose and immediately and directly devoted thereto; but they may acquire, hold, or administer mortgages on real property provided the term thereof does not exceed ten years. Under no circumstances may institutions of this kind be under the patronage, direction, administration, charge, or supervision of religious orders or institutions, or of ministers of any religious sect or of their followers, even though the former or the latter may not be in active service.

Commercial stock companies may not acquire, hold, or administer rural properties. Companies of this kind that are organized to operate any manufacturing, mining, or petroleum industry or for any other purpose that is not agricultural, may acquire, hold, or administer lands only of an area that is strictly necessary for their buildings or services, and this area shall be fixed in each particular case by the Federal or State Executive.

Banks duly authorized to operate in accordance with the laws on credit institutions may hold mortgages on urban and rural property in conformity with the provisions of such laws but they may not own or administer more real property than is actually necessary for their direct purpose.

With the exception of the corporate entities referred to in clauses III, IV, and V hereof, and the centers of population which by law or in fact possess a communal status or centers that have received grants or restitutions or have been organized as centers of agricultural population, no other civil corporate entity may hold or administer real property or hold mortgages thereon, with the sole exception of the buildings intended immediately and directly for the purposes of the institution. The States, the Federal District, and the Territories, and all Municipalities in the Republic, shall have full legal capacity to acquire and hold all the real property needed to render public services.

The federal and state laws, within their respective jurisdictions, shall determine in what cases the occupation of private property shall be considered to be of public utility; and in accordance with such laws, the administrative authorities shall issue the respective declaration. The amount fixed as compensation for the expropriated property shall be based on the value recorded in assessment or tax offices for tax purposes, whether this value had been declared by the owner or tacitly accepted by him by having paid taxes on that basis. The increased or decreased value of such private property due to improvements or depreciation which occurred after such assessment is the only portion of the value that shall be subject to the decision of experts and judicial proceedings. This same procedure shall be followed in the case of property whose value is not recorded in the tax offices.

The exercise of actions pertaining to the Nation by virtue of the provisions of this article shall be made effective by judicial procedure, but during these proceedings and by order of the proper courts, which must render a decision within a maximum of one month, the administrative authorities shall proceed without delay to occupy, administer, auction, or sell the lands and waters in question and all their appurtenances, and in no case may the acts of such authorities be set aside until a final decision has been rendered.

⁽¹¹⁾The centers of population which, by law or in fact, possess a communal status shall have legal capacity to enjoy common possession of the lands, forests, and waters belonging to them or which have been or may be restored to them.

All questions, regardless of their origin, concerning the boundaries of communal lands, which are now pending or that may arise hereafter between two or more centers of population, are matters of federal jurisdiction. The Federal Executive shall take cognizance of such controversies and propose a solution to the interested parties. If the latter agree thereto, the proposal of the Executive shall take full effect as a final decision and shall be irrevocable; should they not be in conformity, the party or parties may appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, without prejudice to immediate enforcement of the presidential proposal.

The law shall specify the brief procedure to which the settling of such controversies shall conform.

The following are declared null and void:

All transfers of the lands, waters, and forests of villages, rancherías, groups, or communities made by local officials (jefes políticos), state governors, or other local authorities in violation of the provisions of the Law of June 25, 1856, and other related laws and rulings.

All concessions, deals or sales of lands, waters, and forests made by the Secretariat of Development, the Secretariat of Finance, or any other federal authority from December 1, 1876 to date, which encroach upon or illegally occupy communal lands (ejidos), lands allotted in common, or lands of any other kind belonging to villages, rancherias, groups or communities, and centers of population.

All survey or demarcation-of-boundary proceedings, transfers, alienations, or auction sales effected during the period of time referred to in the preceding sub-clause, by companies, judges, or other federal or state authorities entailing encroachments on or illegal occupation of the lands, waters, or forests of communal holdings (ejidos), lands held in common, or other holdings belonging to centers of population.

The sole exception to the aforesaid nullification shall be the lands to which title has been granted in allotments made in conformity with the Law of June 25, 1856, held by persons in their own name for more than ten years and having an area of not more than fifty hectares.

Divisions or allotments of land among the inhabitants of a given center of population which, although apparently legitimate are not so, due to a mistake or defect, may be annulled at the request of three fourths of the residents holding one fourth so divided, or one fourth of such residents holding three fourths of the lands.

Centers of population which lack communal lands (ejidos) or which are unable to have them restored to them due to lack of titles, impossibility of identification, or because they had been legally transferred, shall be granted sufficient lands and waters to constitute them, in accordance with the needs of the population; but in no case shall they fail to be granted the area needed, and for this purpose the land needed shall be expropriated, at the expense of the Federal Government, to be taken from lands adjoining the villages in question.

The area or individual unit of the grant shall hereafter be not less than ten hectares of moist or irrigated land, or in default of such land its equivalent in other types of land in accordance with the third paragraph of section XV of this article.⁽¹²⁾

For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this article and of regulating laws that may be enacted, the following are established:

A direct agency of the Federal Executive entrusted with the application and enforcement of the agrarian laws;

An advisory board composed of five persons to be appointed by the President of the Republic and who shall perform the functions specified in the organic laws;

A mixed commission composed of an equal number of representatives of the Federal Government, the local governments, and a representative of the peasants, to be appointed in the manner set forth in the respective regulating law, to function in each State, Territory, and the Federal District, with the powers and duties set forth in the organic and regulatory laws;

Private executive committees for each of the centers of population that are concerned with agrarian cases;

A communal office (comisariado ejidal) for each of the centers of population that possess communal lands (ejidos).

Petitions for a restitution or grant of lands or waters shall be submitted directly to the state and territorial governors.

The governors shall refer the petitions to the mixed commissions, which shall study the cases during a fixed period of time and render a report; the State governors shall approve or modify the report of the mixed commission and issue orders that immediate possession be given to areas which they deem proper. The case shall then be turned over to the Federal Executive for decision.

Whenever the governors fail to comply with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, within the peremptory period of time fixed by law, the report of the mixed commission shall be deemed rejected and the case shall be referred immediately to the Federal Executive.

Inversely, whenever a mixed commission fails to render a report during the peremptory time limit, the Governor shall be empowered to grant possession of the area of land he deems appropriate.

The agency of the Executive and the Agrarian Advisory Board shall report on the approval, rectification, or modification of the reports submitted by the mixed commissions, containing the changes made therein by the local governments, and so notify the President of the Republic, who as the supreme agrarian authority will render a decision.

Landowners affected by decisions granting or restoring communal lands and waters to villages, or who may be affected by future decisions, shall have no ordinary legal right or recourse and cannot institute amparo proceedings.

Persons affected by such decisions shall have solely the right to apply to the Federal Government for payment of the corresponding indemnity. This right must be exercised by the interested parties within one year counting from the date of publication of the respective resolution in the Diario Oficial. After this period has elapsed, no claim is admissible.

Owners or occupants of agricultural or stockraising properties in operation who have been issued or to whom there may be issued in the future certificates of non-affectability may institute amparo proceedings against any illegal deprivation or agrarian claims on their lands or water.⁽¹³⁾

The mixed commissions, the local governments and any other authorities charged with agrarian proceedings cannot in any case affect small agricultural or livestock properties in operation and they shall incur liability for violations of the Constitution if they make grants which affect them.

Small agricultural property is that which does not exceed one hundred hectares of first-class moist or irrigated land or its equivalent in other classes of land, under cultivation.

To determine this equivalence one hectare of irrigated land shall be computed as two hectares of seasonal land; as four of good quality pasturage (agostadero) and as eight as monte (scrub land) or arid pasturage.

Also to be considered as small holdings are areas not exceeding two hundred hectares of seasonal lands or pasturage susceptible of cultivation; or one hundred fifty hectares of land used for cotton growing if irrigated from fluvial canals or by pumping; or three hundred, under cultivation, when used for growing bananas, sugar cane, coffee, henequen, rubber, coconuts, grapes, olives, quinine, vanilla, cacao, or fruit trees.

Small holdings for stockraising are lands not exceeding the area necessary to maintain up to five hundred head of cattle (ganado mayor) or their equivalent in smaller animals (ganado menor - sheep, goats, pigs) under provisions of law, in accordance with the forage capacity of the lands.

Whenever, due to irrigation or drainage works or any other works executed by the owners or occupants of a small holding to whom a certificate of non-affectability has been issued, the quality of the land is improved for agricultural or stockraising operations, such holding shall not be subject to agrarian appropriation even if, by virtue of the improvements made, the maximums indicated in this section are lowered, provided that the requirements fixed by law are met.

Lands which are subject to individual adjudication must be partitioned precisely at the time the presidential order is executed, according to regulatory laws.

The Federal Congress and the State Legislature, within their respective jurisdictions, shall enact laws to fix the maximum area of rural property, and to carry out the subdivision of the excess lands, in accordance with the following bases:

In each State, Territory, or the Federal District, there shall be fixed a maximum area of land of which a single individual or legally constituted society may be the owner.

The excess over the fixed area shall be subdivided by the owner within the time fixed by the local law, and these parcels shall be offered for sale under terms approved by the governments, in accordance with the aforementioned laws.

If the owner should oppose the subdivision, it shall be carried out by the local government, by expropriation.

The value of the parcels shall be paid by annual installments which will amortize principal and interest, at an interest rate not exceeding 3% per annum.

Owners shall be required to receive bonds of the local Agrarian Debt to guarantee payment for the property expropriated. For this purpose, the Federal Congress shall enact a law empowering the States to create their Agrarian Debt.

No subdivision can be sanctioned which fails to satisfy the agrarian needs of neighboring settlements (poblados inmediatos). Whenever subdivision projects are to be executed, the agrarian claims must be settled within a fixed period.

Local laws shall organize the family patrimony, determining what property shall constitute it, on the basis that it shall be inalienable and shall not be subject to attachment or encumbrance of any kind.

All contracts and concessions made by former Governments since the year 1876, which have resulted in the monopolization of lands, waters, and natural resources of the Nation, by a single person or company, are declared subject to revision, and the Executive of the Union is empowered to declare them void whenever they involve serious prejudice to the public interest.

Article 28. In the United Mexican States there shall be no monopolies or estancos of any kind; nor exemption from taxes; nor prohibitions under the guise of protection to industry; excepting only those relating to the coinage of money, the mails, telegraph, and radiotelegraphy, to the issuance of paper money by a single bank to be controlled by the Federal Government, and to the privileges which for a specified time are granted to authors and artists for the reproduction of their works, and to those which, for the exclusive use of their inventions, may be granted to inventors and those who perfect some improvement.

Consequently, the law shall punish severely and the authorities shall effectively prosecute every concentration or cornering in one or a few hands of articles of prime necessity for the purpose of obtaining a rise in prices; every act or proceeding which prevents or tends to prevent free competition in production, industry or commerce, or services to the public; every agreement or combination, in whatever manner it may be made, of producers, industrialists, merchants, and common carriers, or those engaged in any other service, to prevent competition among themselves and to compel consumers to pay exaggerated prices; and in general, whatever constitutes an exclusive and undue advantage in favor of one or more specified persons and to the prejudice of the public in general or of any social class.

Associations of workers, formed to protect their own interests, do not constitute monopolies.

Nor do cooperative associations or societies of producers constitute monopolies, which in defense of their interests or of the general interest, sell directly in foreign markets the domestic or industrial products which are the main source of wealth in the region in which they are produced, and which are articles of prime necessity, provided that such associations are under the supervision and protection of the Federal or State Governments and that they were previously duly authorized for the purpose by the respective legislatures, which latter of themselves or on proposal of the Executive may, when the public need so requires, repeal the authorizations granted for the formation of the associations in question.

Article 29. In the event of invasion, serious disturbance of the public peace, or any other event which may place society in great danger or conflict, only the President of the Mexican Republic, with the consent of the Council of Ministers and with the approval of the Federal Congress, and during adjournments of the latter, of the Permanent Committee, may suspend throughout the country or in a determined place the guarantees which present an obstacle to a rapid and ready combatting of the situation; but he must do so for a limited time, by means of general preventive measures without such suspensions being limited to a specified individual. If the suspension should occur while the Congress is in session, the latter shall grant such authorizations that it deems necessary to enable the Executive to meet the situation. If the suspension occurs during a period of adjournment, the Congress shall be convoked without delay in order to grant them.

Chapter II

Mexicans

Article 30. Mexican nationality is acquired by birth or by naturalization:

Mexicans by birth are:

Those born in the territory of the Republic, regardless of the nationality of their parents:

Those born in a foreign country of Mexican parents; of a Mexican father and a foreign mother; or of a Mexican mother and an unknown father;

Those born on Mexican vessels or airships, either war or merchant vessels.

Mexicans by naturalization are:

Foreigners who obtain letters of naturalization from the Secretariat of Foreign Relations;

A foreign woman who marries a Mexican man and has or establishes her domicile within the national territory.

Article 31. The obligations of Mexicans are:

To see that their children or wards, under fifteen years of age, attend public or private schools to obtain primary, elementary and military education during the time prescribed by the Law on Public Education in each State.

To be present on the days and hours designated by the Ayuntamiento of the place in which they reside, to receive civic and military instruction which will equip them for the exercise of their rights as citizens, give them skill in the handling of arms, and acquaint them with military discipline.

To enlist and serve in the National Guard, according to the respective organic law, to secure and defend the independence, the territory, the honor, the rights and interests of the homeland, as well as domestic tranquility and order.

To contribute to the public expenditures of the Federation, and the State and Municipality in which they reside, in the proportional and equitable manner provided by law.

Article 32. ⁽¹⁴⁾Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable. In time of peace no foreigner can serve in the Army nor in the police or public security forces.

In order to belong to the National Navy or the Air Force, and to discharge any office or commission, it is required to be a Mexican by birth. This same status is indispensable for captains, pilots, masters, engineers, mechanics, and in general, for all personnel of the crew of any vessel or airship protected by the Mexican merchant flag or insignia It is also necessary to be Mexican by birth to discharge the position of captain of the port and all services of pratique and airport commandant, as well as all functions of customs agent in the Republic.

Chapter III

Foreigners

Article 33. Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualifications set forth in Article 30. They are entitled to the guarantees granted by Chapter I, Title I, of the present Constitution; but the Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action.

Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country.

Chapter IV

Mexican Citizens

Article 34. Men and women who, having the status of Mexicans, likewise meet the following requirements are citizens of the Republic:

Having reached eighteen years of age, if married, or twenty-one years of age if unmarried;

Having an honest means of livelihood.

Article 35. The prerogatives of citizens are:

To vote at popular elections;

To be voted for, for all offices subject to popular election, and to be appointed to any other employment or commission, if they have the qualifications established by law;

To associate together to discuss the political affairs of the country;

To bear arms in the Army or National Guard in the defense of the Republic and its institutions, under the provisions prescribed by law;

To exercise in all cases the right of petition.

Article 36. The obligations of citizens of the Republic are:

To register on the tax lists of the municipality, declaring the property they possess, the industry, profession, or occupation by which they subsist; and also to register in the electoral poll-books, according to the provisions prescribed by law;

To enlist in the National Guard;

To vote in popular elections in the electoral district to which they belong;

To serve in the elective offices of the Federation or of the States, which shall in no case be gratuitous;

To serve in municipal council positions where they reside, and to fulfill electoral and jury functions.

Article 37.

Mexican nationality is lost:

By the voluntary acquisition of a foreign nationality;

By accepting or using titles of nobility which imply submission to a foreign state;

By residing, if a Mexican by naturalization, for five consecutive years in the country of origin;

By passing in any public instrument, when Mexican by naturalization, as a foreigner, or by obtaining and using a foreign passport;

Mexican citizenship is lost:

By accepting or using titles of nobility which imply submission to a foreign government;

By rendering voluntary services to a foreign government without permission of the Federal Congress or of its Permanent Committee;

By accepting or using foreign decorations without permission of the Federal Congress or of its Permanent Committee;

By accepting titles or functions from the government of another country without previous permission of the Federal Congress or its Permanent Committee, excepting literary, scientific, or humanitarian titles which may be freely accepted;

By aiding a foreigner or a foreign country, against the Nation, in any diplomatic claim or before an international tribunal;

In other cases which the laws may specify.

Article 38. The rights or prerogatives of citizens are suspended:

Through failure to comply, without sufficient cause, with any of the obligations imposed by Article 36. This suspension shall last for one year and shall be in addition to any other penalties prescribed by law for the same offense.

Through being subjected to criminal prosecution for an offense punishable by imprisonment (pena corporal), the suspension to be reckoned from the date of the formal order of commitment;

Throughout a term of imprisonment;

Through vagrancy or habitual drunkenness, affirmed in the manner prescribed by law;

Through being a fugitive from justice, the suspension being reckoned from the date of the order of arrest until the prescription of the criminal action;

Through final sentence imposing such suspension as a penalty.

The law shall specify those cases in which civil rights may be lost or suspended and the manner of rehabilitation.

TITLE II

Chapter I

National Sovereignty and Form of Government

Article 39. The national sovereignty resides essentially and originally in the people All public power originates in the people and is instituted for their benefit. The people at all times have the inalienable right to alter or modify their form of government.

Article 40. It is the will of the Mexican people to organize themselves into a federal' democratic, representative Republic composed of free and sovereign States in all that concerns their internal government' but united in a Federation established according to the principles of this fundamental law.

Article 41. The people exercise their sovereignty through the powers of the Union in those cases within its jurisdiction, and through those of the States, in all that relates to their internal affairs, under the terms established by the present Federal Constitution and the individual constitutions of the States' respectively, which latter shall in no event contravene the stipulations of the Federal Pact.

Chapter II

Integral Parts of the Federation and of the National Territory

Article 42.⁽¹⁵⁾ The national territory comprises:

The integral parts of the Federation;

The islands' including the reefs and keys in adjacent seas;

The islands of Guadalupe and the Revillagigedos situated in the Pacific Ocean;

The continental shelf and the submarine shelf of the islands' keys, and reefs;

The waters of the territorial seas to the extent and under terms fixed by international law and domestic maritime law;

The space located above the national territory to the extent and according to rules established by international law on the subject.

Article 43.⁽¹⁶⁾ The integral parts of the Federation are the States of Aguascalientes, Baja California, Campeche, Coahuila, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatán, Zacatecas, the Federal District, and the Territories of Baja California Sur, and Quintana Roo.

Article 44. The Federal District shall embrace its present territory, and in the event of the removal of the federal branches to some other place, it shall be erected into the State of Valle de México, with such boundaries and area as the General Congress shall assign to it.

Article 45.⁽¹⁷⁾ The States and Territories of the Federation shall keep their present area and boundaries as of this day, provided no difficulties arise concerning them.

Article 46. The States having pending boundary questions shall arrange or settle them as provided in this Constitution.

Article 47. The State of Nayarit shall have the territorial area and boundaries which at present comprise the Territory of Tepic.

Article 48.⁽¹⁸⁾ The islands, keys, and reefs of the adjacent seas which belong to the national territory, the continental shelf, the submarine shelf of the islands, keys, and reefs, the inland marine waters, and the space above the national territory shall depend directly on the Government of the Federation, with the exception of those islands over which the States have up to the present exercised jurisdiction.

TITLE III

Chapter I

Division of Powers

Article 49.⁽¹⁹⁾ The supreme power of the Federation is divided, for its exercise, into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Two or more of these powers shall never be united in one single person or corporation, nor shall the legislative power be vested in one individual except in the case of extraordinary powers granted to the Executive, in accordance with the provisions of Article 29.

Chapter II

The Legislative Branch

Article 50. The legislative power of the United Mexican States is vested in a General Congress, which shall be divided into two chambers, one of deputies and the other of senators.

Section I

Election and Installation of Congress

Article 51. The Chamber of Deputies is composed of representatives of the Nation, all elected every three years by the Mexican citizens.

Article 52.⁽²⁰⁾ One proprietary deputy shall be elected for each two hundred thousand inhabitants or fraction of over one hundred thousand, according to the general census of the Federal District and of each State and Territory; but in no case shall the representation of a State be less than two deputies, and that of a Territory whose population is less than that fixed by this article shall be one proprietary deputy.

Article 53. For each proprietary deputy there shall be elected one alternate.

Article 54.⁽²¹⁾ The election of deputies shall be direct, subject to the provisions of Article 52, and will be supplemented, in addition, by party deputies, in both cases according to the provisions of the electoral law, and in the latter case according to the following rules:

Every national political party, if it obtains two and one half percent of the total vote of the country in an election, shall have the right to five deputies from among its candidates, and to one more, up to twenty as a maximum, for each additional one half percent of the votes cast;

If a party obtains a majority of the votes in twenty or more electoral districts, it will not be entitled to party deputies, but if it is successful in less than that number of districts, as long as it obtains the two and a half percentage referred to in the preceding paragraph, it will be entitled to twenty deputies, including those elected directly and those by percentage.

These will be accredited in strict order, in accordance with the percentage of votes they have received in relation to other candidates of the same party, throughout the country.

Only national political parties that have registered in accordance with the federal electoral law at least one year prior to election day may accredit deputies under the terms of this article; and

Majority deputies and party deputies, being representatives of the Nation as stated in Article 51, are of the same rank and have equal rights and obligations .

Article 55. The following are the requirements to be a deputy:

To be a Mexican citizen by birth, in the exercise of his rights;

To have attained twenty-five years of age by the day of the election;

To be a native of the State or Territory in which the election is held, or a resident thereof with effective residence for more than six months prior to its date. Residence is not lost by absence in the discharge of elective public office;

Not to be in active service in the federal army nor to hold command in the police or rural gendarmería in the district where the election is held, within at least ninety days prior thereto;

Not to be secretary or subsecretary of state, nor magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, unless he shall have definitively resigned from his position ninety days before the election. The governors of the States cannot be elected in the districts of their jurisdiction during their term of office, even though they may have definitively resigned their position.

The secretaries of government of the States, federal magistrates and judges or those of the States, cannot be elected in the districts of their respective jurisdictions unless they definitively resign their position ninety days before the election;

Not to be a minister of any religious cult; and

Not to be subject to any of the incapacities specified in Article 59.

Article 56. The Chamber of Senators shall be composed of two members for each State and two for the Federal District, all directly elected every six years.

The legislature of each State shall declare elected the person obtaining a majority of the votes cast.

Article 57. For each proprietary senator one alternate shall be elected.

Article 58. To be a senator the same requisites must be met as to be a deputy except that of age, which shall be thirty-five years of age attained by the date of the election.

Article 59. Senators and deputies to the Congress of the Union cannot be reelected for the immediately following term.

Alternate senators and deputies may be elected for the immediately following term as proprietaries, provided that they have not been serving (in the office of their principals); but proprietary senators and deputies cannot be elected for the immediately following term in the capacity of alternates.

Article 60. Each chamber shall be the judge of the elections of its members and shall decide any questions with respect thereto. Its decision shall be final and unimpeachable.

Article 61. Deputies and senators are inviolable for opinions expressed by them in the discharge of their offices and shall never be called to account for them.

Article 62. Proprietary deputies and senators, during their terms of office, may not hold any other commission or employment of the Federation or of the States for which they receive a salary, without prior permission from the respective chamber; but their representative functions shall thereupon cease, while they are holding the new position. The same rule shall apply to alternate deputies and senators when serving (as principals). Infraction of this provision shall be punishable by loss of the status of deputy or senator.

Article 63.⁽²²⁾ The chambers cannot open their sessions nor exercise their duties without the presence, in the Senate, of two thirds, and in the Chamber of Deputies, of more than half of the total number of members; but those present in either chamber must assemble on the day appointed by law and compel the absentees to attend within thirty days following, with the warning that if they do not do so it shall be understood that by that sole fact they do not accept their office, and the alternates shall be immediately called and must present themselves within a like period, and if they fail to do so, the postion shall be declared vacant and a new election shall be called.

It is also understood that deputies or senators who fail to attend for ten consecutive days, without justifiable cause or previous leave from the president of their respective chamber, of which the chamber shall be advised, renounce their attendance until the next period, and their alternates shall be called at once.

If there shall be no quorum to install either chamber or to exercise their functions when once installed, the alternates shall be called immediately to present themselves within the shortest possible time, to discharge their office until the expiration of the thirty days above mentioned.

Anyone elected deputy or senator who does not present himself and assume the office, without justifiable cause as determined by the respective Chamber, within the time limit indicated in the first paragraph of this article, shall be held responsible and subject to the sanctions prescribed by law. National political parties that have entered candidates in an election for deputies or senators but which agree that those elected shall not present themselves to assume office, will likewise be held responsible and punishable by the same law.

Article 64. Deputies and senators who, without justifiable cause or without permission of the president of the respective chamber, do not attend a session, shall have no right to remuneration for the day on which they were absent.

Article 65. The Congress shall meet on the first day of September of each year in regular session, when it shall occupy itself with the following matters:

To audit the public accounts of the preceding year, which shall be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies within the first ten days after the opening of the session. The audit shall not be limited to investigation as to whether the amounts expended are or are not in accord with the respective items of the budget, but shall extend to an examination of the exactness and justification of the expenditures made and of any responsibilities arising therefrom.

There can be no secret items other than those considered necessary because of that character in the budget itself and which the secretaries shall employ by written order of the President of the Republic.

To examine, discuss, and approve the budget of the following fiscal year and to impose the necessary taxes to cover it;

To study, discuss, and vote on all bills which are introduced, and to decide on all other matters which pertain to it according to this Constitution.

Article 66. The period of regular sessions shall continue for the time necessary to dispose of all matters mentioned in the preceding article; but it cannot be prolonged beyond December 31 of the same year.

If the two chambers are not in accord as to the termination of the sessions before the date indicated, the President of the Republic shall decide.

Article 67. The Congress or only one of its chambers, when a matter exclusive to it is concerned, shall meet in extraordinary sessions whenever the Permanent Committee shall convoke them for that purpose; but in both cases they shall occupy themselves only with the matter or matters which the said Committee submits to their attention, which shall be stated in the respective call.

Article 68. The two chambers shall reside at the same place and cannot remove to another unless they previously agree to the removal and on the time and manner of so doing, designating the same place for the meeting of both. But if the two in agreeing on removal, differ in regard to the time, manner, and place, the Executive shall settle the difference by choosing one of the two extremes in question. Neither chamber may suspend its sessions for more than three days without the consent of the other.

Article 69. The President of the Republic shall attend the opening of the regular sessions of the Congress and shall submit a report, in writing, in which he shall indicate the general state of the administration of the country. At the opening of extraordinary sessions of Congress, or of only one of the chambers, the Chairman of the Permanent Committee shall report as to the motives or reasons that led to the call.

Article 70. Every resolution of the Congress shall have the character of a law or of a decree. The laws or decrees shall be communicated to the Executive signed by the Presidents of both chambers and by a secretary of each, and shall be promulgated in this form: "The Congress of the United Mexican States decrees (Text of the law or decree)."

Section II

Introduction and Enactment of Laws

Article 71. The right to introduce laws or decrees belongs:

To the President of the Republic;

To the deputies and senators of the Congress;

To the legislatures of the States.

The bills submitted by the President of the Republic, by the legislatures of the States or by deputations thereof shall be referred at once to Committee. Those which are introduced by deputies or senators shall be subject to the procedure prescribed in the regulations on debate.

Article 72. Every bill or proposed decree, the resolution of which does not pertain exclusively to one of the chambers, shall be discussed successively in both, the regulations on debate being observed as to form, intervals of time, and mode of procedure in discussions and voting.

A bill approved in the chamber of its origin shall be referred to the other for discussion. If the latter approves it, it shall be sent to the Executive who, if he has no objections to make, shall immediately publish it.

Every bill shall be regarded as approved by the executive branch if it is not returned to the chamber of its origin within ten business days; unless, during this time, the Congress shall have adjourned or suspended its sessions, in which case the return must be made on the first business day on which the Congress next meets.

A bill or proposed decree rejected in whole or in part by the Executive shall be returned, with his objections, to the chamber of origin. It must be discussed anew by the latter, and if it is confirmed by a vote of two thirds of the total membership it shall again be sent to the revisory chamber. If it is sanctioned by the latter by the same majority, the bill shall become a law or decree and shall be returned to the Executive for promulgation

The voting on a law or decree shall be by roll call.

If any bill or proposed decree is rejected in its entirety by the chamber of revision, it shall be returned to that of its origin with the objections made by the former. If upon examining it anew, it is approved by an absolute majority of the members present, it shall be returned to the chamber that rejected it, which shall again consider it and if it approves it by the same majority, it shall be sent to the Executive for the purposes of section (a) above; but if disapproved, it cannot be again introduced in the same period of sessions.

If a bill is rejected in part, or amended or added to by the revisory chamber, the new discussion in the chamber of origin shall be confined to the part rejected or to the amendments or additions, without alteration in any way of the articles approved. If the additions or amendments made by the revisory chamber are approved by an absolute majority of votes present in the chamber of origin, the entire bill is sent to the Executive for the purposes indicated in section (a). If the additions or amendments made by the revisory chamber are disapproved by a majority of the votes in the chamber of origin, they shall be returned to the former for consideration of the reasons of the latter, and if the amendments or additions are rejected in this second revision by an absolute majority of votes present, the bill, insofar as it has been approved by both chambers, shall be sent to the Executive for the purposes indicated in section (a). If the revisory chamber insists, by an absolute majority of votes present, upon such amendments or additions, the entire bill shall not be again presented until the following period of sessions unless both chambers agree, by an absolute majority of their members present, that the law or decree be issued only with the approved articles, and those added or amended shall be reserved for examination and vote at the following sessions.

In the interpretation, amendment, or repeal of laws or decrees, the same procedure shall be followed as that established for their enactment.

Every bill or proposed decree which is rejected in the chamber of its origin, cannot be again introduced in the sessions of that year.

The enactment of laws or decrees may commence in either of the two chambers, without distinction, with the exception of bills dealing with loans, taxes, or imposts, or with the recruiting of troops, all of which must be discussed first in the Chamber of Deputies.

Bills or proposed decrees shall preferentially be discussed in the chamber in which they are introduced, unless one month elapses since they were sent to the reporting committee without a report being made, in which case the bill may be discussed in the other chamber.

The Federal Executive cannot offer objections to the resolutions of the Congress or of either chamber, when they exercise functions of an electoral body or of a jury, nor when the Chamber of Deputies declares that a high functionary of the Federation should be impeached for official crimes.

Neither may he do so in regard to a decree of convocation to extraordinary sessions issued by the Permanent Committee.

Section III

Powers of Congress

Article 73. The Congress has the power:

To admit new States and Territories into the Federal Union;

To erect the Territories into States when they shall have a population of eighty thousand inhabitants and the resources necessary to provide for their political existence;

To form new States within the boundaries of existing ones, for which purpose it shall be necessary:

That the section or sections seeking to be made a State shall have a population of at least one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants.

That it be proven before Congress that they possess the resources necessary to provide for their political existence.

That the legislatures of the States involved be heard as to the feasibility or infeasibility of the formation of the new State, and they shall be required to render their report within six months from the date that the respective communication was submitted to them.

That the Executive of the Federation likewise be heard, who shall transmit his report within seven days from the date on which it was requested of him.

That the creation of the new State be adopted by a vote of two thirds of the deputies and senators present in their respective chambers.

That the resolution of the Congress be ratified by a majority of the legislatures of the States, with a copy of the record before them, provided that the legislatures of the States whose territory is involved have given their consent.

If the legislatures of the States whose territory is involved have not given their consent, the ratification mentioned in the foregoing section must be given by two thirds of the legislatures of the other States.

To arrange permanently the boundaries of the States, settling any differences that may arise between them in regard to the demarcation of their respective territories, except when these differences may be of a contentious character.

To change the seat of the supreme powers of the Federation.

To legislate on all matters concerning the Federal District and Territories, subject to the following bases:

The government of the Federal District shall be entrusted to the President of the Republic, who shall exercise it through the organ or organs that are prescribed by law.

The government of the Territories shall be entrusted to governors who shall depend directly on the President of the Republic, who shall freely appoint and remove them.

The Territories shall be divided into Municipalities, which shall have a land area and number of inhabitants sufficient to be able maintain themselves on their own resources and contribute to their ordinary expenditures. Each Municipality in the Territories shall be entrusted to an ayuntamiento elected by direct popular vote.

The governors of the Territories shall communicate with the President of the Republic through such channels as are specified by law.

⁽²³⁾ Appointments of the magistrates of the superior court of justice of the Federal District and of the Territories shall be made by the President of the Republic and submitted for the approval of the Chamber of Deputies, which shall grant or refuse such approval within a period of ten days, without extension. If the Chamber does not act within such time, the appointments shall be considered approved. Without the approval of the Chamber, the magistrates appointed by the President of the Republic cannot take possession. In the event that the Chamber of Deputies does not approve two successive appointments with respect to the same vacancy, the President of the Republic shall make a third appointment) which shall be effective at once, as provisional, and which shall be submitted to the approval of the Chamber at the following regular period of sessions. At this period of sessions, within the first ten days' the Chamber must approve or disapprove the appointment, and if it approved it, or makes no decision, the magistrate appointed provisionally shall continue to serve permanently. If the Chamber rejects the appointment, the provisional magistrate shall cease to function at once, and the President of the Republic shall submit a new appointment for the approval of the Chamber, under the terms indicated.

In cases of temporary inability of magistrates to act for more than three months, they shall be replaced by appointments which the President of the Republic shall submit to the approval of the Chamber of Deputies, and during its adjournment, to that of the Permanent Committee, in either instance by observing the provisions of the preceding clauses.

In cases of temporary inability which do not exceed three months, the Organic Law shall determine the manner of making the substitution. If a magistrate should cease to act because of death, resignation, or incapacity, the President of the Republic shall submit a new appointment for the approval of the Chamber of Deputies. If the Chamber is not in session, the Permanent Committee shall give provisional approval, until the Chamber meets and gives final approval.

The judges of first instance, and the minor and correctional judges of the Federal District and the Territories, shall be appointed by the supreme court of justice of the Federal District; they must have the qualifications which the law prescribes and shall be replaced during their temporary inability to act, in the manner provided by law.

The remuneration which magistrates and judges receive for their services cannot be decreased during their terms of office.

The magistrates and judges to whom this basis refers, shall continue in office for six years; but they may be removed from their positions when guilty of bad conduct, in accordance with the final part of Article 111 or after corresponding action for responsibility.⁽²⁴⁾

The public ministry in the Federal District and in the Territories shall be in charge of an attorney general (Procurador General), who shall reside in Mexico City, and such number of agents as shall be determined by law; and he shall depend directly on the President of the Republic, who may freely appoint and remove him.

To levy the necessary taxes to cover the Budget.

⁽²⁵⁾ To fix the bases upon which the President of the Republic may borrow on the credit of the Nation; to approve such loans and to acknowledge and order payment of the national debt. No loan may be effected except for the construction of works which directly produce an increase in the public revenues unless for purposes of currency regulation, conversion operations or loans contracted during some emergency declared by the President of the Republic within the terms of Article 29.

⁽²⁶⁾ To prevent the establishment of restrictions on commerce from State to State.

⁽²⁷⁾ To legislate throughout the Republic on hydrocarbons, mining, the motion picture industry, commerce, games of chance and lotteries, credit institutions, and electric power, to establish a single bank of issue under the provisions of Article 28 of the Constitution and to enact labor laws regulating Article 123 of this Constitution.

To create and abolish public offices of the Federation and to fix, increase, or decrease their salaries.

To declare war, in the light of information submitted by the Executive.

⁽²⁸⁾ To enact laws pursuant to which captures on sea and land must be declared good or bad; and to enact maritime laws applicable in peace and war.

To raise and maintain the armed forces of the Union, to wit: army, navy and air force, and to regulate their organization and service.

To prescribe regulations for the purpose of organizing, arming, and disciplining the national guard, reserving to the citizens who compose it the appointment of their respective commanders and officers, and to the States the power of training them in accordance with the discipline prescribed by such regulations.

To enact laws in regard to nationality, the legal status of foreigners, citizenship, naturalization, colonization, emigration and immigration, and the general health of the country.

The General Health Council shall depend directly upon the President of the Republic, without the intervention of any Secretariat of State, and its general provisions shall be compulsory throughout the country.

In case of serious epidemics or danger of invasion of the country by exotic diseases, the Department of Health shall be required to dictate immediately the necessary preventive measures, subject to subsequent approval by the President of the Republic.

The health authority shall be executive and its provisions shall be obeyed by the administrative authorities of the country.

The measures which the Council shall have put into effect in the campaign against alcoholism and the sale of substances which poison the individual and degenerate the race shall afterwards be examined by the Congress of the Union, in cases within its competency.

To enact laws concerning general means of communication, and in regard to posts and post offices; to enact laws on the use and utilization of waters under federal jurisdiction.

To establish mints, fix the standards of coins and coinage, to determine the value of foreign currencies, and to adopt a general system of weights and measures.

To establish rules for the occupation and alienation of vacant lands and fix their price.

To enact laws for the organization of the Mexican Diplomatic Corps and Consular Corps.

To define crimes and offenses against the Federation and to prescribe the punishments to be imposed for them.

To grant amnesties for crimes within the jurisdiction of the federal courts.

To prescribe its own rules and adopt necessary measures to enforce the attendance of absent deputies and senators, and to correct the offenses or omissions of those present.

To enact the organic law governing the Auditor General's Office (Contaduría Mayor).

⁽²⁹⁾To establish, organize, end maintain throughout the Republic rural, elementary, superior, secondary, and professional schools, and schools for scientific research, of fine arts, and of technical training; practical schools of agriculture and mining, of arts and crafts, museums, libraries, observatories, and other institutions concerning the general culture of the inhabitants of the Nation, and to legislate on all matters relating to such institutions; to legislate on matters concerning archeological, artistic, and historic monuments, the conservation of which is of national interest; and also to enact laws designed to distribute feasibly between the Federation, the States, and Municipalities the exercise of the educative function and the appropriations corresponding to this public service, seeking to unify and coordinate education throughout the Republic. The diplomas issued by the aforementioned establishments shall be valid throughout the Republic.

To grant leave of absence to the President of the Republic, and to constitute itself as an electoral college and designate the citizen who is to replace the President of the Republic, as either an interim or provisional substitute, under the terms of Articles 84 and 85 of this Constitution.

To accept the resignation from office of the President of the Republic .

To examine the account which the executive branch must submit to it annually, which examination must include not only conformity of the items expended within the budget of expenditures, but also the correctness and justification of such items

⁽³⁰⁾ To levy taxes:

On foreign commerce.

On the utilization and exploitation of natural resources included in paragraphs 4 and 5 of Article 27.

On institutions of credit and insurance companies.

On public services under concession or operated directly by the Federation.

Special taxes on:

Electric power

Production and consumption of processed tobacco

Gasoline and other products derived from petroleum

Matches and "cerillos"

Maguey and its fermented products

Forestry exploitation

Production and consumption of beer⁽³¹⁾

Federal entitites shall share in the revenues from these special taxes in the proportion fixed by secondary federal law. The local legislatures shall fix the percentage corresponding to the Municipalities from revenues obtained from the tax on electric power.

To enact all laws that may be necessary to enforce the foregoing powers, and all others granted by this Constitution to the branches of the Union.

Article 74. The exclusive powers of the Chamber of Deputies are:

To constitute itself as an electoral college in order to exercise the powers assigned to it by law with respect to the election of the President of the Republic .

To supervise, through a committee drawn from its body, the correct performance of the functions of the Auditor General's Office.

To appoint the chiefs and other employees of that office.

To approve the annual budget of expenditures, after first discussing the taxes which, in its judgment, must be levied to cover it.

To take cognizance of accusations against public officials mentioned in this Constitution, for official crimes, and in proper cases to present impeachment before the Chamber of Senators; and to constitute itself as a grand jury in order to decide whether or not to proceed against any of the public officials who enjoy constitutional prerogative, when they are accused of common crimes.

To grant or refuse its approval of appointments of magistrates of the superior court of justice of the Federal District and of the Territories, submitted to it by the President of the Republic.

To declare justified or unjustified the petitions for removal of judicial authorities made by the President of the Republic, under the terms of the final part of Article 111.

Any others which this Constitution expressly confers upon it.

Article 75. The Chamber of Deputies, upon approving the budget of expenditures, may not fail to fix the remuneration which corresponds to an office which is established by law; and in the event that for any reason it fails to fix such remuneration, the amount fixed in the previous budget or in the law which established the office shall be understood to be designated.

Article 76. The exclusive powers of the Senate are:

To approve the treaties and diplomatic conventions made by the President of the Republic with foreign powers.

To ratify the appointments which said official makes of ministers, diplomatic agents, consuls general, superior employees of the Treasury, colonels and other superior chiefs of the national army, navy and air force, in accordance with provisions of law.⁽³²⁾

To authorize him also to permit the departure of national troops beyond the borders of the country, the passage of foreign troops through the national territory, and the sojourn of squadrons of other powers for more than one month in Mexican waters.

To give its consent for the President of the Republic to order the national guard outside of its respective States or Territories, fixing the necessary force.

To declare, whenever the constitutional powers of a State have disappeared, that the condition has arisen for appointing a provisional governor, who shall call elections in accordance with the constitutional laws of the said State. The appointment of a governor shall be made by the Senate from a list of three proposed by the President of the Republic, with the approval of two thirds of the members present, and during adjournments, by the Permanent Committee, according to the same rules. The official thus appointed cannot be elected constitutional governor in the elections held pursuant to the call which he issues. This provision shall govern whenever the constitution of a State does not make provision for such cases.

To settle political questions which may arise between the powers of a State, whenever any of them shall apply to the Senate for the purpose, or whenever, by reason of such questions, the constitutional order shall be interrupted through a conflict of arms. In this event the Senate shall declare its decision, subjecting itself to the general Constitution of the Republic and to that of the State.

The law shall regulate the exercise of this and of the foregoing powers.

To constitute itself as a grand jury to take cognizance of official crimes of the officials which this Constitution expressly designates.

To grant or deny its approval of the appointments of ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, and of requests for leaves of absence and of the resignations of these officials, which the President of the Republic may submit to it.

To declare justified or not justified petitions for removal of judicial authorities made by the President of the Republic, under the provisions of the final part of Article 111.

Any others which this Constitution may assign to it.

Article 77. Each of the chambers, without the intervention of the other, may:

Dictate economic resolutions relating to its internal organization.

Communicate with the co-legislative chamber and with the Executive of the Union, through committees of its own body.

Appoint the employees of its secretariat and prescribe the internal regulations thereof.

Issue a call for extraordinary elections for the purpose of filling vacancies of its respective members.

Section IV

The Permanent Committee

Article 78. During the adjournment of Congress there shall be a Permanent Committee composed of twenty-nine members, of whom fifteen shall be deputies and fourteen senators, named by their respective chambers on the eve of the close of the sessions.

Article 79. The Permanent Committee, in addition to the powers which this Constitution expressly confers upon it, shall have the following:

To give its consent for the use of the national guard, in the cases mentioned in Article 76, section IV.

To administer the affirmation or oath of office (protesta) of the President of the Republic, the members of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, and of the magistrates of the Federal District and Territories, if the latter officials should be in Mexico City.

⁽³³⁾ To decide on matters within its competence; during the adjournment of the Congress of the Union, to receive the bills introduced and proposals addressed to the chambers and turn them over for action in the committees of the chamber to which they are addressed, so that they may be acted upon at the next period of sessions.

To issue on its own motion or on the proposal of the Executive, the convocation of the Congress or of a single chamber to extraordinary sessions, in both cases the vote of two thirds of the individuals present being necessary. The call shall set forth the purpose or purposes of the extraordinary sessions.

To grant or deny its approval of appointments of ministers of the Supreme Court and magistrates of the superior court of justice of the Federal District and of the territories, and also of requests for leaves of absence of the ministers of the court which the President of the Republic may submit to it.

To grant a leave of absence for thirty days to the President of the Republic and to appoint a President ad interim during such absence.

⁽³⁴⁾ To ratify the appointments made by the President of the Republic as ministers, diplomatic agents, consuls general, higher employees of the Treasury, colonels and other higher ranks of the national army, navy, and air force, in accordance with provisions of law.

Chapter III

The Executive Branch

Article 80. The exercise of the supreme executive power of the Union is vested in a single individual who is designated "President of the United Mexican States."

Article 81. The election of the President shall be direct and under the terms prescribed by the Electoral Law.

Article 82. In order to be President it is required:

To be a Mexican citizen by birth, in the full enjoyment of his rights, and the son of Mexican parents by birth.

To have attained 35 years of age at the time of the election.

To have resided in the country during the entire year prior to the day of the election.

Not to possess ecclesiastic status nor be a minister of any cult.

Not to be in active service, in case of belonging to the army, within six months prior to the day of the election.⁽³⁵⁾

Not to be a Secretary or Subsecretary of State, chief or secretary general of an administrative department, Attorney General of the Republic, nor the governor of any State or Territory, unless he shall have resigned such position six months prior to the day of the election.

Not to be included within any of the grounds for incapacity indicated in Article 83.

Article 83. The President shall assume the duties of office on the first of December for a term of six years. A citizen who has held the office of President of the Republic, by popular election or by appointment as ad interim, provisional, or substitute President, can in no case and for no reason again hold that office.

Article 84. In the event of the absolute disability of the President of the Republic, occurring during the first two years of his term, if the Congress is in session, it shall immediately constitute itself as an electoral college, and if there is at least two thirds of the total membership present, it shall name by secret ballot, and by an absolute majority of votes, an interim President; the same Congress shall issue, within ten days following the designation of the interim President, a call for the election of a President to complete the respective term; between the date of the call and that designated for holding the election, there must be an interval of not less than fourteen months nor more than eighteen.

If the Congress is not in session, the Permanent Committee shall immediately name a provisional President and shall call Congress in extraordinary session in order that it, in turn, may designate an interim President and issue the call for presidential elections as indicated in the preceding paragraph.

When the disability of the President occurs within the last four years of his term, if the Congress is in session, it shall designate a substitute President to complete the term; if the Congress is not in session, the Permanent Committee shall name a provisional President and shall convoke the Congress in extraordinary session in order that it may constitute itself into an electoral college and elect the s ub stitute Pr e s ident.

Article 85. If at the commencement of a constitutional period the President-elect does not present himself, or if the elections have not been held and the results declared on December first, the President whose term has ended shall nevertheless cease to function, and at once the executive power shall be entrusted to an individual whom the Congress shall designate as interim President, or if Congress is not in session, to an individual whom the Permanent Committee shall designate as provisional President; proceeding according to the provisions of the preceding article.

When the disability of the President is temporary, the Congress, if in session, or if not, the Permanent Committee, shall designate an interim President to function during the period of the disability.

When the disability is for more than thirty days and the Congress is not in session, the Permanent Committee shall convoke an extraordinary session of the Congress in order that it may decide upon the leave of absence, or as the case may be, name an interim President.

If the temporary disability becomes absolute, the procedure described in the preceding article shall be observed.

Article 86. The office of President of the Republic can be resigned only for grave cause, which shall be passed upon by the Congress of the Union, to which the resignation must be presented.

Article 87. The President, upon taking possession of his office, shall make before the Congress of the Union, or if in adjournment before the Permanent Committee, the following affirmation: "I solemnly promise that I will observe and enforce the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the laws enacted in pursuance thereof, and that I will discharge loyally and patriotically the office of President of the Republic which the people have conferred upon me, in all ways looking to the welfare and prosperity of the Union; and if I do not do so may the Nation demand it of me."

Article 88.⁽³⁶⁾ The President of the Republic may not absent himself from the national territory without the permission of the Congress of the Union or of the Permanent Committee, as the case may be.

Article 89. The powers and duties of the President are the following:

To promulgate and execute the laws enacted by the Congress of the Union, providing for their exact enforcement in the administrative sphere.

To appoint and remove freely the secretaries of the Government, the Attorney General of the Republic, the governor of the Federal District and the governors of the Territories, the attorney general of the Federal District and Territories, to remove diplomatic agents and superior employees of the Treasury, and to appoint and remove freely all other employees of the Union whose appointment or removal is not otherwise provided for in the Constitution or by law.

To appoint ministers, diplomatic agents, and consuls general, with the approval of the Senate.

To appoint, with the approval of the Senate, the colonels and other superior officers of the army, navy, and air force, and the superior employees of the Treasury.

To appoint the other officers of the army, navy, and air force, as provided by law.

⁽³⁷⁾ To dispose of the permanent armed forces, including the land army, the marine navy and the air force for internal security and exterior defense of the Federation.

To dispose of the national guard for the same purposes, under the terms indicated in section IV of Article 76.

To declare war in the name of the United Mexican States, pursuant to a previous law of the Congress of the Union.

⁽³⁸⁾ Deleted.

To direct diplomatic negotiations and make treaties with foreign powers, submitting them to the ratification of the federal Congress.

To convoke the Congress in extraordinary session when the Permanent Committee so resolves.

To give to the judicial branch whatever assistance it may need for the expeditious exercise of its functions.

To open all classes of ports, establish maritime and frontier custom houses, and designate their location.

To grant, according to law, pardons to criminals convicted of crimes within the jurisdiction of the federal courts, and to those convicted of common crimes in the Federal District and Territories.

To grant exclusive privileges, for a limited time, in accordance with the respective law, to discoverers, inventors, or improvers in any branch of industry.

⁽³⁹⁾ When the Chamber of Senators is not in session, the President of the Republic may make the appointments mentioned in sections III and IV, with the approval of the Permanent Committee.

To appoint magistrates of the Superior Court of Justice of the Federal District and of the Territories and submit the appointments to the approval of the Chamber of Deputies, or to the Permanent Committee, as the case may be.

To appoint the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice and submit such appointments, leaves of absence, and resignations, to the approval of the Chamber of Senators, or to the Permanent Committee, as the case may be.

To request the removal, for bad conduct, of the judicial authorities referred to in the final part of Article 111.

And all other expressly conferred on him by this Constitution.

Article 90. For the dispatch of the administrative business of the Federations there shall be the number of secretaries that the Congress shall establish by law, which shall distribute the business to be entrusted to each Secretariat.

Article 91. To be a secretary it is required to be a Mexican citizen by birth, to be in exercise of his rights, and be at least thirty years of age.

Article 92. All regulations, decrees, and orders of the President must be signed by the secretary (Secretario del Despacho) in charge of the branch (of administration) to which the matter pertains, and without this requisite they shall not be obeyed. The regulations, decrees, and orders of the President relating to the government of the Federal District and to the administrative departments, shall be sent directly by the President to the governor of the District and to the chief of the respective department.

Article 93. The secretaries (del Despacho), as soon as the regular period of sessions is opened, shall give a report to the Congress on the state of their respective branches. Either of the Chambers may summon the secretaries of state for information, whenever a law is under discussion or a matter is being studied relating to their secretariat.

Chapter IV

The Judicial Branch

Article 94.⁽⁴⁰⁾ The judicial power of the Federation is vested in a Supreme Court of Justice, in circuit courts, as a body in matters of amparo and as single judges in matters of appeal, and in district courts. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation shall consist of twenty-one ministers and shall function as a full court (en tribunal pleno) or divided into sections (salas). There shall also be five supernumerary ministers. Hearings of the full court or of the sections shall be public, with the exception of cases in which morals or the public interest require secrecy. The terms of sessions of the Supreme Court, as a full court or in sections, the powers and duties of the supernumerary ministers, and the number and jurisdiction of the circuit courts and district judges shall be governed by this Constitution and by provisions of law. In no case shall the supernumerary ministers sit in the full court. The remuneration received for their services by the ministers of the Supreme Court, by the circuit magistrates and by the district judges may not be reduced during their term of office.

The ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice may be removed from office whenever they are guilty of bad conduct, in accordance with the final part of Article 111, after judgment of their corresponding liability.

Article 95. To be elected minister of the Supreme Court of Justice, it is necessary:

To be a Mexican citizen by birth, in full exercise of political and civil rights.

Not to be over sixty-five nor less than thirty-five years of age on the day of the election.

To have held on the day of the election the professional degree of lawyer for a minimum of five years, issued by an authority or corporation legally empowered to do so.

To enjoy a good reputation and not to have been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment of more than one year; but if it concerned robbery, fraud, forgery, abuse of confidence or other crime which seriously injures good fame as conceived by the public, he shall be disqualified for the office whatever the penalty may have been.

To have resided in the country during the last five years, except in case of absence in the service of the Republic for a period of less than six months.

Article 96. Appointments of the ministers of the Supreme Court shall be made by the President of the Republic and submitted to the approval of the Chamber of Senators, which shall grant or deny approval within the unalterable period of ten days. If the Chamber fails to decide within that time, the appointments shall be considered as approved Without the approval of the Senate, the magistrates of the Supreme Court named by the President of the Republic cannot take office. In the event that the Chamber of Senators does not approve two successive nominations for the same vacancy, the President of the Republic shall make a third appointment, which shall become effective at once as provisional, and which shall be submitted to the said Chamber at the following regular period of sessions At such period of sessions, within the first ten days, the Senate must approve or disapprove the appointment, and if it approves it, or takes no decision, the magistrate appointed provisionally shall continue in office permanently. If the Senate rejects the appointment, the provisional minister shall cease to act and the President of the Republic shall submit a new appointment to the approval of the Senate, in the manner indicated.

Article 97. The circuit magistrates and district judges shall be appointed by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, shall have the qualifications which the law requires' and shall hold office for four years, at the expiration of which, if they are reelected or elevated to a higher position, they may be removed from office only if guilty of bad conduct, in accordance with the final part of Article 111 or after judgment of their corresponding liability.

The Supreme Court of Justice may also change the seat of the district judges, transferring them from one district to another, or fixing their residence in another town, as it may deem convenient for better public service. The same may be done with respect to circuit magistrates.

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation may also appoint supernumerary circuit magistrates and district judges to assist in the work of the courts and tribunals where there is an excess of business, in order to provide for prompt and expeditious administration of justice; and it shall appoint one or more of its members, or some district judge or circuit magistrate, or designate one or more special commissioners, when deemed advisable, or if the federal Executive, or one of the chambers of Congress, or the governor of a State so requests, solely to investigate the conduct of any federal judge or magistrate, or any act or acts which may constitute a violation of any individual guarantee, or the violation of the public election, or some other crime punishable by federal law.

The circuit courts and district courts shall be distributed among the ministers of the Supreme Court, who shall visit them periodically, observe the conduct of the magistrates and judges presiding over them, hear complaints presented against such officials, and perform any other duties prescribed by law. The Supreme Court of Justice may freely appoint and remove its clerk and any other employees serving it, with strict observance of the appropriate law. In the same way, the circuit magistrates and district judges shall appoint and remove their respective clerks and employees.

The Supreme Court of Justice shall designate each year one of its members as president, with the right of reelection.

Each minister of the Supreme Court of Justice' on assuming office, shall affirm before the Senate, or before the Permanent Committee if the former is in adjournment, in the following form:

President: "Do you solemnly promise that you will discharge loyally and patriotically the office of Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation which has been conferred upon you, and that you will observe and enforce the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the laws enacted in pursuance thereof, in all ways looking to the welfare and prosperity of the Union?"

Minister: "Yes, I promise. "

President: "If you fail to do so, may the Nation call you to account. "

The circuit magistrates and district judges shall make their affirmation before the Supreme Court or before an authority designated by law.

A minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation who is temporarily absent from office, for a period not exceeding one month, shall be replaced in the corresponding section by a supernumerary. If the absence exceeds that period, the President of the Republic shall submit the appointment of a provisional minister to the approval of the Senate, or if adjourned, to the Permanent Committee, observing in each case the provisions of the final part of Article 96.

In the event of the death, resignation, or incapacity of a minister, the President of the Republic shall submit a new appointment to the approval of the Senate. If the Senate is not in session, the Permanent Committee shall give its approval, until the former meets to give definitive approval.

Article 99. Resignations of ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice may be submitted only for serious reasons; they shall be submitted to the Executive, and if he accepts them they shall be sent to the Senate for approval, or if adjourned to the Permanent Committee.

Article 100. Leaves of absence of ministers, when they do not exceed one month, shall be granted by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation; those that exceed that time shall be granted by the President of the Republic, with the approval of the Senate, or during its adjournment, of the Permanent Committee.

Article 101. The ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice, the circuit magistrates, the district judges, and their respective clerks may not in any case accept and hold employment or office of the Federation, the States, or of a private nature, except honorary positions in scientific, literary, or charitable associations. Violation of this provision shall be punishable by loss of office.

Article 102.⁽⁴¹⁾ The law shall organize a public ministry of the Federation, the officials of which shall be appointed and removed by the Executive, in accordance with the respective law, and which shall be presided over by an attorney general (Procurador General) who shall have the same qualifications as those required to be a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The prosecution before the courts of all federal offenses shall be the duty of the public ministry of the Federation; and, therefore, it shall request orders of arrest for offenders; procure and present evidence as to their liability; see that trials are conducted with due regularity in order that the administration of justice may be prompt and efficient; request the imposition of sentence; and intervene in all matters that the law may determine.

The Attorney General of the Republic shall personally intervene in all matters in which the Federation is a party; in cases affecting ministers, diplomats, and consuls general, and in those that arise between two or more States of the Union, between one State and the Federation, or between the powers of one State. The Attorney General may intervene in person or through one of his agents in other cases where the intervention of the public ministry of the Federation is necessary.

The Attorney General shall be the legal counselor of the Government. Both he and his agents shall strictly obey the provisions of law, being responsible for every offense, omission, or violation that they may incur in the discharge of their duties.

Article 103. The federal courts shall decide all controversies that arise:

Out of law or acts of the authorities that violate individual guar