Editing Constitution

 

<u>Article.</u> Deputies and senators, and their alternates, shall be elected to hold office for five years, and may be reelected.

(1) To enact codes and other laws, amend them, or repeal them, based on this Constitution;

<br>(5) To enact the electoral law;

<br>(6) To declare and specify the duration of a state of economic emergency whenever abnormal circumstances of the country so demand. Such a declaration of emergency shall suspend, if so ordered, any or all guarantees set forth in Article _____. The laws enacted on the basis of this declaration may not be in force to the detriment of stated constitutional guarantees longer than the time fixed by the corresponding decree;

<br>(7) To take cognizance of the decree-laws issued by the executive branch in the event of emergency or public necessity;

<br>(8) To enact each year the law on the General Budget of Revenues and Expenditures of the Republic;

<br>(11) To regulate commerce with foreign nations;

<br>(16) To approve or reject the treaties, conventions, concordats, and other international agreements signed on behalf of the Republic, and to authorize the executive power to declare war and conclude peace;

<br>(17) To enact laws for the organization of the _____ Diplomatic Corps and Consular Corps;

<br>(18) To establish, organize, and 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; and to legislate on matters concerning archeological, artistic, and historic monuments, the conservation of which is of national interest;

<br>(19) 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;

<br>(20) To raise and maintain the armed forces of the Republic, to wit: Army, Navy and Air Force, and to regulate their organization and service;

<br>(21) To prescribe regulations for the purpose of organizing, arming, disciplining, and training the National Police;

<br>(22) To determine in each ordinary legislative session, and in extraordinary sessions when required, the effectives of the armed forces;

<br>(23) On the proposal of the executive power, to issue military ordinances and enact the organic law of the military courts;

<br>(24) To enact laws concerning general means of communication, and in regard to posts and post offices;

<br>(25) To grant subsidies or premiums for objects of public utility that are intended to establish new industries or stimulate agriculture or stock-raising;

<br>(26) To secure and protect the property of artists and writers and of the inventor or discoverer, in accordance with the law;

<br>(27) To enact laws in regard to nationality, the legal status of foreigners, citizenship, naturalization, emigration and immigration, and the general public health;

<br>(33) To enact laws in regard to the economic and social development of the nation and to programming, promotion, coordination, and undertaking of economic activities, particularly those related to food provisioning and others aimed to generate a sufficient and permanent production of commodities and services which are considered as basic from both a social and a national point of view;

<br>(34) To enact the organic law governing the Tribunal of Accounts;

<br>(35) To grant general amnesties for political offenses and common offenses related thereto. In no case may pardons include civil liabilities toward private individuals;

<br>(36) To pass political judgment on the conduct of the Ministers of State, in accordance with the provisions of Articles _____ to _____;

<u>Article.</u>  

<u>Article.</u> The Chamber of Deputies shall consist of seventy deputies elected, with their respective alternates, directly by the people, in departmental election districts, at the ratio of one regular deputy and one alternate for every thirty thousand inhabitants or fraction thereof exceeding fifteen thousand; but in any case each department shall be entitled to have one deputy.

<br>(3) To be a native of the department to which the electoral circumscription belongs or to have had three years' continuous residence therein; and

(1) To initiate the consideration of bills relating to the tax, monetary, and banking systems, to the contracting of loans, and to the General Budget of Revenues and Expenditures of the Republic;

<br>(2) To initiate the consideration of any bill relating to electoral or municipal legislation;

<br>(3) To supervise, through a committee drawn from its body, the correct performance of the functions of the Tribunal of Accounts;

<br>(4) To examine accusations presented by its own members or by private individuals against the President of the Republic, deputies, senators, magistrates of the courts of justice, Ministers of State, diplomatic agents, and the president of the Tribunal of Accounts; and if the charge appears well founded, to submit the corresponding impeachment to the Senate;

<br>(5) To exercise any other powers which this Constitution expressly confers upon it.

<u>Article.</u> The Senate shall be renewed every four years by parts in the manner determined by law. Each senator shall remain eight years in office.

(1) To initiate the consideration of bills relating to national defense, to the ratification of international treaties, conventions or agreements, to expropriations, and to the limitation of real property ownership;

<br>(2) To consent to the appointment of the attorney general and the ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary of the foreign service of the Republic, as well as to military promotions beginning with and including the rank of colonel in the Army, or its equivalent in the other branches of the armed forces and in the services;

<br>(3) To authorize 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 _____ waters;

<br>(4) To try impeachments submitted by the Chamber of Deputies against the officials referred to in Article _____ by a hearing of the accused. If the latter does not appear he shall be tried in absentia;

<br>(5) To grant or deny its consent to the acts of the President of the Republic in cases in which the Constitution or the law so requires. If the Senate does not pass upon the matter within thirty days after call for urgency by the President of the Republic, its consent shall be taken for granted;

<br>(6) To exercise any other powers which this Constitution may assign to it.

<u>Article.</u> Congress in joint session shall be presided over by the president of the Senate, but if he is unable to do so, the president of the Chamber of Deputies shall preside over them. In default of both, the vice president of the Senate or of the Chamber of Deputies shall preside, in that order.

<u>Article.</u> Congress in joint session has the following powers:  

<br>(8) To delegate to the executive branch, by a two-thirds vote, the power to legislate, by means of legislative decrees, on a specific matter and for a particular period as established in the enabling law. These legislative decrees are subject to the same provisions as those which apply for the law;

<br>(9) To take cognizance of the report presented by the executive branch on measures taken during the suspension of constitutional guarantees;

<br>(11) To establish, by a three-fourths vote, the national coat of arms, the flag of the republic, and the national anthem;

<u>Article.</u> The official office of the President of the Republic shall be in the Casa Presidencial, and the National Treasury shall defray the expense of a residence for him that is in keeping with the dignity of his office. He shall be entitled to a salary, which may not be changed during his term of office, and during that term he may not engage in any other employment, nor devote himself to his profession, business or industry, nor receive any other emolument from the Republic.

<br>(2) To convoke Congress in extraordinary session;

<br>(3) To prepare the General Budget of Revenues and Expenditures of the Republic each year and present it to the chambers of Congress for consideration;

<br>(3) To appoint and remove freely the Ministers of State and other officers and employees of the executive branch, and other government officials whose appointment and tenure of post are not regulated in any other way by this Constitution or by law;

<br>(4) To provide for the collection of the revenues of the Republic, decree the expenditures, and render accounts of them, in accordance with the General Budget of Revenues and Expenditures of the Republic and the laws;

<br>(5) To appoint the Attorney General, with the approval of the Senate;

<br>(6) To conduct the foreign relations of the Republic;

<br>(7) To receive chiefs of diplomatic missions of foreign countries and admit their consuls and to appoint ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary of the foreign service of the Republic, with the approval of the Senate, or during its recess, of the Delegated Committee of Congress;

<br>(8) To negotiate and sign treaties of peace, friendship, commerce, navigation, alliance, boundaries, and neutrality, and concordats and other international agreements, and to ratify them after approval by the legislative branch;

<br>(9) To decree the severance of relations, and in accordance with a prior resolution of Congress, to declare war, provided that arbitration or other pacific means to avoid it have been unsuccessful;

<br>(10) To grant, in conformity with the law, severance and retirement pensions and annuities;

<br>(11) To open and close ports and to establish, transfer, or close down maritime and frontier custom houses, and designate their location;

<br>(12) To commute sentences and grant private pardons, upon the report of the Supreme Court of Justice and in accordance with the law. Officials impeached by the Chamber of Deputies and tried by the Senate can be pardoned by Congress only. The President of the Republic may not exercise this power with respect to the Ministers of State;

<br>(13) To grant awards and extend temporary privileges permitted by the Constitution to authors and inventors of works of general utility and to persons who have introduced new industries or improved existing ones;

<br>(14) To sign contracts, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws, for the rendering of services and the execution of public works and for the general interest;

<br>(15) To grant, for outstanding merit, the decorations, medals, diplomas and prizes that are established by law;

<br>(16) To exercise the other functions of government and administration assigned to him under this Constitution.

a) When the Republic becomes involved in an international or civil war, or when there is danger that either of these may occur;

<br>b) In case of epidemic, earthquake, or other public disaster;

<br>c) Whenever due to any other circumstances it is required for the protection, peace, or security of the nation or of its institutions or form of government.

a) The grounds on which it is based;

<br>b) Specifications of the guarantee or guarantees that are restricted or suspended; and

<br>c) The territory affected by the suspension or restriction.

a) The inviolability of human life;

<br>b) The prohibition against trials by judges other than those designated by law;

<br>c) The prohibition against acts of cruelty or torture and infamous punishments;

<br>d) The prohibition against retroactive or confiscatory laws; and

<br>e) The prohibition against imposing taxes. However, if an international or civil war breaks out, the President of the Republic in Council of Ministers may impose taxes of a general nature.

<u>Article.</u> The Ministers of State, in a meeting presided over by the President of the Republic, form the Council of Ministers. Its organization and function are determined by law.