Part 177

Article 7. The liberty to write and to publish writings on any subject whatsoever is inviolable. No law or authority shall establish previous censure, nor require security from authors or printers, nor restrict the liberty of the press, which has no other limits than respect of private life, morality, and the public peace. The crimes which are committed by means of the press shall be judged by the competent tribunals of the Federation, or by those of the States, those of the Federal District and the Territory of Lower California, in accordance with their penal laws.

[Footnote: This article was amended May 15, 1883, by introducing the last sentence as a substitute for the following: "The crimes of the press shall be judged by one jury which attests the fact and by another which applies the law and designates the punishment."]

Article 8. The right of petition, exercised in writing in a peaceful and respectful manner, is inviolable; but in political matters only citizens of the Republic may exercise it. To every petition must be returned a written opinion by the authority to whom it may have been addressed, and the latter is obliged to make the result known to the petitioner.

Article 9. No one may be deprived of the right peacefully to assemble or unite with others for any lawful object whatsoever, but only citizens of the Republic may do this in order to take part in the political affairs of the country. No armed assembly has a right to deliberate.

Article 10. Every man has a right to possess and carry arms for his security and legitimate defence. The law shall designate what arms are prohibited and the punishment which those shall incur who carry them.

Article 11. Every man has a right to enter and to go out of the Republic, to travel through its territory and change his residence, without the necessity of a letter of security, passport, safe-conduct, or other similar requisite. The exercise of this right shall not prejudice the legitimate faculties of the judicial or administrative authority in cases of criminal or civil responsibility.

Article 12. There are not, nor shall there be recognized in the Republic, titles of nobility, or prerogatives, or hereditary honors. Only the people, legitimately represented, may decree recompenses in honor of those who may have rendered or may render eminent services to the country or to humanity.

Article 13. In the Mexican Republic no one may be judged by special law nor by special tribunals. No person or corporation may have privileges, or enjoy emoluments, which are not compensation for a public service and are established by law. Martial law may exist only for crimes and offences which have a definite connection with military discipline. The law shall determine with all clearness the cases included in this exception.

Article 14. No retroactive law shall be enacted. No one may be judged or sentenced except by laws made prior to the act, and exactly applicable to it, and by a tribunal which shall have been previously established by law.

Article 15. Treaties shall never be made for the extradition of political offenders, nor for the extradition of those violators of the public order who may have held in the country where they committed the offence the position of slaves; nor agreements or treaties in virtue of which may be altered the guarantees and rights which this Constitution grants to the man and to the citizen.

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Article 16. No one may be molested in his person, family, domicile, papers and possessions, except in virtue of an order written by the competent authority, which shall establish and assign the legal cause for the proceedings. In the case of in flagrante delicto any person may apprehend the offender and his accomplices, placing them without delay at the disposal of the nearest authorities.

Article 17. No one may be arrested for debts of a purely civil character. No one may exercise violence in order to reclaim his rights. The tribunals shall always be prompt to administer justice. This shall be gratuitous, judicial costs being consequently abolished.

Article 18. Imprisonment shall take place only for crimes which deserve corporal punishment. In any state of the process in which it shall appear that such a punishment might not be imposed upon the accused, he shall be set at liberty under bail. In no case shall the imprisonment or detention be prolonged for default of payment of fees, or of any furnishing of money whatever.

Article 19. No detention shall exceed the term of three days, unless justified by a writ showing cause of imprisonment and other requisites which the law establishes. The mere lapse of this term shall render responsible the authority that orders or consents to it, and the agents, ministers, wardens, or jailers who execute it. Any maltreatment in the apprehension or in the confinement of the prisoners, any injury which may be inflicted without legal ground, any tax or contribution in the prisons, is an abuse which the laws must correct and the authorities severally punish.

Article 20. In every criminal trial the accused shall have the following guarantees: I. That the grounds of the proceedings and the name of the accuser, if there shall be one, shall be made known to him. II. That his preparatory declaration shall be taken within forty-eight hours, counting from the time he may be placed at the disposal of the judge. III. That he shall be confronted with the witnesses who testify against him. IV. That he shall be furnished with the data which he requires and which appear in the process, in order to prepare for his defence. V. That he shall be heard in defence by himself or by counsel, or by both, as he may desire. In case he should have no one to defend him, a list of official defenders shall be presented to him, in order that he may choose one or more who may suit him.

Article 21. The application of penalties properly so called belongs exclusively to the judicial authority. The political or administrative authorities may only impose fines, as correction, to the extent of five hundred dollars, or imprisonment to the extent of one month, in the cases and manner which the law shall expressly determine.

Article 22. Punishments by mutilation and infamy, by branding, flogging, the bastinado, torture of whatever kind, excessive fines, confiscation of property, or any other unusual or extraordinary penalties, shall be forever prohibited.

Article 23. In order to abolish the penalty of death, the administrative power is charged to establish, as soon as possible, a penitentiary system. In the meantime the penalty of death shall be abolished for political offences, and shall not be extended to other cases than treason during foreign war, highway robbery, arson, parricide, homicide with treachery, premeditation or advantage, to grave offences of the military order, and piracy, which the law shall define.

Article 24. No criminal proceeding may have more than three instances. No one shall be tried twice for the same offence, whether by the judgment he be absolved or condemned. The practice of absolving from the instance is abolished.

Article 25. Sealed correspondence which circulates by the mails is free from all registry. The violation of this guarantee is an offence which the law shall punish severely.

Article 26. In time of peace no soldier may demand quarters, supplies, or other real or personal service without the consent of the proprietor. In time of war he shall do this only in the manner prescribed by the law.

Article 27. Private property shall not be appropriated without the consent of the owner, except for the sake of public use, and with previous indemnification. The law shall determine the authority which may make the appropriation and the conditions under which it may be carried out. No corporation, civil or ecclesiastical, whatever may be its character, denomination, or object, shall have legal capacity to acquire in proprietorship or administer for itself real estate, with the single exception of edifices destined immediately and directly to the service and object of the institution.

[Footnote: See Article 3 of Additions to the Constitution.]

Article 28. There shall be no monopolies, nor places of any kind for the sale of privileged goods, nor prohibitions under titles of protection to industry. There shall be excepted only those relative to the coining of money, to the mails, and to the privileges which, for a limited time, the law may concede to inventors or perfectors of some improvement.

Article 29. In cases of invasion, grave disturbance of the public peace, or any other cases whatsoever which may place society in great danger or conflict, only the President of the Republic in concurrence with the Council of Ministers and with the approbation of the Congress of the Union, and, in the recess thereof, of the permanent deputation, may suspend the guarantees established by this Constitution, with the exception of those which assure the life of man; but such suspension shall be made only for a limited time, by means of general provisions, and without being limited to a determined person. If the suspension should take place during the session of Congress, this body shall concede the authorizations which it may esteem necessary in order that the Executive may meet properly the situation. If the suspension should take place during the recess, the permanent deputation shall convoke the Congress without delay in order that it may make the authorizations.

Article 30. Mexicans are: I. All those born, within or without the Republic, of Mexican parents. II. Foreigners who are naturalized in conformity with the laws of the Federation. III. Foreigners who acquire real estate in the Republic or have Mexican children; provided they do not manifest their resolution to preserve their nationality.

Article 31. It is an obligation of every Mexican: I. To defend the independence, the territory, the honor, the rights and interests of his country. II. To contribute for the public expenses, as well of the Federation as of the State and municipality in which he resides, in the proportional and equitable manner which the laws may provide.

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Article 32. Mexicans shall be preferred to foreigners in equal circumstances, for all employments, charges, or commissions of appointment by the authorities, in which the condition of citizenship may not be indispensable. Laws shall be issued to improve the condition of Mexican laborers, rewarding those who distinguish themselves in any science or art, stimulating labor, and founding practical colleges and schools of arts and trades.

Article 33. Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualifications determined in Article 30. They have a right to the guarantees established by … [Articles 1-29] of the present Constitution, except that in all cases the Government has the right to expel pernicious foreigners. They are under obligation to contribute to the public expenses in the manner which the laws may provide, and to obey and respect the institutions, laws, and authorities of the country, subjecting themselves to the judgments and sentences of the tribunals, without power to seek other protection than that which the laws concede to Mexican citizens.

Article 34. Citizens of the Republic are all those who, having the quality of Mexicans, have also the following qualifications: I. Eighteen years of age if married, or twenty-one if not married. II. An honest means of livelihood.

Article 35. The prerogatives of the citizen are: I. To vote at popular elections. II. The privilege of being voted for for any office subject to popular election, and of being selected for any other employment or commission, having the qualifications established by law. III. To associate to discuss the political affairs of the country. IV. To take up arms in the army or in the national guard for the defence of the Republic and its institutions. V. To exercise in all cases the right of petition.

Article 36. Every citizen of the Republic is under the following obligations: I. To be inscribed on the municipal roll, stating the property which he has, or the industry, profession, or labor by which he subsists. II. To enlist in the national guard. III. To vote at popular elections in the district to which he belongs. IV. To discharge the duties of the offices of popular election of the Federation, which in no case shall be gratuitous.

Article 37. The character of citizen is lost: I. By naturalization in a foreign country. II. By serving officially the government of another country or accepting its decorations, titles, or employments without previous permission from the Federal Congress; excepting literary, scientific, and humanitarian titles, which may be accepted freely.

Article 38. The law shall prescribe the cases and the form in which may be lost or suspended the rights of citizenship and the manner in which they may be regained.

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

Article 40. The Mexican people voluntarily constitute themselves a democratic, federal, representative republic, composed of States free and sovereign 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 by means of Federal officers in cases belonging to the Federation, and through those of the States in all that relates to the internal affairs of the States within the limits respectively established by this Federal Constitution, and by the special Constitutions of the States, which latter shall in no case contravene the stipulations of the Federal Compact.

Article 42. The National Territory comprises that of the integral parts of the Federation and that of the adjacent islands in both oceans.

Article 43. The integral parts of the Federation are: the States of Aguascalientes, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, Oajaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlascala, Valle de Mexico, Veracruz, Yucatan, Zacatecas, and the Territory of Lower California.

Article 44. The States of Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Mexico, Puebla, Queretaro, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and the Territory of Lower California shall preserve the limits which they now have.

Article 45. The States of Colima and Tlascala shall preserve in their new character of States the limits which they have had as Territories of the Federation.

Article 46. The State of the Valley of Mexico shall be formed of the territory actually composing the Federal District, but the erection into a State shall only have effect when the supreme Federal authorities are removed to another place.

Article 47. The State of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila shall comprise the territory which has belonged to the two distinct States of which it is now formed, except the part of the hacienda of Bonanza, which shall be reincorporated in Zacatecas, on the same terms in which it was before its incorporation in Coahuila.

Article 48. The States of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Oajaca, San Luis Potosi, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatan, and Zacatecas shall recover the extension and limits which they had on the 31st of December, 1852, with the alterations the following Article establishes.

Article 49. The town of Contepec, which has belonged to Guanajuato, shall be incorporated in Michoacan. . The municipality of Ahualulco, which has belonged to Zacatecas, shall be incorporated in San Luis Potosi. The municipalities of Ojo-Caliente and San Francisco de los Adames, which have belonged to San Luis, as well as the towns of Nueva Tlascala and San Andres del Teul, which have belonged to Jalisco, shall be incorporated in Zacatecas. The department of Tuxpan shall continue to form a part of Veracruz. The canton of Huimanguillo, which has belonged to Veracruz, shall be incorporated in Tabasco.

[Footnote: Besides the twenty-four States which are mentioned in this section there have been created subsequently, according to executive decrees issued in accordance with the Constitution, the four following: XXV. That of Campeche, separated from Yucatan. XXVI. That of Coahuila, separated from Nuevo Leon. XXVII. That of Hidalgo, in territory of the ancient State of Mexico, which formed the second military district. XXVIII. That of Morelos, in territory also of the ancient State of Mexico, which formed the third military district.]

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Article 50. The supreme power of the Federation is divided for its exercise into legislative, executive, and judicial. Two or more of these powers shall never be united in one person or corporation, nor the legislative power be deposited in one individual.

Article 51. The legislative power of the nation is deposited in a general Congress, which shall be divided into two houses, one of Deputies and the other of Senators.

[Footnote: The original form of this article was as follows: "The exercise of the supreme legislative power is vested in one assembly, which shall be denominated Congress of the Union."]

Article 52. The House of Deputies shall be composed of representatives of the nation, elected in their entire number every two years by Mexican citizens.

Article 53. One deputy shall be elected for each forty thousand inhabitants, or for a fraction which exceeds twenty thousand. The territory in which the population is less than that determined in this article shall, nevertheless, elect one deputy.

Article 54. For each deputy there shall be elected one alternate.

Article 55. The election for deputies shall be indirect in the first degree, and by secret ballot, in the manner which the law shall prescribe.

Article 56. In order to be eligible to the position of a deputy it is required that the candidate be a Mexican citizen in the enjoyment of his rights; that he be fully twenty-five years of age on the day of the opening of the session; that he be a resident of the State or Territory which makes the election, and that he be not an ecclesiastic. Residence is not lost by absence in the discharge of any public trust bestowed by popular election.

Article 57. The positions of Deputy and of Senator are incompatible with any Federal commission or office whatsoever for which a salary is received.

Article 58. The Deputies and the Senators from the day of their election to the day on which their trust is concluded, may not accept any commission or office offered by the Federal Executive, for which a salary is received, except with the previous license of the respective house. The same requisites are necessary for the alternates of Deputies and Senators when in the exercise of their functions.

A. The Senate is composed of two Senators for each State and two for the Federal District. The election of Senators shall be indirect in the first degree. The Legislature of each State shall declare elected the person who shall have obtained the absolute majority of the votes cast, or shall elect from among those who shall have obtained the relative majority in the manner which the electoral law shall prescribe. For each Senator there shall be elected an alternate.

B. The Senate shall be renewed one-half every two years. The Senators named in the second place shall go out at the end of the first two years, and thereafter the half who have held longer.

C. The same qualifications are required for a Senator as for a Deputy, except that of age, which must be at least thirty years on the day of the opening of the session.

Article 59. The Deputies and Senators are privileged from arrest for their opinions manifested in the performance of their duties, and shall never be liable to be called to account for them.

Article 60. Each house shall judge of the election of its members, and shall solve the doubts which may arise regarding them.

Article 61. The houses may not open their sessions nor perform their functions without the presence in the Senate of at least two-thirds, and in the House of Deputies of more than one-half of the whole number of their members, but those present of one or the other body must meet on the day indicated by the law and compel the attendance of absent members under penalties which the law shall designate.

Article 62. The Congress shall have each year two periods of ordinary sessions: the first, which may be prorogued for thirty days, shall begin on the 16th of September and end on the 15th of December, and the second, which may be prorogued for fifteen days, shall begin the 1st of April and end the last day of May.

Article 63. At the opening of the sessions of the Congress the President of the Union shall be present and shall pronounce a discourse in which he shall set forth the state of the country. The President of the Congress shall reply in general terms.

Article 64. Every resolution of the Congress shall have the character of a law or decree. The laws and decrees shall be communicated to the Executive, signed by the Presidents of both houses and by a Secretary of each of them, and shall be promulgated in this form: "The Congress of the United States of Mexico decrees:" (Text of the law or decree.)

Article 65. The right to initiate laws or decrees belongs: I. To the President of the Union. II. To the Deputies and Senators of the general Congress. III. To the Legislatures of the States.

Article 66. Bills presented by the President of the Republic, by the Legislatures of the States, or by deputations from the same, shall pass immediately to a committee. Those which the Deputies or the Senators may present shall be subjected to the procedure which the rules of debate may prescribe.

Article 67. Every bill which shall be rejected in the house where it originated, before passing to the other house, shall not again be presented during the sessions of that year.

Article 68. The second period of sessions shall be destined, in all preference, to the examination of and action upon the estimates of the following fiscal year, to passing the necessary appropriations to cover the same, and to the examination of the accounts of the past year, which the Executive shall present.