Part 190

[Footnote: Proclaimed to be in force July 28. 1868. [See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865-1866 (DECEMBER-APRIL); 1866 (JUNE), and 1866-1867 (OCTOBER-MARCH).]]

Article XV. _Section_ 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

_Section_ 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

[Footnote: Proclaimed to be in force March 30, 1870. [See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1869-1870.]]

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: End------

CONSTITUTION OF VENEZUELA.

The following text is taken from Bulletin No. 34 of the Bureau of the American Republics:

Article I. The States that the constitution of March 28, 1864, declared independent and united to form the Venezuelan Federation, and that on April 27, 1881, were denominated Apure, Bolivar, Barquisimeto, Barcelona, Carabobo, Cojedes, Cumamá, Falcón, Guzmán Blanco, Guárico, Gunynna, Guzmán, Maturin, Nuevn Esparta, Portuguesa, Táchira, Trujillo, Yaracay, Zamora, and Zulia are constituted into nine grand political bodies, viz: The State of Bermudez, composed of Barcelona, Cumaná, and Maturin; the State of Miranda, composed of Bolivar, Guzman Blanco, Guárico, and Nueva Esparta; the State of Carabobo, composed of Carabobo and Nirgua; the State of Zamora, composed of Cojedes, Portuguesa, and Zamora; the State of Lara, composed of Barquisimeto and Yaracuy, except the department of Nirgua; the State of Los Andes, composed of Guzman, Trujillo, and Táchira; the State of Bolivar, composed of Guayana and Apure; the State of Zulia, and also the State of Falcón. And they are thus constituted to continue one only nation, free, sovereign, and independent, under the title of the United States of Venezuela.

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Article. 2. The boundaries of these great States are determined by those that the law of April 28, 1856, that arranged the last territorial division, designated for the ancient provinces until it shall be re-formed.

Article. 3. The boundaries of the United States of the Venezuelan Federation are the same that in 1810 belonged to the old Captaincy-General of Venezuela.

Article. 4. The States that are grouped together to form the grand political bodies will be called Sections. These are equal among themselves; the constitutions prescribed for their internal organism must be harmonious with the federative principles established by the present compact, and the sovereignty not delegated resides in the State without any other limitations than those that devolve from the compromise of association.

Article. 5. These are Venezuelans, viz:

1st, All persons that may have been or may be born on Venezuelan soil, whatever may be the nationality of their parents;

2d, The children of a Venezuelan father or mother that may have been born on foreign soil, if they should come to take up their domicile in the country and express the desire to become citizens;

3d, Foreigners that may have obtained naturalization papers; and,

4th, Those born or that shall be born in any of the Spanish-American republics or in the Spanish Antilles, provided that they may have taken up their residence in the territory of the Republic and express a willingness to become citizens.

Article. 6. Those that take up their residence and acquire nationality in a foreign country do not lose the character of Venezuelans.

Article. 7. Males over twenty-one years of age are qualified Venezuelan citizens, with only the exceptions contained in this constitution.

Article. 8. All Venezuelans are obliged to serve the nation according to the prescriptions of the laws, sacrificing his property and his life, if necessary, to defend the country.

Article. 9. Venezuelans shall enjoy, in all the States of the Union, the rights and immunities inherent to their condition as citizens of the Federation, and they shall also have imposed upon them there the same duties that are required of those that are natives or domiciled there.

Article. 10. Foreigners shall enjoy the same civil rights as Venezuelans and the same security in their persons and property. They can only take advantage of diplomatic means in accordance with public treaties and in cases when right permits it.

Article. 11. The law will determine the right applicable to the condition of foreigners, according as they may be domiciled or in transit.

Article. 12. The States that form the Venezuelan Federation reciprocally recognize their respective autonomies; they are declared equal in political entity, and preserve, in all its plenitude, the sovereignty not expressly delegated in this constitution.

Article. 13. The States of the Venezuelan Federation oblige themselves:

1st, To organize themselves in accord with the principles of popular, elective, federal, representative, alternative, and responsible government;

2d, To establish the fundamental regulations of their interior regulation and government in entire conformity with the principles of this constitution;

3d, To defend themselves against all violence that threatens the sectional independence or the integrity of the Venezuelan Federation;

4th, To not alienate to a foreign power any part of their territory, nor to implore its protection, nor to establish or cultivate political or diplomatic relations with other nations, since this last is reserved to the Federal power;

5th, To not combine or ally themselves with another nation, nor to separate themselves to the prejudice of the nationality of Venezuela and her territory;

6th, To cede to the nation the territory that may be necessary for the Federal district;

7th, To cede to the Government of the Federation the territory necessary for the erection of forts, warehouses, shipyards, and penitentiaries, and for the construction of other edifices indispensable to the general administration;

8th, To leave to the Government of the Federation the administration of the Amazonas and Goajira territories and that of the islands which pertain to the nation, until it may be convenient to elevate them to another rank;

9th, To reserve to the powers of the Federation all legislative or executive jurisdiction concerning maritime, coastwise, and fluvial navigation, and the national roads, considering as such those that exceed the limits of a State and lead to the frontiers of others and to the Federal district;

10th, To not subject to contributions the products or articles upon which national taxes are imposed, or those that are by law exempt from tax before they have been offered for consumption;

11th, To not impose contributions on cattle, effects, or any class of merchandise in transit for another State, in order that traffic may be absolutely free, and that in one section the consumption of others may not be taxed;

12th, To not prohibit the consumption of the products of other States nor to tax their productions with greater general or municipal taxes than those paid on products raised in the locality;

13th, To not establish maritime or territorial custom-houses for the collection of imports, since there will be national ones only;

14th, To recognise the right of each State to dispose of its natural products;

15th, To cede to the Government of the Federation the administration of mines, public lands, and salt mines, in order that the first may be regulated by a system of uniform working and that the latter may be applied to the benefit of the people;

16th, To respect the property, arsenals, and forts of the nation;

17th, To comply with and cause to be complied with and executed the Constitution and laws of the federation and the decrees and orders that the federal power, the tribunals, and courts may expedite in use of their attributes and legal faculties;

18th, To give entire faith to and to cause to be complied with and executed the public acts and judicial procedures of the other States;

19th, To organize their tribunals and courts for the administration of justice in the State and to have for all of them the same substantive civil and criminal legislation and the same laws of civil and criminal procedure;

20th, To present judges for the court of appeals and to submit to the decision of this supreme tribunal of the States;

21st, To incorporate the extradition of criminals as a political principle in their respective Constitutions;

22d, To establish direct and public suffrage in popular elections, making it obligatory and endorsing it in the electoral registry. The vote of the suffragist must be cast in full and public session of the respective board; it will be inscribed in the registry books that the law prescribes for elections, which can not be substituted in any other form, and the elector, for himself or by another at his request in case of impediment or through ignorance, will sign the memorandum entry of his vote, and without this requisite it can not be claimed that in reality he has voted;

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23d, To establish a system of primary education and that of arts and trades;

24th, To reserve to the powers of the Federation the laws and provisions necessary for the creation, conservation, and progress of general schools, colleges, or universities designed for the teaching of the sciences;

25th, To not impose duties upon the national employés, except in the quality of citizens of the State and insomuch as these duties may not be incompatible with the national public service;

26th, To furnish the proportional contingent that pertains to them to compose the national public forces in time of peace or war;

27th, To not permit in the States of the Federation forced enlistments and levies that have or may have for their object an attack on liberty or independence or a disturbance of the public order of the Nation, of other States, or of another Nation;

28th, To preserve a strict neutrality in the contentions that may arise in other States;

29th, To not declare or carry on war in any case, one State with another;

30th, To defer and submit to the decision of the Congress or the High Federal Court in all the controversies that may arise between two or more States when they can not, between themselves and by pacific measures, arrive at an agreement. If, for any cause, they may not designate the arbiter to whose decision they may submit, they leave it, in fact, to the High Federal Court;

31st, To recognize the competency of Congress and of the court of appeals to take cognizance of the causes that, for treason to the country or for the infraction of the Constitution and laws of the Federation, may be instituted against those that exercise executive authority in the States, it being their duty to incorporate this precept in their constitutions. In these trials the modes of procedure that the general laws prescribe will be followed and they will be decided in consonance with those laws;

32d, To have as the just income of the States, two-thirds of the total product of the impost collected as transit tax in all the custom-houses of the Republic and two-thirds of that collected from mines, public lands, and salt mines administered by the Federal Power and to distribute this income among all the States of the Federation in proportion to the population of each;

33d, To reserve to the Federal Power the amount of the third part of the income from transit tax, the production of mines, public lands, and salt mines, to be invested in the improvement of the country;

34th, To keep far away from the frontier those individuals that, through political motives, take refuge in a State, provided that the State interested requests it.

Article. 14. The nation guarantees to Venezuelans:

1st, The inviolability of life, capital punishment being abolished in spite of any law that establishes it;

2d, Property, with all its attributes, rights and privileges, will only be subjected to contributions decreed by legislative authority, to judicial decision, and to be taken for public works after indemnity and condemnation;

3d, The inviolability and secrecy of correspondence and other private papers;

4th, The domestic hearth, that can not be approached except to prevent the perpetration of crime, and this itself must be done in accordance with law;

5th, Personal liberty, and consequently (1) forced recruiting for armed service is abolished, (2) slavery is forever proscribed, (3) slaves that tread the soil of Venezuela are free, and (4) nobody is obliged to do that which the law does not command, nor is impeded from doing that which it does not prohibit;

6th, The freedom of thought, expressed by word or through the press, is without any restriction to be submitted to previous censure. In cases of calumny or injury or prejudice to a third party, the aggrieved party shall have every facility to have his complaints investigated before competent tribunals of justice in accordance with the common laws;

7th, The liberty of traveling without passport, to change the domicil, observing the legal formalities, and to depart from and return to the Republic, carrying off and bringing back his or her property;

8th, The liberty of industry and consequently the proprietorship of discoveries and productions. The law will assign to the proprietors a temporary privilege or the mode of indemnity in case that the author agrees to its publication;

9th, The liberty of reunion and assembling without arms, publicly or privately, the authorities being prohibited from exercising any act of inspection or coercion;

10th, The liberty of petition, with the right of obtaining action by resolution; petition can be made by any functionary, authority or corporation. If the petition shall be made in the name of various persons, the first five will respond for the authenticity of the signatures and all for the truth of the assertions;

11th, The liberty of suffrage at popular elections without any restriction except to males under eighteen years of age;

12th, The liberty of instruction will be protected to every extent. The public power is obliged to establish gratuitous instruction in primary schools, the arts, and trades;

13th, Religious liberty;

14th, Individual security, and, therefore (1) no Venezuelan can be imprisoned or arrested in punishment for debts not founded in fraud or crime; (2) nor to be obliged to lodge or quarter soldiers in his house; (3) nor to be judged by special commissions or tribunals, but by his natural judges and by virtue of laws dictated before the commission of the crime or act to be judged; (4) nor to be imprisoned nor arrested without previous summary information that a crime meriting corporal punishment has been committed, and a written order from the functionary that orders the imprisonment, stating the cause of arrest, unless the person may be caught in the commission of the crime; (5) nor to be placed in solitary confinement for any cause; (6) nor to be obliged to give evidence, in criminal causes, against himself or his blood relations within the fourth degree of consanguinity or against his relations by marriage within the second degree, or against husband or wife; (7) nor to remain in prison when the reasons that caused the imprisonment have been dissipated; (8) nor to be sentenced to corporal punishment for more than ten years; (9) nor to remain deprived of his liberty for political reasons when order is reestablished.

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Article. 15. Equality: in virtue of which (1) all must be judged by the very same laws and subject to equal duty, service and contributions; (2) no titles of nobility, hereditary honors, and distinctions will be conceded, nor employments or offices the salaries or emoluments of which continue after the termination of service; (3) no other official salutation than "citizen" and "you" will be given to employés and corporations. The present enumeration does not impose upon the States the obligation to accord other guarantees to their inhabitants.

Article 16. The laws in the States will prescribe penalties for the infractions of these guarantees, establishing modes of procedure to make them effective.

Article 17. Those who may issue, sign, or execute, or order executed any decrees, orders, or resolutions that violate or in any manner infringe upon the guarantees accorded to Venezuelans are culpable and must be punished according to the law. Every citizen is empowered to bring charges.

Article 18. The National Legislature will be composed of two chambers, one of Senators and another of Deputies.

Article 19. The States will determine the mode of election of Deputies.

Article 20. To form the Chamber of Deputies, each State will name, by popular election in accordance with paragraph 22 of Article 13 of this Constitution, one Deputy for each thirty-five thousand inhabitants and another for an excess not under fifteen thousand. In the same manner it will elect alternates in equal number to the principals.

Article 21. The Deputies will hold office for four years, when they will be renewed in their entirety.

Article 22. The prerogatives of the chamber of Deputies are:

First, to examine the annual account that the President of the United States of Venezuela must render;

Second, to pass a vote of censure of the Ministers of the Cabinet, in which event their posts will be vacant;

Third, to hear charges against the persons in charge of the office of the National Executive for treason to the country, for infraction of the constitution, or for ordinary crimes; against the ministers and other National employés for infraction of the Constitution and laws and for fault in the discharge of their duties according to article 75 of this constitution and of the general laws of the Republic. This attribute is preventative and neither contracts nor diminishes those that other authorities have to judge and punish.

Article 23. When a charge is instituted by a Deputy or by any corporation or individual the following rules will be observed:

(1) there will be appointed, in secret session, a commission of three deputies;

(2) the commission will, within three days, render an opinion, declaring whether or not there is foundation for instituting a cause;

(3) the Chamber will consider the information and decide upon the cause by the vote of an absolute majority of the members present, the accusing Deputy abstaining from voting.

Article 24. The declaration that there is foundation for the cause operates to suspend from office the accused and incapacitates him for the discharge of any public function during the trial.

Article 25. To form this Chamber each State, through its respective legislature, will elect three principal Senators and an equal number of alternates to supply the vacancies that may occur.

Article 26. To be a Senator it is required that he shall be a Venezuelan by birth and thirty years of age.

Article 27. The Senators will occupy their posts for four years and be renewed in their entirety.

Article 28. It is the prerogative of the Senate to substantiate and decide the causes initiated in the Chamber of Deputies.

Article 29. If the cause may not have been concluded during the sessions, the Senate will continue assembled for this purpose only until the cause is finished.

Article 30. The National Legislature will assemble on the 20th day of February of each year or as soon thereafter as possible at the capital of the United States without the necessity of previous notice. The sessions will last for seventy days to be prolonged until ninety days at the judgment of the majority.

Article 31. The Chambers will open their sessions with two-thirds of their number at least; and, in default of this number, those present will assemble in preparatory commission and adopt measures for the concurrence of the absentees.

Article 32. The sessions having been opened, they may be continued by two-thirds of those that may have installed them, provided that the number be not less than half of all the members elected.

Article 33. Although the Chambers deliberate separately, they may assemble together in the Congress when the constitution and laws provide for it or when one of the two Chambers may deem it necessary. If the Chamber that is invited shall agree, it remains to it to fix the day and the hour of the joint session.

Article 34. The sessions will be public and secret at the will of the Chamber.

Article 35. The Chambers have the right:

(1) to make rules to be observed in the sessions and to regulate the debates;

(2) to correct infractors;

(3) to establish the police force in the hall of sessions;

(4) to punish or correct spectators who create disorder;

(5) to remove the obstacles to the free exercise of their functions;

(6) to command the execution of their private resolutions;

(7) to judge of the qualifications of their members and to consider their resignations.

Article 36. One of the Chambers cannot suspend its sessions nor change its place of meeting without the consent of the other; in case of disagreement they will reassemble together and execute that which the majority resolves.

Article 37. The exercise of any other public function, during the sessions, is incompatible with those of a Senator or Deputy. The law will specify the remunerations that the members of the national Legislature shall receive for their services. And whenever an increase of said remunerations is decreed, the law that sanctions it will not begin to be in force until the following period when the Chambers that sanctioned it shall have been renewed in their entirety.

Article 38. The Senators and Deputies shall enjoy immunity from the 20th day of January of each year until thirty days after the close of the sessions and this consists in the suspension of all civil or criminal proceeding, whatever may be its origin or nature; when anyone shall perpetrate an act that merits corporal punishment the investigation shall continue until the end of the summing up and shall remain in this state while the term of immunity continues.

Article 39. The Congress will be presided over by the President of the Senate and the presiding officer of the Chamber of Deputies will act as Vice-President.

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Article 40. The members of the Chambers are not responsible for the opinions they express or the discourses they pronounce in session.

Article 41. Senators and deputies that accept office or commission from the National Executive thereby leave vacant the posts of legislators in the Chambers to which they were elected.

Article 42. Nor can senators and deputies make contracts with the general Government or conduct the prosecution of claims of others against it.