TITLE VIII Of Amendments to the Constitution Art. 135. The present Constitution may be added to or amended. No amendment or addition shall become part of the Constitution until agreed to by the Congress of the Union by a two-thirds vote of the members present and approved by a majority of the State Legislatures. The Congress shall count the votes of the Legislatures and make the declaration that the amendments or additions have been adopted. TITLE IX Of the Inviolability of the Constitution Art. 136. This Constitution shall not lose its force and vigor, even though its observance be interrupted by rebellion. In case that through any public disturbance a Government contrary to the principles which it sanctions be established, its force shall be restored so soon as the people shall regain their liberty, and those who have participated in the Government emanating from the rebellion or have cooperated with it shall be tried in accordance with its provisions and with the laws arising under it. TRANSITORY ARTICLES Article 1. This Constitution shall be published at once and a solemn affirmation made to defend and enforce it throughout the Republic; but its provisions, except those relating to the election of the supreme powers, Federal and State, shall not go into effect until the first day of May, 1917, at which time the Constitutional Congress shall be solemnly convened and the oath of office taken by the citizen chosen at the forthcoming elections to discharge the duties of President of the Republic. The provisions of Clause V of Article 82 shall not be applicable in the elections to be called in accordance with Article 2 of the Transitory Articles, nor shall active service in the army act as a disqualification for the office of Representative or Senator, provided the candidate shall not have active command of troops in the respective electoral district. Nor shall the secretaries nor assistant secretaries of executive departments be disqualified from election to the next Federal Congress, provided they shall definitely resign from office on or before the day on which the respective call is issued. Art. 2. The person charged with the executive power of the Nation shall immediately, upon the publication of this Constitution, call for elections to fill the Federal offices; he shall see that these elections be held so that Congress may be constituted within a reasonable time, in order that it may count the votes cast in the presidential elections and make known the name of the person who has been elected President of the Republic; this shall be done in order that the provisions of the foregoing article may be complied with. Art. 3. The next constitutional term shall be computed, in the case of Senators and Representatives, from the first of September last, and in the case of the President of the Republic, from the first of December, 1916. Art. 4. Senators who in the coming election shall be classified as "even" shall serve only two years, in order that the Senate may be renewed by half every two years. Art. 5. The Congress shall in the month of May next choose the Justices of the Supreme Court in order that this tribunal may be constituted on the first day of June, 1917. In these elections, Article 96 shall not govern in so far as the candidates proposed by the State Legislatures are concerned; but those chosen shall be designated for the first term of two years prescribed by Article 94. Art. 6. The Congress shall meet in extraordinary session on the fifteenth day of April, 1917, to act as an electoral college, for the com puting of the ballots and the determination of the election of President of the Republic, at which time it shall make known the results; it shall likewise enact the organic law of the Circuit and District Courts, the organic law of the Tribunals of the Federal District and Territories, in order that the Supreme Court of Justice may immediately appoint the Inferior and Superior District and Circuit Judges; at the same session the Congress shall choose the Superior Judges and Judges of First Instance of the Federal District and Territories, and shall also enact all laws submitted by the Executive. The Circuit and District Judges and the Superior and Inferior Judges of the Federal District and Territories shall take office not later than the first day of July, 1917, at which time such as shall have been temporarily appointed by the person now charged with the executive power of the nation shall cease to act. Art. 7. For this occasion only, the votes for the office of Senator shall be counted by the Board of the First Electoral District of each State or of the Federal District which shall be instituted for the counting of the votes of Representatives. This Board shall issue the respective credentials to the Senators-elect. Art. 8. The Supreme Court shall decide all pending petitions of "amparo," in accordance with the laws at present in force. Art. 9. The First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army, charged with the executive power of the Nation, is hereby authorized to issue the electoral law according to which, on this occasion, the elections to fill the various Federal offices shall be held. Art. 10. All persons who shall have taken part in the Government emanating from the rebellion against the legitimate government of the Republic, or who may have given aid to the said rebellion and later taken up arms or held any office or commission of the factions which have opposed the constitutionalist government, shall be tried in accordance with the laws at present in force, unless they shall have been previously pardoned by the said constitutionalist government. Art. 11. Until such time as the Congress of the Union and the State Legislatures shall legislate on the agrarian and labor problems, the bases established by this Constitution for the said laws shall be put into force throughout the Republic. Art. 12. All Mexicans who shall have fought in the ranks of the constitutionalist army and their children and widows and all other persons who shall have rendered service to the cause of the revolution, or to public instruction, shall be preferred in the acquisition of lots to which Article 27 refers, and shall be entitled to such rebates as the law shall determine. Art. 13. All debts contracted by working men on account of work up to the date of this Constitution with masters, their subordinates and agents, are hereby declared wholly and entirely discharged. Art. 14. The Department of Justice is hereby abolished. (As amended May 31, 1921.) Art. 15. The citizen at present charged with the executive power is hereby authorized to issue the law of civil responsibility applicable to all promoters, accomplices and abettors of the offenses committed against the constitutional order in the month of February, 1913, and against the Constitutionalist Government. Art. 16. The Constitutional Congress in the regular period of sessions, to begin on the first day of September of the present year, shall issue all the organic laws of the Constitution which may not have been already issued in the extraordinary session to which Transitory Article number 6 refers; and it shall give preference to the laws relating to personal guarantees and to Articles 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 107 and the latter part of Article 111 of this Constitution. Signed at Querétaro de Arteaga, January 31, 1917. .Ramón P. Denegri, Asst. Sec'y in Charge COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC WORKS. . Ing. Amado Aguirre, Sec'y *Changes in membership of the cabinet are so frequent that the above list can be accepted as correct only for the date specified. MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT Salvador Urbina, Ricardo B. Castro, Victoriano Pimentel, Francisco Modesto Ramírez, Francisco Díaz Lombardo, Gustavo A. Vicencio, Ernesto Garza Pérez, Leopoldo Estrada, Sabino M. Olea, Jesús Guzmán Vaca, Manuel Padilla. *The above list, corrected to November 1, was furnished by the Department of Gobernación on Oct. 31, 1923. At that time, owing to disputed elections and other disturbing influences in several states, the question of the governorship was much involved. In some cases, as in Puebla, the person who claimed to be Governor was under indictment by the Legislature, and the acting governor was one who was elected or appointed by the same body, and was recognized as interim governor by the Central Power. In San Luis Potosí the incumbent, Jorge Prieto Laurens, had not been recognized by the Central Power, but claimed to have been elected by popular franchise. In Querétaro the incumbent was Francisco Ramírez Luque, who claimed to have received a sweeping popular majority at the recent election, but who was unrecognized by the Central Power. In some of the cases where the names of the constitutional governor and acting incumbent appear together, the former was supposedly absent on leave of absence granted by the legislature of the state. In the case of Puebla, the leave of absence was granted and the governor was then charged with crimes for which an effort was made to bring him to trial. THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS* Brazil (Vacant). ENVOYS EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTERS PLENIPOTENTIARY China (vacant), Chile, Germany, Spain (vacant), Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Guatemala, Norway, Japan, Uruguay, Argentina. Panama. MINISTERS RESIDENT Nicaragua, Colombia. CHARGÉS D'AFFAIRES Belgium, Peru, Czechoslovakia. CHARGÉS D'AFFAIRES AD-INTERIM United States, France, Spain, Cuba, China, Brazil. DIPLOMATIC SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES IN MEXICO1 (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary) GEORGE T. SUMMERLIN, Counselor L. LANIER WINSLOW, First Secretary *October, 1923. 'Corrected to July, 1923. Since that date, Mr. Summerlin and Col. Parker have been transferred and Mr. Charles B. Warren has been appointed Ambas sador and is now at his post. |