Ricardo F. Morin New York Series, Untitled 24″ x 36″ Oil on canvas 1992
1. A person withdrawn from interruption, judgment, dependency, and noise may begin to believe that solitude clarifies the self. Removed from the continual presence of others, one becomes more aware of habits, memories, reactions, and inward movement ordinarily dispersed through daily relation. Silence appears to gather experience into greater clarity. Yet prolonged isolation reveals something less expected: inward life does not remain still simply because it happens alone.
2. Thought begins circling within its own continuity without resistance. Reflection loses proportion when nothing interrupts it from beyond itself. A memory repeated often enough begins to feel increasingly complete when it is not. A fear unanswered by another perspective deepens within its own enclosure. Even silence changes character. No response arrives. No interruption. Nothing enters from outside oneself.
3. This may be why solitude eventually begins searching for relation again, even where no person is present. The hermit speaks to God, to memory, to nature, or to silence itself. The mind reaches beyond its own enclosure not necessarily from weakness, but because inward life alone cannot fully restore proportion to itself.
4. We do not discover ourselves in abstraction alone. Much of what we call individuality becomes perceptible through relation. Patience, resentment, tenderness, vanity, courage, forgiveness, and responsibility do not fully disclose themselves in separation from others. They emerge through contact, disappointment, affection, misunderstanding, dependence, and care. Another person does not diminish individuality. Something in us becomes more visible in relation than in withdrawal.
5. Communication does not eliminate distance between human beings. It reveals it. No person entirely crosses the interior distance separating one consciousness from another. Suffering, mortality, memory, and perception remain singular experiences. Yet it is often through the effort to communicate that this separateness becomes recognizable at all. We discover how far we remain from one another precisely in the attempt to reach across that distance.
6. Another person is neither an extension of oneself nor a symbolic abstraction. The other remains distinct, vulnerable, and finite. Love therefore cannot consist merely in attachment, possession, or dependence. Its deeper force lies in the capacity to recognize another existence without attempting to dissolve it into one’s own needs, fears, or projections. Compassion arises quietly from this condition.
7. Isolation becomes impossible not because solitude lacks value, but because human life continually reaches beyond private continuity. Even withdrawal retains traces of relation: language, memory, longing, recognition, prayer, imagination. The mind does not merely enclose itself. It responds. Seeks. Recalls. Addresses what remains beyond it.
8. Perhaps this is why the deepest forms of love do not abolish aloneness. They allow it to stand without hardening into enclosure. Compassion does not overcome distance by eliminating difference. Each person remains singular and ultimately unreachable in totality, yet still worthy of care. In that recognition, isolation no longer appears possible as a final condition of human life.
Ricardo F. Morín Infinity 3 30″x 22″ Sanguine on paper 2005
Two forms may be distinguished by their construction: an open curve, continuous along its course and capable of extension without closure, and a Möbius strip, formed by joining the ends of a band after a half-turn. The curve admits extension without return; the strip sustains a single continuous side through its return upon itself. Both are continuous. What differs is how continuity is held.
The open curve admits passage without requiring completion. It holds at each point without reference to return. The strip, received through its self-return, presents its course as already complete. Its coherence is apprehended through the relation that binds it to itself.
The curve may be followed without asking where it ends. A path along the strip’s interior may return indefinitely without meeting its single edge. The strip’s finite extent does not impose a final circuit. In both cases, continuity suffices.
The difference appears when attention shifts from what is given to how it is maintained. Along the curve, continuity is enacted in following. The path holds only insofar as no interruption occurs. The strip, received as a whole, appears to contain that continuity without requiring its course to be traced.
The strip’s return can thus sustain the invocation of infinity. An inexhaustible passage is received as already given within a finite form. The continuity that sustains this appearance remains implicit. The open curve offers no comparable assurance of completion. Its further extension must be followed, and its coherence depends on the unbroken relation along its course.
So long as the strip is received as given, the distinction holds. Infinity appears as already in place, and continuity remains absorbed within that appearance. The curve, by contrast, makes continuity operative without naming it.
The shift begins when what is given can no longer hold on its own. The strip’s apparent completeness no longer suffices. What appeared as a field without end must now be traced through the relation that sustains it.
The curve always depended on continuity, though it did not name it. Tracing the strip discloses the same dependence. What appeared as infinity is no longer primary. Its appearance depends on the continuity that had remained implicit.
The curve remains open, and the strip retains its return. Continuity is not confined to extension or return. It is what allows either to hold.
The appearance of infinity depends on continuity, but continuity does not require that appearance. It holds wherever relation is unbroken, including along a finite course.
Receiving accepts what appears without first requiring an explanation of what sustains it. Tracing follows the relations that sustain what appears and examines whether its coherence holds. Each entails a distinct discipline. Neither excludes the other.
The two modes remain distinct, yet not separate. The continuity that sustains the appearance in one is examined in the other. Their common ground does not make their requirements interchangeable.
In the invoking mode, virtue lies in receiving without imposing closure, in allowing what appears to remain unforced by premature explanation. The task is not to verify, but to receive without distortion.
In the diagnostic mode, virtue lies in sustaining relation without allowing coherence to be assumed. What appears must be traced, not to reduce it, but to prevent it from holding without what sustains it. Here the task is not merely to remain open, but to maintain relation.
Neither mode dispenses with the relation that sustains what appears. In receiving, that relation may remain implicit. In tracing, it must be maintained without substituting an imposed order for what was given.
The modes do not resolve into one another. Receptivity does not establish coherence, and tracing does not by itself prevent distortion. Passage between them requires attention to what each preserves and what each may alter.
Virtue does not belong to one mode alone. It appears wherever the proper condition of each is maintained without excess. In one, by not forcing completion. In the other, by not allowing what appears to hold without relation.
What differs is not what is given, but how it is held.
Ricardo F. Morin, October 6, 2026, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
“Geometric Allegory” digital painting (2023) by Ricardo Morín (American visual artist, born in Venezuela, 1954)
*
Scope and Use
This entry forms part of the constitutional corpus presented in the Appendix, comprising the constitutions of Venezuela organized for consultation rather than sequential reading. Comparison proceeds through permanent rubric codes whose identities remain constant throughout the corpus; absent rubrics signify constitutional silence, while retired rubrics are not reassigned. Citations are anchored first on the article number and follow the CIDEP recension linked at the close of the entry. The corpus definition, editorial methodology, and citation convention are set forth in the Scope and Use note introducing the nineteenth-century constitutions in Unmasking Disappointment: Series XI.
Ricardo F. Morín September 5, 2026 Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
17) The Constitution of 1928
The 1928 Constitución de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Constitution of the United States of Venezuela], dated 22 May 1928 at the Palacio Federal Legislativo [Federal Legislative Palace], Caracas, was ordered executed at the Palacio Federal [Federal Palace], Caracas, on 23 May 1928 by President Juan Vicente Gómez. (CIDEP 1928, p. 23, closing and execution formulas).
DOC-PRE—Preamble
(modern Latinate English translation by the author from the CIDEP recension)
“The Congress of the United States of Venezuela, in the name of Almighty God, and in exercise of the authority conferred upon it by Article 133 of the Federal Pact in force, decrees the present Constitution.”
(CIDEP 1928, p. 3, preamble).
FND-TER—Territory
The Nación Venezolana [Venezuelan Nation] consists of all Venezuelans united in a political pact under the name Estados Unidos de Venezuela [United States of Venezuela]; it is permanently and irrevocably free and independent of foreign domination or protection. The territory is that belonging to the Capitanía General de Venezuela [Captaincy General of Venezuela] before the political transformation of 1810, with modifications resulting from treaties. No part may be ceded, transferred, leased or otherwise alienated to a foreign power, even temporarily. (Arts. 1–2; cont., 1925, Arts. 1–2).
The national territory is divided into Estados [States], the Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies]. The twenty Estados [States] are Anzoátegui, Apure, Aragua, Bolívar, Carabobo, Cojedes, Falcón, Guárico, Lara, Mérida, Miranda, Monagas, Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa, Sucre, Táchira, Trujillo, Yaracuy, Zamora and Zulia. (Arts. 3–4; cont., 1925, Arts. 3–4).
State boundaries follow the provincial boundaries established by the Law of 28 April 1856, subject to the creation of the Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies], the Constitution of 5 August 1909 and the 1917 agreement between Aragua and Carabobo. Neighbouring Estados [States] may alter their common boundary through agreements approved by their respective legislatures, including reciprocal territorial compensation or cession. (Art. 5; cont., 1925, Art. 5).
The Distrito Federal [Federal District] comprises the departments Libertador and Vargas. The text places Caracas and the outlying parishes El Recreo, El Valle, La Vega, Antímano, Macarao and Macuto in Libertador. A special law organizes the district and determines its municipal powers so that federal political action is not obstructed. (Art. 6; cont., 1925, Art. 6).
Caracas is the capital and seat of federal government, subject to Art. 100, powers 24(b) and 25. (Art. 7; cont., 1925, Art. 7).
Amazonas and Delta Amacuro are Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], organized by special laws. Their boundaries, and those of the Distrito Federal [Federal District] with neighbouring Estados [States], may be modified by agreements concluded by the Poder Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive Power] and the respective state governments and approved by the Congreso [Congress] and the respective Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies]. (Art. 8; cont., 1925, Art. 8).
A Territorio Federal [Federal Territory] may become a Estado [State] upon attaining the population required for one deputy and proving to the Congreso [Congress] that it can maintain every branch of public service and meet the necessary expenditure. (Art. 9; cont., 1925, Art. 9).
The Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies] comprise the Venezuelan islands in the Caribbean Sea except Margarita and Coche, which constitute Nueva Esparta. Their government and administration belong directly to the executive until the law elevates them to the category of Territorios Federales [Federal Territories]. (Art. 10; cf. 1925, Art. 10: “except the island of Margarita, which constitutes the Estado [State] of Nueva Esparta”).
The Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] decides boundary disputes between Estados [States], and those arising between them and the Distrito Federal [Federal District] or Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], through the procedure prescribed by law. (Art. 11; cf. 1925, Art. 11: “Existing disputes between the Estados [States] concerning their boundaries, and those subsequently arising from the same cause”).
POW-LEG—Congress
The Poder Legislativo [Legislative Power] is exercised by the Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela], consisting of the Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] and Cámara del Senado [Senate]. Both Diputados [Deputies] and Senadores [Senators] serve three-year terms. (Art. 55; cf. 1925, Art. 55: “composed of two Chambers, one of Diputados [Deputies] and the other of Senadores [Senators]”).
Each Estado [State] elects Diputados [Deputies] directly under its Ley de Elecciones [Electoral Law], one per 35,000 inhabitants and one additional deputy for an excess of 15,000. A Estado [State] with fewer than 35,000 inhabitants elects one deputy. An equal number of Suplentes [Alternates] is elected to fill vacancies in the order of election. (Art. 56; cont., 1925, Art. 56).
The Diputados [Deputies] serve three years and are renewed in their entirety. (Art. 56, final paragraph; cont., 1925, Art. 56, final paragraph).
A deputy must be Venezuelan by birth and have completed twenty-one years of age. The Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] attaining the prescribed population elect Diputados [Deputies] directly under the formalities fixed by law. The population basis excludes indígenas no reducidos [unreduced Indigenous people]. (Arts. 57–58; cont., 1925, Arts. 57–58).
The Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] may give a voto de censura [vote of censure] to Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers] whose acts it considers to warrant it. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] is not obliged to remove them until the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] declares that legal grounds exist for putting them on trial. Other powers may be assigned by law. (Art. 59; cont., 1925, Art. 59).
Each state Asamblea Legislativa [Legislative Assembly] elects, from outside its own membership, two principal Senadores [Senators] and two Suplentes [Alternates], the latter filling vacancies in election order. A senator must be Venezuelan by birth and over thirty years of age. (Arts. 60–61; cont., 1925, Arts. 60–61).
Art. 60 ends with the order for filling vacancies. The senatorial term is stated in Art. 55. (Arts. 55, 60; cf. 1925, Art. 60: “The Senadores [Senators] shall serve for three years and shall be renewed in their entirety.”).
The Cámara del Senado [Senate] may authorize the transfer of the remains of illustrious Venezuelans to the Panteón Nacional [National Pantheon] after twenty-five years from their death; consent to national officials accepting gifts, offices, honours or rewards from foreign governments; and consent to military promotions from Coronel [Colonel] and naval promotions from Capitán de Navío [Naval Captain], inclusive. (Art. 62(1–3); cont., 1925, Art. 62(1–3)).
The Cámara del Senado [Senate] also has the powers assigned to it by law. (Art. 62(4); cont., 1925, Art. 62(4)).
The Cámaras Legislativas [Legislative Chambers] meet annually in the capital on 19 April or the nearest possible day, without prior convocation. Ordinary sessions last ninety days and cannot be extended; every day and hour within that period is available for ordinary sessions. Extraordinary sessions convened by the executive address the matters specified in the convocation and connected legislation requiring amendment. (Art. 63; cont., 1925, Art. 63).
Opening sessions require two-thirds of the membership; those present without that number form a Comisión Preparatoria [Preparatory Commission] and take measures to secure attendance. Subsequent sessions require an absolute majority. Sessions are public unless the respective Chamber resolves that they shall be secret. (Arts. 64–65; cont., 1925, Arts. 64–65).
Each Chamber adopts its Reglamento Interior y de Debates [Rules of Internal Procedure and Debate], disciplines infringements, controls order in its building, corrects or punishes disorderly spectators, removes impediments to its lawful functions, executes its exclusive resolutions, determines the qualifications of its members and receives their resignations. Both Chambers sit in the same town and open and close sessions on the same day and hour; suspension or relocation requires the other Chamber’s consent, with disagreements decided in joint session. (Arts. 66–67; cont., 1925, Arts. 66–67).
During sessions, any public office is incompatible with membership of either Chamber. Remuneration is fixed by law and may be increased only for the following term. (Arts. 68–69; cont., 1925, Arts. 68–69).
Legislative inmunidad [immunity] runs from thirty days before 19 April until thirty days after the close of sessions. Members cannot be imprisoned, arrested, confined, detained or obstructed in their functions, even upon committing an offence during that period. Where the alleged offence carries a pena corporal [penalty restricting personal liberty], the sumario [preliminary criminal investigation] is stayed during immunity, while investigative steps continue. Members need not answer claims, take oaths or answer judicial interrogatories during the same period, which is excluded from procedural time limits. The Chambers cannot waive this immunity. (Art. 70; cont., 1925, Art. 70).
Art. 70(1) states the exclusion of Art. 32(15)(c) with the qualification “with respect to the duration of the sumario [preliminary criminal investigation]”. (Art. 70(1); cf. 1925, Art. 70(1): “without the provision contained in letter c), guarantee 15, Article 32 of this Constitution applying in this case”).
Members are not responsible for opinions expressed in their Chambers. They cannot make contracts with the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] on their own or another’s behalf, or pursue others’ claims before it. (Arts. 71–72; cont., 1925, Arts. 71–72).
When the list of senatorial Suplentes [Alternates] is exhausted or reduced by death or another permanent vacancy, the respective Asamblea Legislativa [Legislative Assembly] fills it for the remainder of the legislative term. State constitutions and the Ley Orgánica del Distrito Federal [Organic Law of the Federal District] determine how vacancies in the Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] are filled. (Art. 73; cf. 1925, Art. 73: “for the remainder of the replaced member’s or members’ term”).
The Chambers act separately but sit jointly when the Constitution or laws require it, or when one invites the other and the latter agrees and fixes the meeting time. Their separate acts as co-legislators are Leyes [Laws]; acts adopted jointly, or separately on matters exclusive to one Chamber, are Acuerdos [Resolutions]. The presiding officer of the Cámara del Senado [Senate] presides over the Congreso [Congress], and that of the Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] serves as its vice-president. (Arts. 74–76; cont., 1925, Arts. 74–76).
In joint session the Congreso [Congress] conducts the elections assigned to it, receives the resignation of the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], examines the annual Mensaje [Message], approves or disapproves ministerial Memorias y Cuentas [Reports and Accounts], admits qualifying Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] as Estados [States], and examines Créditos Adicionales [Additional Appropriations] for compliance with the constitutional procedure. (Art. 77; cont., 1925, Art. 77).
As co-legislators the Chambers decree national taxes and loans, regulate national debt, create and suppress national offices, legislate on federal administration and currency, and authorize the disposal of nationally owned immovable property. Compulsory circulation of banknotes or any paper representation of value is prohibited, and the patrón de oro [gold standard] must be maintained. Weights and measures follow the metric decimal system. (Art. 78(1–4, 7–8); cont., 1925, Art. 78(1–4, 7–8)).
Treaties and diplomatic conventions require legislative approval before ratification or exchange. The approving law receives the Ejecútese [Let it be executed] only when the other party’s acceptance is established; official publication follows ratification and exchange. Contracts for railways, aerial haulage cables, telegraphic or wireless communications, immigration and other authorized matters of national interest require legislative approval. concesiones mineras [mining concessions] and titles to tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] granted under their respective laws are exempt from that approval. (Art. 78(5–6); cont., 1925, Art. 78(5–6)).
The Chambers enact the Ley de Presupuesto General de Rentas y Gastos Públicos [General Revenue and Public Expenditure Budget Law], fixing federal salaries and expenditure for the fiscal year. Outside that law, they cannot order another specified expenditure through a special law or resolution. They examine and approve the Censo Nacional [National Census], prescribe the special administration of Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], and increase the population basis for electing Diputados [Deputies] when the approved census requires it. (Art. 78(9–12); cont., 1925, Art. 78(9–12)).
General laws govern civil pensions, retirement benefits and montepíos militares [military survivors’ pension funds] payable by the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury]. The budget supplies aggregate appropriations, distributed by the executive through the competent minister under the law. The Chambers decree war, require peace negotiations, legislate on recruitment and replacement of land and sea forces, grant amnistías [amnesties], and legislate on the security of ports and coasts. (Art. 78(13–17); cont., 1925, Art. 78(13–17)).
Legislative powers include the Censo electoral [Electoral Register], Instrucción Pública [Public Instruction], Hacienda Nacional [National Public Finance Administration], air, maritime and river navigation, docks, Correos [Postal Services], Telégrafos [Telegraphs], wireless communications, railways, national roads and motor traffic, tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], salinas [saltworks], pearl fishing and mines, together with the subjects listed in Art. 15(4) and other matters of federal competence. (Art. 78(18–19); cont., 1925, Art. 78(18–19)).
A bill may originate in either Chamber upon presentation by at least three of its members, or through the minister responsible for a proposal from the executive. After admission it receives three discussions separated by at least one day. The other Chamber follows the same procedure and returns any amendments. If disagreement persists after written reasons from the originating Chamber, joint session decides disputed and connected articles by majority vote and may adopt a different wording. (Arts. 79–82; cont., 1925, Arts. 79–82).
Rejected bills cannot be presented again until the following year or later. Bills left pending at the close of sessions require a new presentation and all discussions in a subsequent year. An amending law must reproduce its entire text and repeal the previous law in full; repeal follows the same formalities as enactment. (Arts. 83–84, 86–87; cont., 1925, Arts. 83–84, 86–87).
The legislative formula is the name of the Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela] followed by “Decrees:”. Enacted texts are prepared in duplicate without alterations, signed by the presiding officers and secretaries of the Congreso [Congress], and dated with final approval. One copy goes to the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] for countersignature with the competent ministers and official publication. Printing errors require corrected republication or a ministerially certified errata notice. (Arts. 85, 88–89; cont., 1925, Arts. 85, 88–89).
A law takes effect on its stated date or, if none is stated, upon official publication. Legislative power cannot be delegated. Legislation is not retroactive except where it imposes a lesser penalty. Procedural laws apply immediately to pending cases; in criminal cases, evidence already taken is assessed under the law in force when it was offered insofar as that benefits the accused. (Arts. 90–92; cont., 1925, Arts. 90–92).
ECO-TES—Treasury
The federal authorities have competence over Aduanas [Customs Houses], import duties and duties on foreign goods passing through to foreign destinations. The Impuesto Territorial [Territorial Tax] remains payable at Aduanas [Customs Houses] until abolished by law and enters the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury]. Exports are free of tax. Federal revenues include estampillas o timbres fiscales [fiscal stamps or revenue stamps], cigarettes, tobacco, registration, inheritance, matches, spirits, liquors and other taxes established as national taxes by law. (Art. 15(14, 17); cont., 1925, Art. 15(14, 17)).
The Situado Constitucional [Constitutional Revenue Allocation] equals twelve per cent of total revenue, calculated for each fiscal year from receipts in the immediately preceding calendar year and included annually in the national expenditure budget. It is distributed among the Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] in proportion to population. (Art. 17(4)(1); cf. 1925, Art. 17(4)(1): “The sum thus fixed shall be distributed among all the Estados [States] in proportion to their population”).
Art. 17(4)(1) states the twelve-per-cent allocation without the initial three-year provision for a fixed annual sum. (Art. 17(4)(1); cf. 1925, Art. 17(4)(1): “in the sum of ten million bolívares per year […] After this Constitution has been in force for three years”).
State revenues also include the tax on papel sellado [stamped paper], consumption taxes and contributions established by their Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies]. papel sellado [stamped paper] cannot be demanded for assessment or payment of national taxes, or used to collect prohibited contributions. Estados [States] cannot create Aduanas [Customs Houses], levy import or export duties, tax foreign goods in transit abroad, invade national or municipal tax subjects, tax interstate transit, tax goods before they are offered for consumption, prohibit consumption of goods from elsewhere, discriminate against such goods, require federal tax officials to collect state taxes, or impose payment in personal labour or its monetary equivalent. (Art. 17(4)(2–3); cont., 1925, Art. 17(4)(2–3)).
Municipal revenue powers carry the restrictions in Art. 17(4)(3). patentes [business licence taxes] on agriculture, livestock raising and the catching of edible fish are prohibited at municipal, state and national levels. Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] cannot contract loans abroad. (Arts. 18(3), 24; cont., 1925, Arts. 18(3), 24).
No tax may be collected without legal authorization. Expenditure from the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury] requires an appropriation in the Ley de Presupuesto General de Rentas y Gastos Públicos [General Revenue and Public Expenditure Budget Law] or a previously decreed Crédito Adicional [Additional Appropriation]. Officials who contravene this rule are civilly liable to the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury] for the amounts paid. (Art. 48; cf. 1925, Art. 48: “in the Presupuesto General de Gastos Públicos [General Public Expenditure Budget]”).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers], may decree Créditos Adicionales [Additional Appropriations] when a budget chapter is insufficient or an expense was not foreseen, provided available funds cover them without impairing ordinary expenditure, which takes precedence. The Congreso [Congress] examines compliance with these conditions. Ministers account for funds handled; the minister responsible for national revenues prepares the budget bill in consultation with the others. (Arts. 100(30), 77(6), 109; cont., 1925, Arts. 100(30), 77(6), 109).
Each Estado [State] retains ownership of its salinas [saltworks], tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], their products, ostrales de perlas [pearl-oyster beds] and mines, while administration belongs to the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive]. The resulting revenue, including sales of tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], enters the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury]. salinas [saltworks] are inalienable. tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] on maritime, river and lake islands cannot be alienated, and their use cannot directly or indirectly transfer ownership. (Art. 15(18); cont., 1925, Art. 15(18)).
concesiones mineras [mining concessions] are temporary. Laws governing the sale, lease or gratuitous grant of tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] must establish a derecho de preferencia [right of preference] for occupants. (Art. 15(18); cf. 1925, Art. 15(18): “that concesiones mineras [mining concessions] shall not be perpetual”).
The occupant-preference clause occurs in Art. 15(18) of the 1928 recension; it does not occur in Art. 15(18) of the 1925 recension.
POW-EXE—Executive
Federal administration not assigned by the Constitution to another authority belongs to the Poder Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive Power], exercised by the Presidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President of the United States of Venezuela]. The laws determine the federal employees and agents through whom administration operates; assistance may be required from state governments in constitutionally permitted cases. (Arts. 93–94; cf. 1925, Art. 93: “in conjunction with the Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers]”).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] must be Venezuelan by birth, over thirty, of estado seglar [lay status] and in possession of all civil and political rights. (Art. 95; cont., 1925, Art. 95).
Arts. 95–99 provide for the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] and ministerial substitution; they contain no office of Vicepresidente de la República [Vice-President of the Republic]. (Arts. 95–99; cf. 1925, Art. 95: “There shall also be a Vicepresidente de la República [Vice-President of the Republic], who must meet the same conditions required for the President.”).
Within the first fifteen days of its installation in the year beginning the constitutional term, the Congreso [Congress] elects the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. The election sitting is fixed at least five days in advance and the notice is officially published. The oath is taken before the Congreso [Congress], or before the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] if circumstances prevent the former. (Arts. 96, 99; cf. 1925, Art. 96: “to elect the Presidente y Vicepresidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President and Vice-President of the United States of Venezuela]”).
A temporary presidential absence is filled by the Ministro del Despacho [Cabinet Minister] designated by the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. Upon a permanent vacancy, the Congreso [Congress] elects a replacement for the remainder of the term. Until that person takes office, the minister already acting continues; if none is acting, the Gabinete [Cabinet] chooses a minister by majority vote. If the Congreso [Congress] is not in ordinary session, the acting minister convenes extraordinary sessions. (Art. 97; cf. 1925, Art. 98: “Temporary and permanent absences of the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] shall be filled by the Vicepresidente de la República [Vice-President of the Republic]”).
Absence from the capital within national territory is not a temporary absence from office. From any place in the country, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] may instruct ministers concerning resolutions to be issued in the capital and receive foreign diplomatic ministers. (Art. 98; cf. 1925, Art. 98: “is not obliged to leave the exercise of office merely through absence from the capital”).
Federal constitutional terms last seven years and are counted from 19 April 1922. Presidential service runs from the oath until 19 April in the year when the term ends. On that date the executive is delivered to a member or alternate of the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] designated by that Court under Art. 120(17), pending the accession of the elected successor. (Arts. 54, 103, 120(17); cf. 1925, Art. 103: “the Presidente de la Corte Federal y de Casación [President of the Federal and Cassation Court] shall take charge of the executive power”).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] appoints and removes Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers], receives foreign diplomatic ministers, signs official letters to heads of state, administers the Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], and may designate a Ministro del Despacho [Cabinet Minister] to exercise the presidency temporarily and resume office during the constitutional term. (Art. 100(1–6); cf. 1925, Art. 100(6): “To call the Vicepresidente de la República [Vice-President of the Republic] to exercise the presidency when he considers it appropriate”).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] orders the Constitution and laws executed and published; issues implementing Decretos [Decrees] and Reglamentos [Regulations] in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] without altering the laws’ spirit, purpose or reason; negotiates legislatively authorized loans through the appropriate minister with Gabinete [Cabinet] approval; regulates public or private health, postal, telegraph and telephone services in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers]; and orders the census and submits it for legislative approval. (Art. 100(7–11); cont., 1925, Art. 100(7–11)).
Through the appropriate ministers, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] issues patentes de navegación [navigation licences] and nationality certificates, appoints national officials whose selection belongs to no other official and removes them, and administers national revenues. In the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers], the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] creates and funds necessary public services during legislative recess. With Gabinete [Cabinet] approval, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] orders the Ministerio Público Federal [Federal Public Ministry] to prosecute officials where grounds exist and convenes the Congreso [Congress] extraordinarily. War is declared after the Congreso [Congress] has decreed it. (Art. 100(12–19); cont., 1925, Art. 100(12–19)).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] conducts diplomatic negotiations personally or through the competent minister, and concludes treaties through chosen plenipotentiaries with Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] approval and subsequent legislative approval. Treaties cannot impair Arts. 37–39 and must provide for arbitramento [arbitration] of differences over interpretation or execution. Authorized contracts of national interest are made through the competent ministers with Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] approval and submitted to the Congreso [Congress]. Entry of foreigners may be prohibited and expulsion ordered in cases permitted by international law or national legislation. (Art. 100(20–22); cont., 1925, Art. 100(20–22)).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] directs war, commands the Ejército [Army] and Armada [Navy] personally or appoints their commander, organizes the Ejército [Army] and Milicia Nacional [National Militia] under the law, and fixes the strength of land and sea forces. (Art. 100(23); cont., 1925, Art. 100(23)).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] decrees suspension of garantías constitucionales [constitutional guarantees] in the cases specified in Art. 36. During civil or international war, additional powers permit requesting state assistance, temporarily relocating federal powers, ordering prosecution for traición a la Patria [treason against the Nation], reorganizing Estados [States] controlled by rebels or participating in rebellion, and issuing patentes de corso [letters of marque] and authorizing represalias [reprisals]. (Art. 100(24); cont., 1925, Art. 100(24)).
During an official visit with some or all Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers] to Estados [States] or Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], the seat of the Poder Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive Power] is the place where the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] is located; the visit decree regulates routine administration in Caracas. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] may use the fuerza pública [public force] to end armed conflict between Estados [States] after good offices fail, exercise functions delegated by state constitutions, grant indultos [pardons], and order the issue of titles granting or leasing tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] and concesiones mineras [mining concessions]. (Art. 100(25–29); cf. 1925, Art. 100(25): “together with all or some of the Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers] and the Secretario general [Secretary-General]”).
The annual Mensaje [Message] is presented personally or through a minister within the first ten days of ordinary sessions and accounts for acts of administration and the condition of the Republic. (Art. 101, first paragraph; cf. 1925, Art. 101: “and shall indicate the improvements which, in his judgment, it would be appropriate to adopt in the legislation in force”).
In the final year of the presidential term, the Mensaje [Message] is presented on 19 April or left signed with the acting president for transmission when the Congreso [Congress] meets. (Art. 101, final paragraph; new).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] is responsible only for traición a la Patria [treason against the Nation] and ordinary offences. (Art. 102; cf. 1925, Art. 102: “The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] or whoever acts in his stead is responsible only for traición a la Patria [treason against the Nation] and ordinary offences.”).
The Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers] are the legally required organs through which presidential powers are exercised. The law fixes their functions and organizes their departments. Presidential decrees require countersignature by the competent ministers, who issue the resolutions and orders within the presidential powers. Without that requirement presidential dispositions have no effect, except ministerial appointments and designation of an acting minister under Art. 100(6). A freely appointed and removable Gobernador del Distrito Federal [Governor of the Federal District] is the presidential organ for administration of the Distrito Federal [Federal District]. (Arts. 104–105; cf. 1925, Art. 104: “The President’s acts shall have no effect without that requirement.”).
A Ministro del Despacho [Cabinet Minister] must be Venezuelan by birth, over thirty and in possession of civil and political rights. Decisions are taken in the Gabinete [Cabinet] when the Constitution or laws require it or the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] convenes it because of the matter’s importance. Otherwise, the competent minister or ministers countersign or execute the presidential decision. (Arts. 106–107; cf. 1925, Art. 106: “To be a Ministro del Despacho [Cabinet Minister] and Secretario general [Secretary-General]”).
Arts. 104–107 contain the ministerial provisions without the office of Secretario general [Secretary-General] provided in the antecedent charter. (Arts. 104–107; cf. 1925, Art. 105: “The Presidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President of the United States of Venezuela] shall also have a Secretario general [Secretary-General]”).
Ministers’ acts must conform to the Constitution and laws. Their personal responsibility is not excused by presidential orders, even written orders; responsibility for acts resolved in the Gabinete [Cabinet] is joint. Ministers submit reasoned and documented Memorias y Cuentas [Reports and Accounts] within the first ten days of annual sessions. Ministers may speak in the Chambers and must attend when summoned to provide information. (Arts. 108, 109 (first paragraph), 110; cont., 1925, Arts. 108, 109 (first paragraph), 110).
In the final presidential year, ministers present their Memorias y Cuentas [Reports and Accounts] on 19 April or, if the Cámaras Legislativas [Legislative Chambers] have not yet assembled, leave them with the acting president for transmission when the Congreso [Congress] meets. (Art. 109, final paragraph; new).
POW-JUD—Judiciary
The Poder Judicial [Judicial Power] resides in the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] and the other courts established by law. Jueces Federales [Federal Judges] are appointed for a fixed period and cannot be removed during it except in cases prescribed by law. (Arts. 116–117; cont., 1925, Arts. 116–117).
The Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] consists of seven Vocales [Members of the Court], Venezuelans by birth, over thirty and lawyers of the Republic, serving seven years. At the end of their term they remain until their replacements take office. The Court acts in Salas [Divisions of the Court], whose membership is fixed by law. (Art. 118; cf. 1925, Art. 118: “who shall hold office for seven years”).
The Congreso [Congress] elects each of the seven Vocales [Members of the Court] separately by absolute majority during the first thirty days of sessions in the year beginning the constitutional term. At the same sitting it elects seven numbered Suplentes [Alternates], who fill temporary and permanent vacancies in that order. The Court fills incidental absences under the law. The Congreso [Congress] completes a depleted list of Suplentes [Alternates], placing the new appointees at its end; successive excuses from service without resignation are treated as incidental absences. (Art. 119; cf. 1925, Art. 119: “Incidental absences shall be filled as the law provides.”).
The Court hears accusations against the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] or acting president, Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers], the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation], the Gobernador del Distrito Federal [Governor of the Federal District] and its own members, and against state presidents and other high state officials designated by state law. It hears civil and criminal cases involving diplomatic officials where international law permits, and criminal cases concerning Venezuelan diplomatic agents’ misconduct abroad. (Art. 120(1–4); cont., 1925, Art. 120(1–4)).
Its jurisdiction includes the recurso de casación [appeal in cassation], other appeals assigned by law, causas de presas [prize cases], disputes among the specified political officials and federal or state entities, and conflicts of judicial competence where no other authority exists to decide them. (Art. 120(5–8); cont., 1925, Art. 120(5–8)).
The Court declares the nulidad [nullity] of national or state laws conflicting with the Constitution, limiting nullity to the conflicting provisions unless their connection with the rest requires invalidation of the whole law. It determines which national or state law, or which conflicting provisions of one law, must prevail. It annuls legislative or executive acts violating state rights or autonomy and state or municipal acts violating the specified restrictions on revenue powers. (Art. 120(9–11); cont., 1925, Art. 120(9–11)).
The Court annuls executive Decretos [Decrees] and Reglamentos [Regulations] that alter the spirit, reason or purpose of laws, and acts within Arts. 42–43 issued by national authorities, authorities of the Distrito Federal [Federal District] or high state officials. A ministerial resolution concerning execution, interpretation or lapse of a federal contract requires the procedure in Art. 120(13). (Art. 120(12); cont., 1925, Art. 120(12)).
In juicio contencioso [contentious proceedings], the Court decides disputes between the Nation and contractors or concessionaires concerning nullity, lapse, termination, scope, interpretation or performance of federal contracts, concesiones mineras [mining concessions] and grants of tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], including refusals of titles claimed as due. Matters reserved by the law applicable at the time to executive decision without judicial recourse remain excepted. Subject to treaties and statutory conditions, the Court gives foreign judgments enforceable effect and hears statutory claims for damages and other monetary claims against the Nation. (Art. 120(13–15); cont., 1925, Art. 120(13–15)).
The Court decides the boundary disputes specified in Art. 11. (Art. 120(16); cf. 1925, Art. 120(16): “To decide boundary disputes arising between the Estados [States] of the Union under Article 11.”).
On 19 April at the beginning of each federal term, the Court designates a principal member or alternate to take charge of the executive under Art. 103. A principal member leaves the Court upon taking executive office. The person designated continues until the elected Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] takes office, even if the Court is renewed in the meantime. (Art. 120(17); new).
Other matters of federal competence may be assigned to the Court by the Constitution and laws. (Art. 120(18); cont., 1925, Art. 120(17)).
For accusations under Art. 120(1–2), the Court summarily decides whether there are grounds for formación de causa [commencement of criminal proceedings], considering the evidence submitted and evidence it orders obtained. An affirmative decision suspends the official during the case; a negative decision ends proceedings. Ordinary offences pass to the competent ordinary court, while political offences remain before the Court through final judgment. The Court sends the Congreso [Congress] an annual report of its work and proposed legislative reforms. (Arts. 121–122; cont., 1925, Arts. 121–122).
Federal judicial competence includes the Court’s assigned cases, ordinary justice in the Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies], and Tribunales Federales [Federal Courts] acting even within Estados [States] in cases involving the Nation, military proceedings, tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], mines, salinas [saltworks], federal taxation and other cases determined by law. The law may entrust federal judicial functions to Tribunales de los Estados [State Courts]. (Art. 15(7); cf. 1925, Art. 15(7), final clause: “in the cases just mentioned”).
The Ministerio Público Federal [Federal Public Ministry] represents the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] before federal and state courts when required by the Constitution and laws. It is headed by the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation], freely appointed and removable by the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], with subordinate appointments governed by law. It supervises lawful application in criminal cases and cases involving the Fisco Nacional [National Fisc], public order or public morals; supplies legal opinions to the executive or the Court; exercises the Ministerio Fiscal [Prosecutorial Office] in Art. 120(1–3) cases; and represents the Nation in litigation. The Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] follows lawful executive instructions transmitted through the competent ministry. (Arts. 111–115; cont., 1925, Arts. 111–115).
At the request of the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive], the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] brings accusations before the competent authority against federal officials whose conduct gives grounds for prosecution. (Art. 114(3); cont., 1925, Art. 114(3)).
POW-SUB—Subnational Government
The Estados [States] recognize one another’s autonomy and political equality and retain soberanía [sovereignty] not delegated by the Constitution. Their first duty and that of the Federation is preservation of national independence and integrity. They cannot break national unity, ally with foreign powers, request their protection or cede territory to them. National and state government is republican, federal, democratic, elective, representative, responsible and alternating. (Arts. 12–13; cont., 1925, Arts. 12–13).
The Estados [States] are divided into Distritos [Districts] with autonomía municipal [municipal autonomy], independent of state political power in their administrative affairs within constitutional restrictions. During foreign or internal war, a state executive may assume district administration under the state constitution. (Art. 14; cont., 1925, Art. 14).
The Estados [States] adopt constitutions and laws organizing their public powers, elect those powers under their constitutions and laws, and may delegate specified functions to the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. They may retain or change their names. They administer civil and criminal justice through their own courts except in matters reserved to federal judges; their judgments are reviewed only by the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] through the remedies and with the effects prescribed by law. (Art. 17(1–3, 5); cont., 1925, Art. 17(1–3, 5)).
The Municipalidades [Municipalities] organize police, food supplies, cemeteries, municipal ornamentation, civil architecture, street lighting, aqueducts, urban tramways and other municipal services. They administer ejidos [municipal common lands] and other municipal lands, which cannot thereafter be alienated except for construction. (Art. 18(1–2); cont., 1925, Art. 18(1–2)).
Hygiene services follow federal health laws and regulations and remain “under the inspection of the federal sanitary service”. (Art. 18(1); cf. 1925, Art. 18(1): “under the supreme inspection of the federal sanitary service”).
The Estados [States] must comply with and execute the federal Constitution, laws and lawful federal orders. The Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] give full faith and execution to public and judicial acts from federal authorities, other Estados [States] and the Distrito Federal [Federal District]. (Arts. 16, 19; cf. 1925, Art. 19: “emanating from federal authorities or the other Estados [States]”).
Federal judges, public prosecutors, administrative and revenue officials, and forces assigned to borders, public peace, garrisons, arsenals, coasts and ports may operate within the Estados [States]. Their jurisdiction is limited to their functions; they have no special personal jurisdiction or privilege distinguishing them from other residents. Estados [States] cannot impose duties incompatible with their federal service. The federal government may build the works needed for its administration. (Arts. 20–21; cont., 1925, Arts. 20–21).
The Estados [States] must prevent recruitment or levies intended to attack another nation’s peace, liberty or independence, or disturb internal peace. They cannot make war on one another and must remain neutral in disputes among other Estados [States] until required to act by the federal government. (Arts. 22–23; cont., 1925, Arts. 22–23).
Two or more Estados [States] may unite to form a single Estado [State], while retaining the freedom to recover their autonomy. In either case they notify the federal executive, the Congreso [Congress] and the other Estados [States]. (Art. 25; cf. 1925, Art. 25: “but always retaining the freedom to recover their status as Estados [States]”).
Official acts and documents of the Nation, Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] must carry the calendar date and the years of Independence, counted from 19 April 1810, and Federation, counted from 20 February 1859. (Art. 26; cf. 1925, Art. 26: “of the Nation and of the Estados [States]”).
Poder Público [Public Power] is distributed among federal, state and municipal authorities within constitutional limits. The Poder Federal [Federal Power] is divided into legislative, executive and judicial branches. (Art. 51; cont., 1925, Art. 51).
CON-AMD—Amending the Constitution
Total or partial reform is declared by the Congreso [Congress] in ordinary sessions upon requests from three-quarters of the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies], likewise meeting in ordinary sessions. Amendments and additions may address only points upon which a majority of Estados [States] agree. (Art. 123; cont., 1925, Art. 123).
Amendments and additions follow the procedure for enacting laws. Once the Congreso [Congress] approves them, its presiding officer submits them to the Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] for final ratification. (Arts. 124–125; cont., 1925, Arts. 124–125).
The Congreso [Congress] may also initiate amendments or additions under the procedure in Arts. 124–125; they are enacted upon ratification by two-thirds of the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies]. Whether the initiative originated in the Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] or the Cámaras Legislativas [Legislative Chambers], the final state votes return to the Congreso [Congress] for scrutiny. (Arts. 126–127; cf. 1925, Art. 126: “by the procedure indicated in the preceding Article”).
CIV-SUF—Suffrage
The right of sufragio [suffrage] makes Venezuelans over twenty-one who are not subject to interdicción [judicial interdiction] or a criminal conviction involving inhabilitación política [political disqualification] electors and eligible for public office, subject to constitutional restrictions and statutory requirements of competence or capacity for particular offices. (Art. 32(12); cont., 1925, Art. 32(12)).
State constitutions must provide direct, secret voting for Concejos Municipales [Municipal Councils], Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] and Diputados [Deputies], using the Censo electoral [Electoral Register] under federal law. Diputados [Deputies] are directly elected; Senadores [Senators] are chosen by the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] from outside their membership. The Congreso [Congress] elects the members and alternates of the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court]. (Arts. 17(1), 56, 58, 60, 119; cont., 1925, Arts. 17(1), 56, 58, 60, 119).
The Congreso [Congress] elects the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. (Art. 96; cf. 1925, Art. 96: “to elect the Presidente y Vicepresidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President and Vice-President of the United States of Venezuela]”).
The constitutional age requirement is completion of twenty-one years for a deputy and age over thirty for a senator. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] must be over thirty, Venezuelan by birth, of estado seglar [lay status] and in possession of civil and political rights. (Arts. 57, 61, 95; cont., 1925, Arts. 57, 61, 95).
Troops must remain in barracks during electoral periods. (Art. 47; cont., 1925, Art. 47).
CIV-CIT—Citizenship
Venezuelan nacionalidad [nationality] belongs by birth and is acquired by naturalización [naturalization]. Those born in national territory and children of Venezuelan parents, wherever born, are Venezuelan by birth. (Arts. 27–28; cont., 1925, Arts. 27–28).
Art. 29(1) includes adult children born abroad to a father and mother who are Venezuelan by naturalización [naturalization], if they establish domicile in the country and declare their intention to be Venezuelan. (Art. 29(1); cf. 1925, Art. 29(1): “of a father or mother who are Venezuelan by naturalización [naturalization]”).
This comparison records the conjunction printed in each CIDEP recension; it does not establish whether the variant originated in the enacted instrument or in its reproduction.
The remaining categories are persons born in the Ibero-American republics who establish residence and declare their intention to be Venezuelan; foreigners obtaining a carta de naturaleza [certificate of naturalization] under the law; and a foreign woman married to a Venezuelan while the marriage subsists, or who, within one year after its dissolution, declares her intention to remain Venezuelan. (Art. 29(2–4); cont., 1925, Art. 29(2–4)).
The declarations under Art. 29(1), (2) and (4) are made before the Registrador Principal [Principal Registrar] for the jurisdiction where the person establishes domicile. The declaration is entered in the Protocolo [Register] and copied to the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] for official publication after the procedures required by law. nacionalidad [nationality] is not acquired before that publication. (Art. 30; cf. 1925, Art. 30: “The declarations of intention referred to in the preceding Article”).
Venezuelans must defend the country and obey the Constitution, laws and lawful implementing orders. They cannot undertake service against Venezuela and, if they do, are punishable as traitors under the law. The law fixes foreigners’ rights and duties, which cannot exceed those of Venezuelans. Foreigners participating in Venezuelan political contests incur the same responsibilities as Venezuelans and the measures specified by the charter. (Arts. 31, 37–38; cont., 1925, Arts. 31, 37–38).
Neither nationals nor foreigners may claim compensation from the Nation, Estados [States] or Municipalidades [Municipalities] for damage, loss or expropriation not carried out by legitimate authorities acting in their public capacity. (Art. 39; cont., 1925, Art. 39).
RTS-GAR—Rights
Life is inviolable, and no law or authority may establish or impose the pena de muerte [death penalty]. Property is subject to lawful contributions and taking for works of public utility through juicio contradictorio [adversarial proceeding] and indemnización previa [prior compensation], under the law. Owners must obey legislation on public hygiene, conservation of forests and waters, and comparable community requirements. (Art. 32(1–2); cf. 1925, Art. 32(2): “a prior juicio contradictorio [adversarial proceeding] and compensation”).
Postal and telegraphic correspondence and private papers are inviolable; seizure requires a competent judicial order and legal formalities, preserving secrecy for domestic and private matters unrelated to the case. The home may be entered only to prevent the commission or completion of an offence, execute lawful judicial decisions or carry out lawful sanitary visits. (Art. 32(3–4); cont., 1925, Art. 32(3–4)).
Personal liberty includes abolition of reclutamiento forzoso [compulsory recruitment], with military service governed by law; permanent prohibition of slavery and freedom for any enslaved person entering the country; liberty to do what harms no one else; and freedom from obligations not legally imposed or prohibitions not established by law. (Art. 32(5); cont., 1925, Art. 32(5)).
Thought may be expressed orally, in writing or through the press, subject to legal penalties for injuria [insult], calumnia [calumny], difamación [defamation], ultraje [outrage] and instigación a delinquir [incitement to commit offences]. Propaganda of communism is prohibited. (Art. 32(6); cf. 1925, Art. 32(6): “the offences of injuria [insult], calumnia [calumny], difamación [defamation] or ultraje [outrage]”).
Persons may travel without a passport, change domicile subject to legal formalities, leave and return to the Republic, and take and bring their property. Work and industry are free subject to public order and public morals. Industrial monopolies are prohibited, subject to the temporary privileges expressly permitted by Art. 32(8). (Art. 32(7–8); cont., 1925, Art. 32(7–8)).
Unarmed public or private assembly is free from coercion by the authorities; association remains subject to statutory restrictions and prohibitions. Petitions to public officials or official bodies carry a right to timely reply. Officials who violate their duties may be accused before competent courts. Freedom of teaching is guaranteed. (Art. 32(9–11, 13); cont., 1925, Art. 32(9–11, 13)).
No person may be imprisoned for debt not arising from an offence or tried by specially created tribunals or commissions instead of their Jueces naturales [legally competent judges] under pre-existing law. Arrest or detention requires a información sumaria [preliminary evidentiary inquiry] establishing an offence carrying a pena corporal [penalty restricting personal liberty] and a written order stating the reason, unless the person is caught in fraganti [in the act of committing the offence]. The sumario [preliminary criminal investigation] may not extend beyond thirty days after detention. (Art. 32(15)(a–c); cont., 1925, Art. 32(15)(a–c)).
No person may be held incommunicado or compelled to swear or undergo criminal interrogation against themselves, their ascendants, relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity, or their spouse. Detention must end when a final judicial decision destroys its grounds or sufficient fianza [bail] is furnished in cases where provisional release is permitted by law. (Art. 32(15)(d–f); cont., 1925, Art. 32(15)(d–f)).
Criminal punishment requires personal notification of the charges and a hearing in the legal form. A pena corporal [penalty restricting personal liberty] cannot exceed twenty years. penas infamantes [infamous penalties] and perpetual penalties, including those not restricting personal liberty, are prohibited. No person may be tried twice for the same offence. (Art. 32(15)(g–i); cont., 1925, Art. 32(15)(g–i)).
All are subject to the same laws, equal legal protection throughout national territory, and equal duties, services and contributions; exemptions require legal authorization. Titles of nobility, hereditary distinctions and offices paying beyond the duration of service cannot be granted. Official address is limited to ciudadano [citizen] and usted [you, in formal address], except diplomatic formulas. (Art. 32(16); cont., 1925, Art. 32(16)).
Enumeration of rights does not deny other rights belonging to citizens. Federal laws, state constitutions and laws, and municipal ordinances impairing guaranteed rights are null, as declared by the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court]. Persons issuing, signing, executing or ordering rights-violating measures are punishable under the law, subject to the exception for competent official measures in the circumstances of Art. 36. (Arts. 33–35; cont., 1925, Arts. 33–35).
During international war, civil war or imminent danger of either, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] declares the circumstance and suspends garantías constitucionales [constitutional guarantees] nationally or in the area specified, until peace is restored. Life remains inviolable and infamous punishments remain prohibited. confiscación [confiscation] is prohibited except as reciprocal represalias [reprisals] against nationals of an enemy country that has first confiscated Venezuelans’ property. (Art. 36(1–2); cont., 1925, Art. 36(1–2)).
Nationals or foreigners opposing the preservation or restoration of peace may be arrested, subjected to confinamiento [confinement to a specified locality] or expelled. These measures cease with the circumstances giving rise to them, except that the executive may leave an expulsion of foreigners in force. (Art. 36(3); cont., 1925, Art. 36(3)).
soberanía [sovereignty] resides in the people and is exercised through public powers. Defined functions limit those powers, and excess constitutes usurpation. The law regulates nulidad [nullity] for acts exceeding authority; decisions exacted by force or by a public gathering in a subversive attitude are null. Officials incur individual responsibility for excess of authority or breach of the law governing their office, subject to Art. 102, and remain punishable for other offences. (Arts. 40–44; cont., 1925, Arts. 40–44).
One person cannot hold more than one remunerated public office; acceptance of the second constitutes resignation from the first. Exceptions cover alternates before replacing a principal and employment in academies, hospitals, incidental courts and educational institutions. The law regulates the oath taken by national officials upon assuming office. (Arts. 46, 53; cf. 1925, Art. 46: “except for public-education teachers, employees in academies or hospitals, and incidental judges”).
REG-MIL—The Military
The Ejército [Army], Armada [Navy] and Aviación Militar [Military Aviation] belong to federal competence. Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] may maintain only police and prison guards, except forces organized on federal orders. The Ejército [Army] is formed from contingents drawn proportionately to population from the Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies]. The law regulates milicias ciudadanas [citizen militias] and may establish enganches por contrato [contractual enlistment]. All war matériel in or introduced into the country belongs to the Nation. (Art. 15(8); cont., 1925, Art. 15(8)).
Civil and military authority cannot be exercised simultaneously by one official except the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], or a civil official given military functions by law during war. The fuerza armada [armed force] may not deliberate; it is passive and obedient. Armed bodies may seek requisitions or assistance only through civil authorities in the manner fixed by law. Troops remain in barracks during elections, and commanders violating these rules are punishable. (Arts. 45, 47; cont., 1925, Arts. 45, 47).
reclutamiento forzoso [compulsory recruitment] is abolished and military service follows the law. The Cámara del Senado [Senate] consents to promotions from Coronel [Colonel] and Capitán de Navío [Naval Captain], inclusive. The Congreso [Congress] legislates on formation and replacement of land and sea forces. (Arts. 32(5)(a), 62(3), 78(15); cont., 1925, Arts. 32(5)(a), 62(3), 78(15)).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] directs war, commands the Ejército [Army] and Armada [Navy] personally or through an appointed commander, organizes the Ejército [Army] and Milicia Nacional [National Militia], and fixes the numbers of land and sea forces. (Art. 100(23); cont., 1925, Art. 100(23)).
REG-REL—Religion
Religious liberty is guaranteed under the supreme inspection of all forms of worship by the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] in accordance with law, preserving Patronato Eclesiástico [Ecclesiastical Patronage]. The Nation exercises that right under the Law of 28 July 1824. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] must possess estado seglar [lay status]. (Arts. 32(14), 52, 95; cont., 1925, Arts. 32(14), 52, 95).
ECO-INF—Infrastructure
Federal legislation governs civil, commercial, criminal and procedural matters; banks and credit institutions; social provision; Sanidad [Public Health]; conservation and development of forests, waters and other natural resources; labour; marcas de fábrica [trademarks]; literary, artistic and industrial property; public registration; expropiación por causa de utilidad pública [expropriation for public utility]; immigration; naturalización [naturalization]; admission and expulsion of foreigners; and regulation of constitutional guarantees. (Art. 15(4); cont., 1925, Art. 15(4)).
The federal authorities legislate on Instrucción Pública [Public Instruction]. Elementary primary instruction is compulsory and instruction in official institutions is free. National census and statistical work requires state and municipal cooperation; population-based acts use the latest census approved by the Congreso [Congress]. Art. 15(10) expressly includes the Nation, Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories]. (Art. 15(9–10); cf. 1925, Art. 15(10): “both of the Nation and of the Estados [States]”).
Air, maritime and river navigation, docks and landing works are federal matters. Navigation of rivers and other navigable waters requiring no special works cannot be restricted by taxes or privileges. Correos [Postal Services], Telégrafos [Telegraphs], Teléfonos [Telephones] and wireless communications likewise belong to federal competence. (Art. 15(13, 15); cont., 1925, Art. 15(13, 15)).
National roads are those passing through a Estado [State], the Distrito Federal [Federal District] or a Territorio Federal [Federal Territory] and extending beyond its boundaries. Federal competence also covers aerial haulage cables and railways even within one Estado [State]. Urban tramways and urban haulage cables are conceded and regulated by the respective Municipalidades [Municipalities]. (Art. 15(16); cont., 1925, Art. 15(16)).
Federal competence extends to necessary public works throughout national territory without restricting the right of Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] to undertake works on their own account. Federal administrative works within Estados [States] may include forts, docks, warehouses, shipyards, penitentiaries and estaciones de cuarentenas [quarantine stations]. (Arts. 15(19), 21; cont., 1925, Arts. 15(19), 21).
Statutory privilegios temporales [temporary exclusive privileges] may protect intellectual property, patentes de invención [patents of invention] and marcas de fábrica [trademarks], and may authorize railways, aerial navigation enterprises, canals, tramways, telephone or telegraph lines and wireless systems for a limited period. The works must be constructed or installed at the concessionaire’s expense, without guaranteed returns or subsidies from the Nation or Estados [States]. (Art. 32(8); cont., 1925, Art. 32(8)).
Public-interest contracts cannot be transferred, wholly or partly, to foreign governments. They incorporate a clause assigning unresolved disputes to competent Venezuelan courts under Venezuelan law and excluding foreign claims. Such contracts cannot be concluded with, or transferred to, companies not legally domiciled in Venezuela. (Art. 50; cont., 1925, Art. 50).
CON-FIN—Final Provisions
The presidential period begun on 19 April 1922 continues, and the incumbent Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] remains for its remainder. Senadores [Senators] and Diputados [Deputies] retain their mandates for the remainder of their three-year terms. Once the Constitution takes effect, the Congreso [Congress] elects seven principal Vocales [Members of the Court] and seven Suplentes [Alternates] to serve until the election prescribed by Art. 119 in the next constitutional period. (Art. 128; cf. 1925, Art. 128: “the current Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] and Vicepresidente de la República [Vice-President of the Republic] and the Vocales [Members of the Court] of the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] shall continue in office”).
Existing state constitutions continue in force until the respective Estados [States] repeal them. (Art. 129; cf. 1925, Art. 129: “The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] shall provisionally organize the Estados [States] of the Union while they enact their new Constitutions”).
The transitional provisions contain no counterpart to the 1925 direction to fill the office of Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] under Art. 113. (Arts. 128–129 (transitional provisions); cf. 1925, Art. 128, final sentence: “With respect to the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation], the Presidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President of the United States of Venezuela] shall fill the office under the provisions of Article 113.”).
The transitional provisions contain no counterpart to the 1925 waiver by the Estados [States] of rights to balances of their situados constitucionales [constitutional revenue allocations] through fiscal year 1924–1925, inclusive, and the Nation’s reciprocal waiver of claims against the Estados [States] through the same fiscal year. (Arts. 128–129 (transitional provisions); cf. 1925, Art. 130: “The Estados [States] waive in favour of the Nation any right that may belong to them concerning balances of their situados constitucionales [constitutional revenue allocations] through fiscal year 1924–1925, inclusive. Reciprocally, the Nation waives in favour of the Estados [States] any claim it has against them through that fiscal year, inclusive.”).
Following scrutiny of the state ratifications, the Constitution is promulgated with the presidential Ejecútese [Let it be executed] and takes effect on the day of publication in the Gaceta Oficial [Official Gazette]. (Art. 130; cf. 1925, Art. 131: “shall be promulgated and enter into force as soon as, after the Congreso [Congress] has scrutinized the votes of the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies], it is found that they have ratified it”).
The Constitution dated 24 June 1925, ordered complied with and published on 1 July 1925, is repealed. The 1928 constitutional text closes with the date 22 May 1928; the execution formula signed J. V. Gómez is dated 23 May 1928. (Art. 131; closing and execution formulas).
Recension
Centro para la Integración y el Derecho Público [Centre for Integration and Public Law] (CIDEP).
The 1929 Constitución de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Constitution of the United States of Venezuela] was declared sanctioned by the Congreso [Congress] in its agreement of 29 May 1929, issued at the Palacio Federal Legislativo [Federal Legislative Palace], Caracas, following the unanimous ratification by the Asambleas Legislativas de los Estados [State Legislative Assemblies] recorded in that agreement. Its execution was ordered at the Palacio Federal [Federal Palace], Caracas, on the same date by President Juan Bautista Pérez. (CIDEP 1929, p. 3, prefatory agreement; p. 23, execution formula).
Historical reference
Following the conclusion of President Juan Vicente Gómez’s 1922–1929 term, President Juan Bautista Pérez exercised the presidency in an acting capacity from 19 April 1929 and became constitutional President on 30 May 1929. During Pérez’s presidency, which ended on 13 June 1931, Gómez held military command as Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander-in-Chief of the National Army].
Source: Manuel Rodríguez Campos, “Pérez, Juan Bautista,” Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela, Fundación Empresas Polar:
(modern Latinate English translation by the author from the CIDEP recension)
“The Congress of the United States of Venezuela, in the name of Almighty God and in exercise of the authority conferred upon it by Article 126 of the Federal Pact in force, the present Constitution.”
(CIDEP 1929, p. 3, preamble).
The CIDEP preamble (p. 3) contains no enactment verb.
FND-TER—Territory
The Nación Venezolana [Venezuelan Nation] consists of all Venezuelans united in a political pact under the name Estados Unidos de Venezuela [United States of Venezuela]; it is permanently and irrevocably free and independent of foreign domination or protection. The territory is that belonging to the Capitanía General de Venezuela [Captaincy General of Venezuela] before the political transformation of 1810, with modifications resulting from treaties. No part may be ceded, transferred, leased or otherwise alienated to a foreign power, even temporarily. (Arts. 1–2; cont., 1928, Arts. 1–2).
The national territory is divided into Estados [States], the Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies]. The twenty Estados [States] are Anzoátegui, Apure, Aragua, Bolívar, Carabobo, Cojedes, Falcón, Guárico, Lara, Mérida, Miranda, Monagas, Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa, Sucre, Táchira, Trujillo, Yaracuy, Zamora and Zulia. (Arts. 3–4; cont., 1928, Arts. 3–4).
State boundaries follow the provincial boundaries established by the Law of 28 April 1856, subject to the creation of the Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies], the Constitution of 5 August 1909 and the 1917 agreement between Aragua and Carabobo. Neighbouring Estados [States] may alter their common boundary through agreements approved by their respective legislatures, including reciprocal territorial compensation or cession. (Art. 5; cont., 1928, Art. 5).
The Distrito Federal [Federal District] comprises the departments Libertador and Vargas. The text places Caracas and the outlying parishes El Recreo, El Valle, La Vega, Antímano, Maracao and Macuto in Libertador. A special law organizes the district and determines its municipal powers so that federal political action is not obstructed. (Art. 6; cf. 1928, Art. 6: “Macarao and Macuto”).
The CIDEP recension prints the parish name Maracao in Art. 6; the 1928 recension prints Macarao. The printed forms are retained here.
Caracas is the capital and seat of federal government, subject to Art. 100, powers 23(b) and 24. (Art. 7; cf. 1928, Art. 7: “subject to the provisions of subparagraph b), power 24 of Article 100, and power 25 of the same Article”).
Amazonas and Delta Amacuro are Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], organized by special laws. Their boundaries, and those of the Distrito Federal [Federal District] with neighbouring Estados [States], may be modified by agreements concluded by the Poder Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive Power] and the respective state governments and approved by the Congreso [Congress] and the respective Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies]. (Art. 8; cont., 1928, Art. 8).
A Territorio Federal [Federal Territory] may become a Estado [State] upon attaining the population required for one deputy and proving to the Congreso [Congress] that it can maintain every branch of public service and meet the necessary expenditure. (Art. 9; cont., 1928, Art. 9).
The Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies] comprise the Venezuelan islands in the Caribbean Sea except Margarita and Coche, which constitute Nueva Esparta. Their government and administration belong directly to the executive until the law elevates them to the category of Territorios Federales [Federal Territories]. (Art. 10; cont., 1928, Art. 10).
The Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] decides boundary disputes between Estados [States], and those arising between them and the Distrito Federal [Federal District] or Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], through the procedure prescribed by law. (Art. 11; cont., 1928, Art. 11).
POW-LEG—Congress
The Poder Legislativo [Legislative Power] is exercised by the Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela], consisting of the Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] and Cámara del Senado [Senate]. Both Diputados [Deputies] and Senadores [Senators] serve three-year terms. (Art. 55; cont., 1928, Art. 55).
Each Estado [State] elects Diputados [Deputies] directly under its Ley de Elecciones [Electoral Law], one per 35,000 inhabitants and one additional deputy for an excess of 15,000. A Estado [State] with fewer than 35,000 inhabitants elects one deputy. An equal number of Suplentes [Alternates] is elected to fill vacancies in the order of election. (Art. 56; cont., 1928, Art. 56).
Art. 56 ends with the provision for Suplentes [Alternates]; the three-year term remains in Art. 55. (Arts. 55–56; cf. 1928, Art. 56, final paragraph: “The Diputados [Deputies] shall serve for three years and shall be renewed in their entirety.”).
A deputy must be Venezuelan by birth and have completed twenty-one years of age. The Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] attaining the prescribed population elect Diputados [Deputies] directly under the formalities fixed by law. The population basis excludes indígenas no reducidos [unreduced Indigenous people]. (Arts. 57–58; cont., 1928, Arts. 57–58).
The Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] may give a voto de censura [vote of censure] to Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers] whose acts it considers to warrant it. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] is not obliged to remove them until the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] declares that legal grounds exist for putting them on trial. Other powers may be assigned by law. (Art. 59; cont., 1928, Art. 59).
Each state Asamblea Legislativa [Legislative Assembly] elects, from outside its own membership, two principal Senadores [Senators] and two Suplentes [Alternates], the latter filling vacancies in election order. A senator must be Venezuelan by birth and over thirty years of age. (Arts. 60–61; cont., 1928, Arts. 60–61).
The Cámara del Senado [Senate] may authorize the transfer of the remains of illustrious Venezuelans to the Panteón Nacional [National Pantheon] after twenty-five years from their death; consent to national officials accepting gifts, offices, honours or rewards from foreign governments; and consent to military promotions from Coronel [Colonel] and naval promotions from Capitán de Navío [Naval Captain], inclusive. (Art. 62(1–3); cont., 1928, Art. 62(1–3)).
Art. 62 contains three numbered powers. (Art. 62; cf. 1928, Art. 62(4): “4. Such other powers as the laws assign to it.”).
The Cámaras Legislativas [Legislative Chambers] meet annually in the capital on 19 April or the nearest possible day, without prior convocation. Ordinary sessions last ninety days and cannot be extended; every day and hour within that period is available for ordinary sessions. Extraordinary sessions convened by the executive address the matters specified in the convocation and connected legislation requiring amendment. (Art. 63; cont., 1928, Art. 63).
Opening sessions require two-thirds of the membership; those present without that number form a Comisión Preparatoria [Preparatory Commission] and take measures to secure attendance. Subsequent sessions require an absolute majority. Sessions are public unless the respective Chamber resolves that they shall be secret. (Arts. 64–65; cont., 1928, Arts. 64–65).
Each Chamber adopts its Reglamento Interior y de Debates [Rules of Internal Procedure and Debate], disciplines infringements, controls order in its building, corrects or punishes disorderly spectators, removes impediments to its lawful functions, executes its exclusive resolutions, determines the qualifications of its members and receives their resignations. Both Chambers sit in the same town and open and close sessions on the same day and hour; suspension or relocation requires the other Chamber’s consent, with disagreements decided in joint session. (Arts. 66–67; cont., 1928, Arts. 66–67).
During sessions, any public office is incompatible with membership of either Chamber. Remuneration is fixed by law and may be increased only for the following term. (Arts. 68–69; cont., 1928, Arts. 68–69).
Legislative inmunidad [immunity] runs from thirty days before 19 April until thirty days after the close of sessions. Members cannot be imprisoned, arrested, confined, detained or obstructed in their functions, even upon committing an offence during that period. Where the alleged offence carries a pena corporal [penalty restricting personal liberty], the sumario [preliminary criminal investigation] is stayed during immunity, while investigative steps continue. Members need not answer claims, take oaths or answer judicial interrogatories during the same period, which is excluded from procedural time limits. The Chambers cannot waive this immunity. (Art. 70; cont., 1928, Art. 70).
Art. 70(1) states the exclusion of Art. 32(15)(c) with the qualification “with respect to the duration of the sumario [preliminary criminal investigation]”. (Art. 70(1); cont., 1928, Art. 70(1)).
Members are not responsible for opinions expressed in their Chambers. They cannot make contracts with the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] on their own or another’s behalf, or pursue others’ claims before it. (Arts. 71–72; cont., 1928, Arts. 71–72).
When the list of senatorial Suplentes [Alternates] is exhausted or reduced by death or another permanent vacancy, the respective Asamblea Legislativa [Legislative Assembly] fills it for the remainder of the legislative term. State constitutions and the Ley Orgánica del Distrito Federal [Organic Law of the Federal District] determine how vacancies in the Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] are filled. (Art. 73; cont., 1928, Art. 73).
The Chambers act separately but sit jointly when the Constitution or laws require it, or when one invites the other and the latter agrees and fixes the meeting time. Their separate acts as co-legislators are Leyes [Laws]; acts adopted jointly, or separately on matters exclusive to one Chamber, are Acuerdos [Resolutions]. The presiding officer of the Cámara del Senado [Senate] presides over the Congreso [Congress], and that of the Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] serves as its vice-president. (Arts. 74–76; cont., 1928, Arts. 74–76).
In joint session the Congreso [Congress] conducts the elections assigned to it, receives the resignation of the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], examines the annual Mensaje [Message], approves or disapproves ministerial Memorias y Cuentas [Reports and Accounts], admits qualifying Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] as Estados [States], and examines Créditos Adicionales [Additional Appropriations] for compliance with the constitutional procedure. (Art. 77; cont., 1928, Art. 77).
The reference governing examination of Créditos Adicionales [Additional Appropriations] is Art. 100(29). (Art. 77(6); cf. 1928, Art. 77(6): “the procedures indicated in power 30 of Article 100”).
As co-legislators the Chambers decree national taxes and loans, regulate national debt, create and suppress national offices, legislate on federal administration and currency, and authorize the disposal of nationally owned immovable property. Compulsory circulation of banknotes or any paper representation of value is prohibited, and the patrón de oro [gold standard] must be maintained. Weights and measures follow the metric decimal system. (Art. 78(1–4, 7–8); cont., 1928, Art. 78(1–4, 7–8)).
Treaties and diplomatic conventions require legislative approval before ratification or exchange. The approving law receives the Ejecútese [Let it be executed] only when the other party’s acceptance is established; official publication follows ratification and exchange. Contracts for railways, aerial haulage cables, telegraphic or wireless communications, immigration and other authorized matters of national interest require legislative approval. concesiones mineras [mining concessions] and titles to tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] granted under their respective laws are exempt from that approval. (Art. 78(5–6); cont., 1928, Art. 78(5–6)).
The Chambers enact the Ley de Presupuesto General de Rentas y Gastos Públicos [General Revenue and Public Expenditure Budget Law], fixing federal salaries and expenditure for the fiscal year. Outside that law, they cannot order another specified expenditure through a special law or resolution. They examine and approve the Censo Nacional [National Census], prescribe the special administration of Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], and increase the population basis for electing Diputados [Deputies] when the approved census requires it. (Art. 78(9–12); cont., 1928, Art. 78(9–12)).
General laws govern civil pensions, retirement benefits and montepíos militares [military survivors’ pension funds] payable by the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury]. The budget supplies aggregate appropriations, distributed by the executive through the competent minister under the law. The Chambers decree war, require peace negotiations, legislate on recruitment and replacement of land and sea forces, grant amnistías [amnesties], and legislate on the security of ports and coasts. (Art. 78(13–17); cont., 1928, Art. 78(13–17)).
Legislative powers include the Censo electoral [Electoral Register], Instrucción Pública [Public Instruction], Hacienda Nacional [National Public Finance Administration], air, maritime and river navigation, docks, Correos [Postal Services], Telégrafos [Telegraphs], wireless communications, railways, national roads and motor traffic, tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], salinas [saltworks], pearl fishing and mines, together with the subjects listed in Art. 15(4) and other matters of federal competence. (Art. 78(18–19); cont., 1928, Art. 78(18–19)).
A bill may originate in either Chamber upon presentation by at least three of its members, or through the minister responsible for a proposal from the executive. After admission it receives three discussions separated by at least one day. The other Chamber follows the same procedure and returns any amendments. If disagreement persists after written reasons from the originating Chamber, joint session decides disputed and connected articles by majority vote and may adopt a different wording. (Arts. 79–82; cont., 1928, Arts. 79–82).
Rejected bills cannot be presented again until the following year or later. Bills left pending at the close of sessions require a new presentation and all discussions in a subsequent year. An amending law must reproduce its entire text and repeal the previous law in full; repeal follows the same formalities as enactment. (Arts. 83–84, 86–87; cont., 1928, Arts. 83–84, 86–87).
The legislative formula is the name of the Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela] followed by “Decrees:”. Enacted texts are prepared in duplicate without alterations, signed by the presiding officers and secretaries of the Congreso [Congress], and dated with final approval. One copy goes to the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] for countersignature with the competent ministers and official publication. Printing errors require corrected republication or a ministerially certified errata notice. (Arts. 85, 88–89; cont., 1928, Arts. 85, 88–89).
A law takes effect on its stated date or, if none is stated, upon official publication. Legislative power cannot be delegated. Legislation is not retroactive except where it imposes a lesser penalty. Procedural laws apply immediately to pending cases; in criminal cases, evidence already taken is assessed under the law in force when it was offered insofar as that benefits the accused. (Arts. 90–92; cont., 1928, Arts. 90–92).
The publication named in Arts. 88–90 is the Gaceta Oficial de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Official Gazette of the United States of Venezuela]. (Arts. 88–90; cf. 1928, Art. 90: “from its publication in the Gaceta Oficial [Official Gazette]”).
ECO-TES—Treasury
The federal authorities have competence over Aduanas [Customs Houses], import duties and duties on foreign goods passing through to foreign destinations. The Impuesto Territorial [Territorial Tax] remains payable at Aduanas [Customs Houses] until abolished by law and enters the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury]. Exports are free of tax. Federal revenues include estampillas o timbres fiscales [fiscal stamps or revenue stamps], cigarettes, tobacco, registration, inheritance, matches, spirits, liquors and other taxes established as national taxes by law. (Art. 15(14, 17); cont., 1928, Art. 15(14, 17)).
The Situado Constitucional [Constitutional Revenue Allocation] equals twelve per cent of total revenue, calculated for each fiscal year from receipts in the immediately preceding calendar year and included annually in the national expenditure budget. It is distributed among the Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] in proportion to population. (Art. 17(4)(1); cont., 1928, Art. 17(4)(1)).
State revenues also include the tax on papel sellado [stamped paper], consumption taxes and contributions established by their Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies]. papel sellado [stamped paper] cannot be demanded for assessment or payment of national taxes, or used to collect prohibited contributions. Estados [States] cannot create Aduanas [Customs Houses], levy import or export duties, tax foreign goods in transit abroad, invade national or municipal tax subjects, tax interstate transit, tax goods before they are offered for consumption, prohibit consumption of goods from elsewhere, discriminate against such goods, require federal tax officials to collect state taxes, or impose payment in personal labour or its monetary equivalent. (Art. 17(4)(2–3); cont., 1928, Art. 17(4)(2–3)).
Municipal revenue powers carry the restrictions in Art. 17(4)(3). patentes [business licence taxes] on agriculture, livestock raising and the catching of edible fish are prohibited at municipal, state and national levels. Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] cannot contract loans abroad. (Arts. 18(3), 24; cont., 1928, Arts. 18(3), 24).
No tax may be collected without legal authorization. Expenditure from the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury] requires an appropriation in the Ley de Presupuesto General de Rentas y Gastos Públicos [General Revenue and Public Expenditure Budget Law] or a previously decreed Crédito Adicional [Additional Appropriation]. Officials who contravene this rule are civilly liable to the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury] for the amounts paid. (Art. 48; cont., 1928, Art. 48).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers], may decree Créditos Adicionales [Additional Appropriations] when a budget chapter is insufficient or an expense was not foreseen, provided available funds cover them without impairing ordinary expenditure, which takes precedence. The Congreso [Congress] examines compliance with these conditions. Ministers account for funds handled; the minister responsible for national revenues prepares the budget bill in consultation with the others. (Arts. 100(29), 77(6), 109; cont., 1928, Arts. 100(30), 77(6), 109).
Each Estado [State] retains ownership of its salinas [saltworks], tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], their products, ostrales de perlas [pearl-oyster beds] and mines, while administration belongs to the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive]. The resulting revenue, including sales of tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], enters the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury]. salinas [saltworks] are inalienable. tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] on maritime, river and lake islands cannot be alienated, and their use cannot directly or indirectly transfer ownership. (Art. 15(18); cont., 1928, Art. 15(18)).
concesiones mineras [mining concessions] are temporary. Laws governing the sale, lease or gratuitous grant of tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] must establish a derecho de preferencia [right of preference] for occupants. (Art. 15(18); cont., 1928, Art. 15(18)).
POW-EXE—Executive
Federal administration not assigned by the Constitution to another authority belongs to the Poder Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive Power], exercised by the Presidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President of the United States of Venezuela]. The laws determine the federal employees and agents through whom administration operates; assistance may be required from state governments in constitutionally permitted cases. (Arts. 93–94; cont., 1928, Arts. 93–94).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] must be Venezuelan by birth, over thirty, of estado seglar [lay status] and in possession of all civil and political rights. (Art. 95; cont., 1928, Art. 95).
Within the first fifteen days of its installation in the year beginning the constitutional term, the Congreso [Congress] elects the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. The election sitting is fixed at least five days in advance and the notice is officially published. The oath is taken before the Congreso [Congress], or before the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] if circumstances prevent the former. (Arts. 96, 99; cont., 1928, Arts. 96, 99).
A temporary presidential absence is filled by the Ministro del Despacho [Cabinet Minister] designated by the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. Upon a permanent vacancy, the Congreso [Congress] elects a replacement for the remainder of the term. Until that person takes office, the minister already acting continues; if none is acting, the Gabinete [Cabinet] chooses a minister by majority vote. If the Congreso [Congress] is not in ordinary session, the acting minister convenes extraordinary sessions. (Art. 97; cont., 1928, Art. 97).
Absence from the capital within national territory is not a temporary absence from office. From any place in the country, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] may instruct ministers concerning resolutions to be issued in the capital and receive foreign diplomatic ministers. (Art. 98; cont., 1928, Art. 98).
Federal constitutional terms last seven years. Presidential service runs from the oath until 19 April in the year when the term ends. On that date the executive is delivered to a member or alternate of the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] designated by that Court under Art. 120(17), pending the accession of the elected successor. (Arts. 54, 103, 120(17); cont., 1928, Arts. 54, 103, 120(17)).
Art. 54 fixes the beginning of the federal periods at 19 April 1929. (Art. 54; cf. 1928, Art. 54: “shall be counted from 19 April 1922 and shall last seven years”).
For the current constitutional period, the Congreso [Congress] elects a Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander-in-Chief of the National Army]. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] must exercise the powers numbered 1, 4, 17, 18, 23, 25 and 27 in Art. 100 in agreement with that officer: appointment and removal of ministers, administration of the Distrito Federal [Federal District], extraordinary convocation of the Congreso [Congress], declaration of war, suspension of guarantees and the listed wartime measures, armed intervention in conflict between Estados [States], and indultos [pardons]. (Art. 128; new).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] appoints and removes Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers], receives foreign diplomatic ministers, signs official letters to heads of state, administers the Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], and may designate a Ministro del Despacho [Cabinet Minister] to exercise the presidency temporarily and resume office during the constitutional term. (Art. 100(1–6); cont., 1928, Art. 100(1–6)).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] orders the Constitution and laws executed and published; issues implementing Decretos [Decrees] and Reglamentos [Regulations] in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] without altering the laws’ spirit, purpose or reason; negotiates legislatively authorized loans through the appropriate minister with Gabinete [Cabinet] approval; regulates public or private health, postal, telegraph and telephone services in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers]; and orders the census and submits it for legislative approval. (Art. 100(7–11); cont., 1928, Art. 100(7–11)).
Through the appropriate ministers, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] issues patentes de navegación [navigation licences] and nationality certificates, appoints national officials whose selection belongs to no other official and removes them, and administers national revenues. In the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers], the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] creates and funds necessary public services during legislative recess. With Gabinete [Cabinet] approval, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] orders the Ministerio Público Federal [Federal Public Ministry] to prosecute officials where grounds exist and convenes the Congreso [Congress] extraordinarily. War is declared after the Congreso [Congress] has decreed it. (Art. 100(12–19); cont., 1928, Art. 100(12–19)).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] conducts diplomatic negotiations personally or through the competent minister, and concludes treaties through chosen plenipotentiaries with Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] approval and subsequent legislative approval. Treaties cannot impair Arts. 37–39 and must provide for arbitramento [arbitration] of differences over interpretation or execution. Authorized contracts of national interest are made through the competent ministers with Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] approval and submitted to the Congreso [Congress]. Entry of foreigners may be prohibited and expulsion ordered in cases permitted by international law or national legislation. (Art. 100(20–22); cont., 1928, Art. 100(20–22)).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] decrees suspension of garantías constitucionales [constitutional guarantees] in the cases specified in Art. 36. During civil or international war, additional powers permit requesting state assistance, temporarily relocating federal powers, ordering prosecution for traición a la Patria [treason against the Nation], reorganizing Estados [States] controlled by rebels or participating in rebellion, and issuing patentes de corso [letters of marque] and authorizing represalias [reprisals]. (Art. 100(23); cont., 1928, Art. 100(24)).
During an official visit with some or all Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers] to Estados [States] or Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], the seat of the Poder Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive Power] is the place where the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] is located; the visit decree regulates routine administration in Caracas. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] may use the fuerza pública [public force] to end armed conflict between Estados [States] after good offices fail, exercise functions delegated by state constitutions, grant indultos [pardons], and order the issue of titles granting or leasing tierras baldías [ungranted public lands] and concesiones mineras [mining concessions]. (Art. 100(24–28); cont., 1928, Art. 100(25–29)).
The annual Mensaje [Message] is presented personally or through a minister within the first ten days of ordinary sessions and accounts for acts of administration and the condition of the Republic. (Art. 101, first paragraph; cont., 1928, Art. 101, first paragraph).
In the final year of the presidential term, the Mensaje [Message] is presented on 19 April or left signed with the acting president for transmission when the Congreso [Congress] meets. (Art. 101, final paragraph; cont., 1928, Art. 101, final paragraph).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] is responsible only for traición a la Patria [treason against the Nation] and ordinary offences. (Art. 102; cont., 1928, Art. 102).
The Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers] are the legally required organs through which presidential powers are exercised. The law fixes their functions and organizes their departments. Presidential decrees require countersignature by the competent ministers, who issue the resolutions and orders within the presidential powers. Without that requirement presidential dispositions have no effect, except ministerial appointments and designation of an acting minister under Art. 100(6). A freely appointed and removable Gobernador del Distrito Federal [Governor of the Federal District] is the presidential organ for administration of the Distrito Federal [Federal District]. (Arts. 104–105; cont., 1928, Arts. 104–105).
A Ministro del Despacho [Cabinet Minister] must be Venezuelan by birth, over thirty and in possession of civil and political rights. Decisions are taken in the Gabinete [Cabinet] when the Constitution or laws require it or the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] convenes it because of the matter’s importance. Otherwise, the competent minister or ministers countersign or execute the presidential decision. (Arts. 106–107; cont., 1928, Arts. 106–107).
Ministers’ acts must conform to the Constitution and laws. Their personal responsibility is not excused by presidential orders, even written orders; responsibility for acts resolved in the Gabinete [Cabinet] is joint. Ministers submit reasoned and documented Memorias y Cuentas [Reports and Accounts] within the first ten days of annual sessions. Ministers may speak in the Chambers and must attend when summoned to provide information. (Arts. 108, 109 (first paragraph), 110; cont., 1928, Arts. 108, 109 (first paragraph), 110).
In the final presidential year, ministers present their Memorias y Cuentas [Reports and Accounts] on 19 April or, if the Cámaras Legislativas [Legislative Chambers] have not yet assembled, leave them with the acting president for transmission when the Congreso [Congress] meets. (Art. 109, final paragraph; cont., 1928, Art. 109, final paragraph).
POW-JUD—Judiciary
The Poder Judicial [Judicial Power] resides in the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] and the other courts established by law. Jueces Federales [Federal Judges] are appointed for a fixed period and cannot be removed during it except in cases prescribed by law. (Arts. 116–117; cont., 1928, Arts. 116–117).
The Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] consists of seven Vocales [Members of the Court], Venezuelans by birth, over thirty and lawyers of the Republic, serving seven years. At the end of their term they remain until their replacements take office. The Court acts in Salas [Divisions of the Court], whose membership is fixed by law. (Art. 118; cont., 1928, Art. 118).
The Congreso [Congress] elects each of the seven Vocales [Members of the Court] separately by absolute majority during the first thirty days of sessions in the year beginning the constitutional term. At the same sitting it elects seven numbered Suplentes [Alternates], who fill temporary and permanent vacancies in that order. The Court fills incidental absences under the law. The Congreso [Congress] completes a depleted list of Suplentes [Alternates], placing the new appointees at its end; successive excuses from service without resignation are treated as incidental absences. (Art. 119; cont., 1928, Art. 119).
The Court hears accusations against the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] or acting president, Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers], the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation], the Gobernador del Distrito Federal [Governor of the Federal District] and its own members, and against state presidents and other high state officials designated by state law. It hears civil and criminal cases involving diplomatic officials where international law permits, and criminal cases concerning Venezuelan diplomatic agents’ misconduct abroad. (Art. 120(1–4); cont., 1928, Art. 120(1–4)).
Its jurisdiction includes the recurso de casación [appeal in cassation], other appeals assigned by law, causas de presas [prize cases], disputes among the specified political officials and federal or state entities, and conflicts of judicial competence where no other authority exists to decide them. (Art. 120(5–8); cont., 1928, Art. 120(5–8)).
The Court declares the nulidad [nullity] of national or state laws conflicting with the Constitution, limiting nullity to the conflicting provisions unless their connection with the rest requires invalidation of the whole law. It determines which national or state law, or which conflicting provisions of one law, must prevail. It annuls legislative or executive acts violating state rights or autonomy and state or municipal acts violating the specified restrictions on revenue powers. (Art. 120(9–11); cont., 1928, Art. 120(9–11)).
The Court annuls executive Decretos [Decrees] and Reglamentos [Regulations] that alter the spirit, reason or purpose of laws, and acts within Arts. 42–43 issued by national authorities, authorities of the Distrito Federal [Federal District] or high state officials. A ministerial resolution concerning execution, interpretation or lapse of a federal contract requires the procedure in Art. 120(13). (Art. 120(12); cont., 1928, Art. 120(12)).
In juicio contencioso [contentious proceedings], the Court decides disputes between the Nation and contractors or concessionaires concerning nullity, lapse, termination, scope, interpretation or performance of federal contracts, concesiones mineras [mining concessions] and grants of tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], including refusals of titles claimed as due. Matters reserved by the law applicable at the time to executive decision without judicial recourse remain excepted. Subject to treaties and statutory conditions, the Court gives foreign judgments enforceable effect and hears statutory claims for damages and other monetary claims against the Nation. (Art. 120(13–15); cont., 1928, Art. 120(13–15)).
The Court decides the boundary disputes specified in Art. 11. (Art. 120(16); cont., 1928, Art. 120(16)).
On 19 April at the beginning of each federal term, the Court designates a principal member or alternate to take charge of the executive under Art. 103. A principal member leaves the Court upon taking executive office. The person designated continues until the elected Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] takes office, even if the Court is renewed in the meantime. (Art. 120(17); cont., 1928, Art. 120(17)).
Other matters of federal competence may be assigned to the Court by the Constitution and laws. (Art. 120(18); cont., 1928, Art. 120(18)).
For accusations under Art. 120(1–2), the Court summarily decides whether there are grounds for formación de causa [commencement of criminal proceedings], considering the evidence submitted and evidence it orders obtained. An affirmative decision suspends the official during the case; a negative decision ends proceedings. Ordinary offences pass to the competent ordinary court, while political offences remain before the Court through final judgment. The Court sends the Congreso [Congress] an annual report of its work and proposed legislative reforms. (Arts. 121–122; cont., 1928, Arts. 121–122).
Federal judicial competence includes the Court’s assigned cases, ordinary justice in the Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies], and Tribunales Federales [Federal Courts] acting even within Estados [States] in cases involving the Nation, military proceedings, tierras baldías [ungranted public lands], mines, salinas [saltworks], federal taxation and other cases determined by law. The law may entrust federal judicial functions to Tribunales de los Estados [State Courts]. (Art. 15(7); cont., 1928, Art. 15(7)).
The Ministerio Público Federal [Federal Public Ministry] represents the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] before federal and state courts when required by the Constitution and laws. It is headed by the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation], freely appointed and removable by the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], with subordinate appointments governed by law. It supervises lawful application in criminal cases and cases involving the Fisco Nacional [National Fisc], public order or public morals; supplies legal opinions to the executive or the Court; exercises the Ministerio Fiscal [Prosecutorial Office] in Art. 120(1–3) cases; and represents the Nation in litigation. The Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] follows lawful executive instructions transmitted through the competent ministry. (Arts. 111–115; cont., 1928, Arts. 111–115).
At the request of the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive], the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] brings accusations before the competent authority against officials whose conduct gives grounds for prosecution. (Art. 114(3); cf. 1928, Art. 114(3): “an accusation against federal officials who give grounds for being prosecuted”).
POW-SUB—Subnational Government
The Estados [States] recognize one another’s autonomy and political equality and retain soberanía [sovereignty] not delegated by the Constitution. Their first duty and that of the Federation is preservation of national independence and integrity. They cannot break national unity, ally with foreign powers, request their protection or cede territory to them. National and state government is republican, federal, democratic, elective, representative, responsible and alternating. (Arts. 12–13; cont., 1928, Arts. 12–13).
The Estados [States] are divided into Distritos [Districts] with autonomía municipal [municipal autonomy], independent of state political power in their administrative affairs within constitutional restrictions. During foreign or internal war, a state executive may assume district administration under the state constitution. (Art. 14; cont., 1928, Art. 14).
The Estados [States] adopt constitutions and laws organizing their public powers, elect those powers under their constitutions and laws, and may delegate specified functions to the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. They may retain or change their names. They administer civil and criminal justice through their own courts except in matters reserved to federal judges; their judgments are reviewed only by the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] through the remedies and with the effects prescribed by law. (Art. 17(1–3, 5); cont., 1928, Art. 17(1–3, 5)).
The Municipalidades [Municipalities] organize police, food supplies, cemeteries, municipal ornamentation, civil architecture, street lighting, aqueducts, urban tramways and other municipal services. They administer ejidos [municipal common lands] and other municipal lands, which cannot thereafter be alienated except for construction. (Art. 18(1–2); cont., 1928, Art. 18(1–2)).
Hygiene services follow federal health laws and regulations and remain “under the supreme inspection of the federal sanitary service”. (Art. 18(1); cf. 1928, Art. 18(1): “under the inspection of the federal sanitary service”).
The Estados [States] must comply with and execute the federal Constitution, laws and lawful federal orders. The Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] give full faith and execution to public and judicial acts from federal authorities, other Estados [States] and the Distrito Federal [Federal District]. (Arts. 16, 19; cont., 1928, Arts. 16, 19).
Federal judges, public prosecutors, administrative and revenue officials, and forces assigned to borders, public peace, garrisons, arsenals, coasts and ports may operate within the Estados [States]. Their jurisdiction is limited to their functions; they have no special personal jurisdiction or privilege distinguishing them from other residents. Estados [States] cannot impose duties incompatible with their federal service. The federal government may build the works needed for its administration. (Arts. 20–21; cont., 1928, Arts. 20–21).
The Estados [States] must prevent recruitment or levies intended to attack another nation’s peace, liberty or independence, or disturb internal peace. They cannot make war on one another and must remain neutral in disputes among other Estados [States] until required to act by the federal government. (Arts. 22–23; cont., 1928, Arts. 22–23).
Two or more Estados [States] may unite to form a single Estado [State], while retaining the freedom to recover their autonomy. In either case they notify the federal executive, the Congreso [Congress] and the other Estados [States]. (Art. 25; cont., 1928, Art. 25).
Official acts and documents of the Nation, Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] must carry the calendar date and the years of Independence, counted from 19 April 1810, and Federation, counted from 20 February 1859. (Art. 26; cont., 1928, Art. 26).
Poder Público [Public Power] is distributed among federal, state and municipal authorities within constitutional limits. The Poder Federal [Federal Power] is divided into legislative, executive and judicial branches. (Art. 51; cont., 1928, Art. 51).
CON-AMD—Amending the Constitution
Total or partial reform is declared by the Congreso [Congress] in ordinary sessions upon requests from three-quarters of the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies], likewise meeting in ordinary sessions. Amendments and additions may address only points upon which a majority of Estados [States] agree. (Art. 123; cont., 1928, Art. 123).
Amendments and additions follow the procedure for enacting laws. Once the Congreso [Congress] approves them, its presiding officer submits them to the Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] for final ratification. (Arts. 124–125; cont., 1928, Arts. 124–125).
The Congreso [Congress] may also initiate amendments or additions under the procedure in Arts. 124–125; they are enacted upon ratification by two-thirds of the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies]. Whether the initiative originated in the Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] or the Cámaras Legislativas [Legislative Chambers], the final state votes return to the Congreso [Congress] for scrutiny. (Arts. 126–127; cont., 1928, Arts. 126–127).
CIV-SUF—Suffrage
The right of sufragio [suffrage] makes Venezuelans over twenty-one who are not subject to interdicción [judicial interdiction] or a criminal conviction involving inhabilitación política [political disqualification] electors and eligible for public office, subject to constitutional restrictions and statutory requirements of competence or capacity for particular offices. (Art. 32(12); cont., 1928, Art. 32(12)).
State constitutions must provide direct, secret voting for Concejos Municipales [Municipal Councils], Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] and Diputados [Deputies], using the Censo electoral [Electoral Register] under federal law. Diputados [Deputies] are directly elected; Senadores [Senators] are chosen by the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies] from outside their membership. The Congreso [Congress] elects the members and alternates of the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court]. (Arts. 17(1), 56, 58, 60, 119; cont., 1928, Arts. 17(1), 56, 58, 60, 119).
The Congreso [Congress] elects the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]. (Art. 96; cont., 1928, Art. 96).
The constitutional age requirement is completion of twenty-one years for a deputy and age over thirty for a senator. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] must be over thirty, Venezuelan by birth, of estado seglar [lay status] and in possession of civil and political rights. (Arts. 57, 61, 95; cont., 1928, Arts. 57, 61, 95).
The Congreso [Congress] elects both the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] and the Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander-in-Chief of the National Army] for the period 1929–1936 immediately after enactment of the Constitution; both swear the oath before it. (Arts. 128–129; new).
Troops must remain in barracks during electoral periods. (Art. 47; cont., 1928, Art. 47).
CIV-CIT—Citizenship
Venezuelan nacionalidad [nationality] belongs by birth and is acquired by naturalización [naturalization]. Those born in national territory and children of Venezuelan parents, wherever born, are Venezuelan by birth. (Arts. 27–28; cont., 1928, Arts. 27–28).
Art. 29(1) includes adult children born abroad to a father or mother who are Venezuelan by naturalización [naturalization], if they establish domicile in the country and declare their intention to be Venezuelan. (Art. 29(1); cf. 1928, Art. 29(1): “of a father and mother who are Venezuelan by naturalización [naturalization]”).
This comparison records the conjunction printed in each CIDEP recension; it does not establish whether the variant originated in the enacted instrument or in its reproduction.
The remaining categories are persons born in the Ibero-American republics who establish residence and declare their intention to be Venezuelan; foreigners obtaining a carta de naturaleza [certificate of naturalization] under the law; and a foreign woman married to a Venezuelan while the marriage subsists, or who, within one year after its dissolution, declares her intention to remain Venezuelan. (Art. 29(2–4); cont., 1928, Art. 29(2–4)).
The declarations under Art. 29(1), (2) and (4) are made before the Registrador Principal [Principal Registrar] for the jurisdiction where the person establishes domicile. The declaration is entered in the Protocolo [Register] and copied to the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] for official publication after the procedures required by law. nacionalidad [nationality] is not acquired before that publication. (Art. 30; cont., 1928, Art. 30).
Venezuelans must defend the country and obey the Constitution, laws and lawful implementing orders. They cannot undertake service against Venezuela and, if they do, are punishable as traitors under the law. The law fixes foreigners’ rights and duties, which cannot exceed those of Venezuelans. Foreigners participating in Venezuelan political contests incur the same responsibilities as Venezuelans and the measures specified by the charter. (Arts. 31, 37–38; cont., 1928, Arts. 31, 37–38).
Neither nationals nor foreigners may claim compensation from the Nation, Estados [States] or Municipalidades [Municipalities] for damage, loss or expropriation not carried out by legitimate authorities acting in their public capacity. (Art. 39; cont., 1928, Art. 39).
RTS-GAR—Rights
Life is inviolable, and no law or authority may establish or impose the pena de muerte [death penalty]. Property is subject to lawful contributions and taking for works of public utility through juicio contradictorio [adversarial proceeding] and indemnización previa [prior compensation], under the law. Owners must obey legislation on public hygiene, conservation of forests and waters, and comparable community requirements. (Art. 32(1–2); cont., 1928, Art. 32(1–2)).
Postal and telegraphic correspondence and private papers are inviolable; seizure requires a competent judicial order and legal formalities, preserving secrecy for domestic and private matters unrelated to the case. The home may be entered only to prevent the commission or completion of an offence, execute lawful judicial decisions or carry out lawful sanitary visits. (Art. 32(3–4); cont., 1928, Art. 32(3–4)).
Personal liberty includes abolition of reclutamiento forzoso [compulsory recruitment], with military service governed by law; permanent prohibition of slavery and freedom for any enslaved person entering the country; liberty to do what harms no one else; and freedom from obligations not legally imposed or prohibitions not established by law. (Art. 32(5); cont., 1928, Art. 32(5)).
Thought may be expressed orally, in writing or through the press, subject to legal penalties for injuria [insult], calumnia [calumny], difamación [defamation], ultraje [outrage] and instigación a delinquir [incitement to commit offences]. Propaganda of communism is prohibited. (Art. 32(6); cont., 1928, Art. 32(6)).
Persons may travel without a passport, change domicile subject to legal formalities, leave and return to the Republic, and take and bring their property. Work and industry are free subject to public order and public morals. Industrial monopolies are prohibited, subject to the temporary privileges expressly permitted by Art. 32(8). (Art. 32(7–8); cont., 1928, Art. 32(7–8)).
Unarmed public or private assembly is free from coercion by the authorities; association remains subject to statutory restrictions and prohibitions. Petitions to public officials or official bodies carry a right to timely reply. Officials who violate their duties may be accused before competent courts. Freedom of teaching is guaranteed. (Art. 32(9–11, 13); cont., 1928, Art. 32(9–11, 13)).
No person may be imprisoned for debt not arising from an offence or tried by specially created tribunals or commissions instead of their Jueces naturales [legally competent judges] under pre-existing law. Arrest or detention requires a información sumaria [preliminary evidentiary inquiry] establishing an offence carrying a pena corporal [penalty restricting personal liberty] and a written order stating the reason, unless the person is caught in fraganti [in the act of committing the offence]. The sumario [preliminary criminal investigation] may not extend beyond thirty days after detention. (Art. 32(15)(a–c); cont., 1928, Art. 32(15)(a–c)).
No person may be held incommunicado or compelled to swear or undergo criminal interrogation against themselves, their ascendants, relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity, or their spouse. Detention must end when a final judicial decision destroys its grounds or sufficient fianza [bail] is furnished in cases where provisional release is permitted by law. (Art. 32(15)(d–f); cont., 1928, Art. 32(15)(d–f)).
Criminal punishment requires personal notification of the charges and a hearing in the legal form. A pena corporal [penalty restricting personal liberty] cannot exceed twenty years. penas infamantes [infamous penalties] and perpetual penalties, including those not restricting personal liberty, are prohibited. No person may be tried twice for the same offence. (Art. 32(15)(g–i); cont., 1928, Art. 32(15)(g–i)).
All are subject to the same laws, equal legal protection throughout national territory, and equal duties, services and contributions; exemptions require legal authorization. Titles of nobility, hereditary distinctions and offices paying beyond the duration of service cannot be granted. Official address is limited to ciudadano [citizen] and usted [you, in formal address], except diplomatic formulas. (Art. 32(16); cont., 1928, Art. 32(16)).
Enumeration of rights does not deny other rights belonging to citizens. Federal laws, state constitutions and laws, and municipal ordinances impairing guaranteed rights are null, as declared by the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court]. Persons issuing, signing, executing or ordering rights-violating measures are punishable under the law, subject to the exception for competent official measures in the circumstances of Art. 36. (Arts. 33–35; cont., 1928, Arts. 33–35).
During international war, civil war or imminent danger of either, the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] in the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] declares the circumstance and suspends garantías constitucionales [constitutional guarantees] nationally or in the area specified, until peace is restored. Life remains inviolable and infamous punishments remain prohibited. confiscación [confiscation] is prohibited except as reciprocal represalias [reprisals] against nationals of an enemy country that has first confiscated Venezuelans’ property. (Art. 36(1–2); cont., 1928, Art. 36(1–2)).
Nationals or foreigners opposing the preservation or restoration of peace may be arrested, subjected to confinamiento [confinement to a specified locality] or expelled. These measures cease with the circumstances giving rise to them, except that the executive may leave an expulsion of foreigners in force. (Art. 36(3); cont., 1928, Art. 36(3)).
soberanía [sovereignty] resides in the people and is exercised through public powers. Defined functions limit those powers, and excess constitutes usurpation. The law regulates nulidad [nullity] for acts exceeding authority; decisions exacted by force or by a public gathering in a subversive attitude are null. Officials incur individual responsibility for excess of authority or breach of the law governing their office, subject to Art. 102, and remain punishable for other offences. (Arts. 40–44; cont., 1928, Arts. 40–44).
One person cannot hold more than one remunerated public office; acceptance of the second constitutes resignation from the first. Exceptions cover alternates before replacing a principal and employment in academies, hospitals, incidental courts and educational institutions. The law regulates the oath taken by national officials upon assuming office. (Arts. 46, 53; cont., 1928, Arts. 46, 53).
REG-MIL—The Military
The Ejército [Army], Armada [Navy] and Aviación Militar [Military Aviation] belong to federal competence. Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] may maintain only police and prison guards, except forces organized on federal orders. The Ejército [Army] is formed from contingents drawn proportionately to population from the Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories] and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies]. The law regulates milicias ciudadanas [citizen militias] and may establish enganches por contrato [contractual enlistment]. All war matériel in or introduced into the country belongs to the Nation. (Art. 15(8); cont., 1928, Art. 15(8)).
Civil and military authority cannot be exercised simultaneously by one official except the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic], or a civil official given military functions by law during war. The fuerza armada [armed force] may not deliberate; it is passive and obedient. Armed bodies may seek requisitions or assistance only through civil authorities in the manner fixed by law. Troops remain in barracks during elections, and commanders violating these rules are punishable. (Arts. 45, 47; cont., 1928, Arts. 45, 47).
reclutamiento forzoso [compulsory recruitment] is abolished and military service follows the law. The Cámara del Senado [Senate] consents to promotions from Coronel [Colonel] and Capitán de Navío [Naval Captain], inclusive. The Congreso [Congress] legislates on formation and replacement of land and sea forces. (Arts. 32(5)(a), 62(3), 78(15); cont., 1928, Arts. 32(5)(a), 62(3), 78(15)).
For the current constitutional period, the Congreso [Congress] elects a Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander-in-Chief of the National Army], who commands the Ejército [Army], Aviación [Aviation] and Marina [Navy] and fixes the numbers of land and sea forces. The separate military-command power formerly numbered 23 is not present in Art. 100; its remaining powers from suspension of guarantees onward are numbered 23–29. (Arts. 100, 128; cf. 1928, Art. 100(23): “To direct war and command the Ejército [Army] and Armada [Navy] personally, or appoint whoever is to do so”).
The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] exercises Art. 100(1, 4, 17, 18, 23, 25, 27) in agreement with the Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander-in-Chief of the National Army]. Both offices are elected immediately after enactment for 1929–1936 and take their oaths before the Congreso [Congress]. (Arts. 128–129; new).
Art. 128 names powers 1, 4, 17, 18, 23, 25 and 27 of “Article 100 of the Constitution”. Art. 128 separately assigns military command to the Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander-in-Chief of the National Army]. (Art. 128; new).
In Art. 100 of 1929, powers 23, 25 and 27 concern suspension of guarantees and the stated wartime measures, force in armed conflict between Estados [States], and indultos [pardons], respectively. (Art. 100(23, 25, 27); cont., 1928, Art. 100(24, 26, 28)).Art. 100: powers 23, 25 and 27 in the two recensionsPower1928, Art. 1001929, Art. 10023cf. 1928, Art. 100(23): “To direct war and command the Ejército [Army] and Armada [Navy] personally, or appoint whoever is to do so […]”“To decree the suspension of guarantees in the cases provided in Article 36 […]”25cf. 1928, Art. 100(25): “To undertake an official visit, together with all or some of the Ministros del Despacho [Cabinet Ministers], to specified Estados [States] of the Union and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories]. […]”“To use the fuerza pública [public force] to end an armed conflict between two or more Estados [States] when the intervention of his good offices has been ineffective.”27cf. 1928, Art. 100(27): “To exercise, with respect to the Estados [States], the functions they delegate to him in their respective Constitutions.”“To grant indultos [pardons].”
REG-REL—Religion
Religious liberty is guaranteed under the supreme inspection of all forms of worship by the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] in accordance with law, preserving Patronato Eclesiástico [Ecclesiastical Patronage]. The Nation exercises that right under the Law of 28 July 1824. The Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] must possess estado seglar [lay status]. (Arts. 32(14), 52, 95; cont., 1928, Arts. 32(14), 52, 95).
ECO-INF—Infrastructure
Federal legislation governs civil, commercial, criminal and procedural matters; banks and credit institutions; social provision; Sanidad [Public Health]; conservation and development of forests, waters and other natural resources; labour; marcas de fábrica [trademarks]; literary, artistic and industrial property; public registration; expropiación por causa de utilidad pública [expropriation for public utility]; immigration; naturalización [naturalization]; admission and expulsion of foreigners; and regulation of constitutional guarantees. (Art. 15(4); cont., 1928, Art. 15(4)).
The federal authorities legislate on Instrucción Pública [Public Instruction]. Elementary primary instruction is compulsory and instruction in official institutions is free. National census and statistical work requires state and municipal cooperation; population-based acts use the latest census approved by the Congreso [Congress]. Art. 15(10) expressly includes the Nation, Estados [States], Distrito Federal [Federal District] and Territorios Federales [Federal Territories]. (Art. 15(9–10); cont., 1928, Art. 15(9–10)).
Air, maritime and river navigation, docks and landing works are federal matters. Navigation of rivers and other navigable waters requiring no special works cannot be restricted by taxes or privileges. Correos [Postal Services], Telégrafos [Telegraphs], Teléfonos [Telephones] and wireless communications likewise belong to federal competence. (Art. 15(13, 15); cont., 1928, Art. 15(13, 15)).
National roads are those passing through a Estado [State], the Distrito Federal [Federal District] or a Territorio Federal [Federal Territory] and extending beyond its boundaries. Federal competence also covers aerial haulage cables and railways even within one Estado [State]. Urban tramways and urban haulage cables are conceded and regulated by the respective Municipalidades [Municipalities]. (Art. 15(16); cont., 1928, Art. 15(16)).
Federal competence extends to necessary public works throughout national territory without restricting the right of Estados [States] and Municipalidades [Municipalities] to undertake works on their own account. Federal administrative works within Estados [States] may include forts, docks, warehouses, shipyards, penitentiaries and estaciones de cuarentenas [quarantine stations]. (Arts. 15(19), 21; cont., 1928, Arts. 15(19), 21).
Statutory privilegios temporales [temporary exclusive privileges] may protect intellectual property, patentes de invención [patents of invention] and marcas de fábrica [trademarks], and may authorize railways, aerial navigation enterprises, canals, tramways, telephone or telegraph lines and wireless systems for a limited period. The works must be constructed or installed at the concessionaire’s expense, without guaranteed returns or subsidies from the Nation or Estados [States]. (Art. 32(8); cont., 1928, Art. 32(8)).
Public-interest contracts cannot be transferred, wholly or partly, to foreign governments. They incorporate a clause assigning unresolved disputes to competent Venezuelan courts under Venezuelan law and excluding foreign claims. Such contracts cannot be concluded with, or transferred to, companies not legally domiciled in Venezuela. (Art. 50; cont., 1928, Art. 50).
CON-FIN—Final Provisions
The Congreso [Congress] elects the Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander-in-Chief of the National Army] for the current constitutional period, with military command and the agreement requirement specified in Art. 128. The elections of the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic] and that commander for 1929–1936 take place as soon as the Constitution is enacted, and both take their oaths before the Congreso [Congress]. (Arts. 128–129; new).
Current officials in the other branches of the Poder Federal [Federal Power] continue until the end of the terms for which they were elected. (Art. 130; cf. 1928, Art. 128: “as soon as this Constitution enters into force, the Congreso [Congress] shall elect the seven principal Vocales [Members of the Court] and seven Suplentes [Alternates] who are to compose it”).
Existing state constitutions continue until the respective Estados [States] repeal them. (Art. 131; cont., 1928, Art. 129).
After scrutiny establishes ratification by the state Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies], promulgation takes place with the Ejecútese [Let it be executed] of the Encargado del Poder Ejecutivo [Acting Head of the Executive Power]. The Constitution takes effect on the day of publication in the Gaceta Oficial de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Official Gazette of the United States of Venezuela]. (Art. 132; cf. 1928, Art. 130: “with the Ejecútese [Let it be executed] of the Presidente de la República [President of the Republic]”).
The 1928 Constitution is repealed. Art. 133 dates both its adoption and publication to 23 May 1928. The 1929 agreement, constitutional closing and execution formula all bear 29 May 1929; the execution formula is signed J. B. Pérez. (Art. 133; prefatory agreement, closing and execution formulas).
The date printed for adoption in Art. 133 differs from the closing date of 22 May in the CIDEP 1928 recension. Both printed dates are recorded in this edition.
Recension
Centro para la Integración y el Derecho Público [Centre for Integration and Public Law] (CIDEP).
Ricardo F. Morín Triangulation 10 22″ x 30″ Watercolor and wax pencil on paper 2007
Preface
This essay proceeds from an observation: the forces that now shape collective life and the institutions that hold responsibility for it no longer operate at the same scale. Climate volatility, digital acceleration, migratory displacement, and economic interdependence move through air, water, data, and supply chains without regard for territorial boundaries. The world remains organized as a collection of discrete sovereignties, each answerable for exposures that form elsewhere and propagate everywhere.
What follows is an examination of that condition. It predicts nothing and recommends nothing. A disproportion of scale can be described, and the description makes visible what the inherited arrangement obscures: where responsibility fragments, where exposure accumulates, where the vocabulary of governance ceases to correspond to the movement of events.
The examination moves as perception moves. It begins inside the condition, where the disproportion between forces and institutions can be observed in its anatomy. Held in view long enough, the condition begins to disclose what the inherited arrangement obscures, and the examination follows the disclosure. From what becomes visible, certain forms become conceivable, and the examination considers them as perception finds them, without electing among them. And because every condition includes whatever resists its own alteration, the examination ends among the resistances, which belong to the condition as fully as the forces do and persist on their own measures of time.
The essay names a condition. Whatever follows from the naming occurs in the one who perceives it.
I. Geometry:
i.
Heat does not present itself for inspection. It moves through the atmosphere as a single circulation, raising the temperature of a harvest, a reservoir, a city’s August, without recording where one administration ends and another begins. Carbon released over one industrial basin enters the same air that returns it, years later, as drought on a continent that released little. The atmosphere keeps no ledger of origin; it distributes consequence by physics, on a schedule of its own.
Water behaves in the same manner at a different speed. Rivers gather in one jurisdiction and flood in another; aquifers lie beneath several at once; currents redistribute warmth along coastlines that share nothing but the water itself. A drought is regional by nature and national only on the map laid over it.
A pathogen moves through breath and proximity. Sequenced in one country, it circulates in forty before the sequence is published. Its itinerary is composed of airports, markets, and households; nothing in its manner of travel corresponds to the perimeter of a ministry of health.
Data moves fastest of all. A transaction, a rumor, and a model cross the planet in less time than any procedure for examining them requires. The infrastructure that carries them is physically located in territories and functionally located in none.
Supply chains move objects more slowly but bind their endpoints completely. A vehicle assembled in one country contains the labor and minerals of a dozen others; an interruption at a single port reprices goods on every continent. The dependency is real at every point of the chain and visible from none of them in its entirety.
And people move, displaced by the other movements: by the dried harvest, the emptied aquifer, the repriced economy. Displacement is the one traffic the boundary registers, and what it registers is the person; the conditions that moved the person crossed earlier, unexamined.
ii.
The institutions that hold responsibility for these movements are organized by perimeter. A state’s authority is defined by the territory in which it operates: its law binds within the line, its budget is spent within the line, its officials answer to those who reside within the line. This is its manner of holding. Responsibility becomes governable by being bounded; the instrument functions because its field of action is finite and known.
Within the perimeter, the institutional senses are acute. A government measures its own air, counts its own cases, audits its own ports, registers its own arrivals. What lies beyond reaches it through other channels and under other names: foreign affairs, imports, externality. The grammar of the institution renders the outside as context rather than as object.
Accountability follows the same geometry. An electorate, where one exists, holds its government answerable for conditions within the territory; no constituency exists anywhere for the consequence delivered abroad. The institution is rewarded and punished by those inside the line, and its attention is shaped accordingly.
iii.
The disproportion appears wherever the two manners meet. The atmosphere lies above every territory and within none; the instruments that act on it are funded, legislated, and judged perimeter by perimeter. The pathogen’s itinerary and the ministry’s reach intersect at the airport for a matter of hours; the remainder of the itinerary proceeds elsewhere. The supply chain’s interruption occurs everywhere at once and is administered nowhere in particular. The data crossing a border is examined, where it is examined at all, at endpoints the movement itself does not require.
In each location the structure is the same: the instrument acts on the portion of the force that lies within its field, and the force is not partitioned by the instrument. The remainder of the force continues, carrying the portion with it. This is the condition as it presently stands, a geometry of reach that does not coincide, observable point by point.
II. Exposure:
i.
What appears first is exposure. The instrument acts on its portion, the remainder continues, and those who live inside each perimeter live in the path of what no instrument reaches. Exposure of this kind is shared without being held in common: every territory stands in it; no territory administers it.
It can be watched traveling. A harvest dries in one region. Within a season, grain is repriced in markets that have never seen the field; within a year, a household on another continent spends more of its income on bread; the household’s city grows tense in proportions no office measures. The sequence is continuous from field to street, and at no point along it does any single institution see more than the segment inside its line. Deprivation forms in one place and arrives in others as instability, having traveled the whole way without once being seen entire.
Nor is the exposure evenly laid. It gathers where the means of absorbing it are thinnest, in the household with nothing left to reduce, in the region whose aquifer was already low. The geometry of reach distributes consequence without reference to the capacity to receive it.
ii.
The border, watched against this movement, becomes visible twice. In one register it is complete: the person presents a document, the container is opened, the tariff is assessed; nothing built into the border has failed, and everything it was made to register, it registers. In the other register it does not appear at all: the heat and the signal pass at altitudes and speeds for which the border has no instrument, having never been built for them. The same line is whole and absent at once, depending on the register in which it is observed. Its persistence is administrative fact; its coverage, a portion. The doubleness is the disclosure: what had been perceived as the edge of responsibility shows itself as the edge of one kind of traffic.
iii.
The words come forward next, in the places where everyone meets them. The evening news gives a flood abroad thirty seconds and a flood at home a week; the first is foreign affairs, the second a national emergency, though the water behaves identically in both. A ministry calls the smoke drifting in from a neighboring country’s fires an externality, and the word performs a quiet operation: it files the smoke as something outside, even as it settles into the lungs of those inside. The drought that empties a distant aquifer is a foreign matter until the people it displaced stand at the crossing, at which moment the same drought becomes domestic, though nothing in the drought has changed; the word moved, the event did not.
Watched in this way, the vocabulary shows what it is doing. Domestic and foreign, internal and external sort events by the side of the line on which they stand, and the sorting holds only in the register where the line appears. The words are learned so early and used so constantly that they pass for the events themselves; held against the actual movement of events, they show themselves as belonging to the line, terms of its manner of rendering the world.
iv.
The sequence that began in the dried field ends at a person. The consequence has an origin: the carbon has its basins, the repricing has its port, the displacement has its drought. It has a route, traceable segment by segment. What it does not have is an address at which it is received whole: each institution along the route faced its portion, and the consequence, assembled from all the portions, faces no institution anywhere. The person who stands in it, whose bread costs more, whose well draws sand, whose street has grown tense, stands in something produced in full view of many offices and held as the object of none. The person can be counted, and is; assisted, at times; named, rarely. What the condition makes visible, held to the end, is this: a consequence entire, a person inside it, and between origin and arrival no point at which anyone was facing the whole.
III. Images:
i.
What has been seen begins, on its own, to produce something. Anyone who has lived in a town knows the experience in small: a water main bursts, the street floods, and whatever else is uncertain, one thing is not, that somewhere there is an office whose business this is. The repair may come late and the office may be poor, but the flooding has an address, and the mind rests on that address without being asked to.
The consequence traced in the second movement has none. It traveled from the dried field through the port and the market to the street that has grown tense, and at no point did it land on a desk as the matter of that desk. Whoever has seen this whole forms the image of an address without intending to: a desk at the scale of the route, something facing the entire consequence the way the town office faces the burst main. The image arrives unbidden; that is what it means for a form to become thinkable. Nothing in the image says it is near, or simple, or good. It says only that the mind, shown a lack entire, completes the shape of what is lacking.
ii.
A second image follows from the unevenness. Within any town, certain things are already held in common because everyone stands under them equally. No household builds its own levee; the levee answers to the river, which does not visit house by house. The arrangement is so familiar it goes unnoticed: where what arrives, arrives at all, what absorbs it is held by all.
The exposure shown earlier stands over every territory the way the river stands over the low town, and it gathers, as the second movement found, on the household with nothing left to reduce. Held in view, the familiar arrangement extends itself in the mind to the scale of the actual water: the means of absorbing what arrives, held as commonly as the arrival. The image is of the levee matched to the river it actually has, no more. It prescribes nothing about how such a thing is built, or by whom, or whether those now living would consent to build it. It is the shape the mind gives to a protection matched to an exposure already shared.
iii.
The third image is of the line, and it is an image of continuance. Nothing in the foregoing showed the line failing at its own work. The document is still presented, the container still opened; the language of the street, the court where neighbors take their disputes, the school, the holidays, the manner in which a town buries its dead, all of this lives inside the line and was never once crossed by the heat or the signal. What the doubleness disclosed was the size of the line’s register, never a failure inside it.
So the image that forms is double, like the disclosure that produces it: the line continuing entire in its own register, holding everything it has always held, while the registers it never covered, the heat, the signal, the route of the pathogen, meet instruments for the first time. The two parts arrive together and do not yet rest together. Whatever faced the whole of a consequence would draw means and allegiance, and means and allegiance now live inside the lines; the image carries this strain within itself, two registers distinct to perception and contending wherever both would have to be sustained. Whether such a layering could hold outside the mind, the image does not say; seen honestly, it shows the doubleness and the strain at once.
IV. Calendars:
i.
Allegiance has a scale, and it is small. A person belongs first to a street, a table, a language spoken at that table, the graves that are visited on the appointed days. Whatever larger belonging is learned afterward, the flag, the anthem, is taught into a heart already occupied by the near, and takes hold to the degree that it borrows the near’s warmth. No one is from the planet. The word names the place where everyone lives and the place where no one has ever lived.
Part of the trust given to the town office is that it can be walked to. The clerk has a face; the office has a door; the complaint can be carried there in person, and if nothing comes of it, the failure too has an address. The desk at the scale of the route has no door anyone can reach. The image asks the mind to extend trust across a distance at which trust has never yet formed, past the last face, past the last door. The mind that formed the image is the same mind that hesitates before it, and the hesitation is itself a perception, the love of the near reporting accurately what the near provides.
ii.
The second resistance keeps records. In most of the world, the enterprises that have operated across many lines at once are remembered by the people whose lines they crossed: the company that came for the metal, the administration that renamed the streets, the school that punished the language of the table. The image of an instrument facing the whole arrives, in these places, into the memory of the last instrument that claimed to face the whole, and the memory answers before any argument can begin: such things are built somewhere, and the somewhere has never been here.
The memory is a record, kept in archives and in households, read at the scale where it was lived. Consulting it before extending the hand is among the most ordinary acts of perception there is. The image of the desk does not erase the record; it is received into it, and what it becomes there is decided by the record, not by the image.
iii.
Means live inside the lines, and what holds means defends them. The ministry’s reach is its budget; the industry stands where the chain now runs, and the chain, running, pays for the standing. And smaller, in the kitchen: the dockworker’s wage lives in the tariff’s shadow, the town’s school is funded by the refinery, the pension rests on the placement of things as they are placed. Anything that faced the whole of a consequence would draw means and allegiance, as the strain already showed, and means and allegiance do not transfer themselves; they are held, and holding has hands at every scale. The motion of those hands is the same in the palace and in the kitchen, the hand closing over what feeds it, and the examination assigns it to no one as a fault. It records it as what position does, wherever position is held.
iv.
The three resistances keep their own calendars. Attachment is renewed with every childhood, and a generation is the unit of its time. Memory outlives its witnesses; the household and the archive carry it past the century. Position reproduces itself by inheritance and appointment, at a pace slower than a life. Against these calendars, the forces move at the speed of air and signal: the heat by the season, the price by the day, the pathogen by the hour. Inside the condition a second disproportion comes visible, of tempo rather than reach: what moves fastest crosses every line, and what would have to move for anything to meet it moves at the pace of childhood, memory, and inheritance. The condition holds both disproportions at once, and they can be observed together, calendar by calendar.
Epilogue
An examination closes without verdict. Nothing in the preceding movements has proposed a remedy, because no remedy is given in the condition itself. What is given has been described.
What has been described here is visible from within the condition and from nowhere else. The forms that appear thinkable appear so to a perception situated in this interval, under these pressures; a different interval will carry a different horizon. The essay claims nothing beyond that boundary. It remains within the horizon of what the present condition permits to be perceived.
Suprematism functions as the universal grammar of repressive justification. Suprematism is less a doctrine than a habit of explanation: the manner in which domination comes to sound necessary, privilege comes to appear orderly, and exclusion comes to be described as preservation. Its forms vary—race, religion, nation, civilization, party, historical destiny—but its logic remains constant: some are presumed fit to decide, others to comply.
This habit is not confined to any one society or system. It appears wherever hierarchy can be narrated as natural or deserved, and wherever authority is spared the burden of explanation. What distinguishes societies is not their immunity to suprematism, but the degree to which it is restrained. Progress does not consist in its disappearance, but in limiting the circumstances under which supremacy can excuse itself.
When that restraint weakens, advantage acquires moral cover, grievance hardens into entitlement, and authority reorganizes itself around exception rather than obligation. Suprematism then ceases to be merely a social tendency and becomes a principle of coherence—one that prepares the ground for repression not by force, but by familiarity.
Suprematism is rarely named at the moment it takes hold. It enters social life quietly, through habit rather than declaration, and through permission rather than force. Most people encounter it not as a belief, but as a pattern: who is trusted without question, whose mistakes are forgiven, whose grievances are taken seriously, and whose presence is treated as a complication. Long before it becomes political, suprematism arranges everyday expectations.
At its core, suprematism is the assumption that order depends on hierarchy—that some are naturally entitled to decide, while others must adapt. This assumption has appeared in every form of organized society. It attaches itself easily to existing distinctions, but does not depend on any of them. Its content changes. Its function does not. Wherever it takes root, it relieves power of the burden of explanation and replaces justification with inheritance.
Historically, efforts to restrain such arrangements have rarely depended upon the actions of those most affected by them alone. Groups subjected to discrimination often possess the least access to the institutions capable of altering laws, customs, and public attitudes. As a result, challenges to entrenched hierarchies have frequently depended upon the participation of individuals and institutions situated within the very structures being contested. The durability of supremacy lies not only in the injuries it imposes, but also in its capacity to limit the means through which those injuries can be redressed.
No society outgrows this impulse. What matters is whether it is constrained. Where restraint holds, authority remains conditional, rules survive inconvenience, and grievance does not harden into entitlement. Where it weakens, dominance reappears under new names, and inequality begins to feel practical rather than dangerous.
Suprematism becomes most persuasive in moments of strain. Economic uncertainty, cultural change, and political fragmentation make procedural life feel slow and fragile. In such moments, hierarchy offers clarity. It promises stability without negotiation and coherence without equality. What it conceals is the cost of that promise: the quiet replacement of shared obligation with selective privilege. These conditions do not create suprematism; they reveal how readily it adapts to the language through which societies interpret threat.
In contemporary American politics, strands of conservatism increasingly function not as custodians of institutional continuity but as vehicles through which suprematist reasoning finds renewed expression. The language of preservation — tradition, order, cultural defense — often serves to frame hierarchy as necessity rather than preference. Within segments of the Republican Party, populist rhetoric recasts political disagreement as a struggle between an authentic people and forces portrayed as alien or corrupt. This framing does not merely mobilize support; it reorganizes legitimacy itself, narrowing the field of acceptable plurality while presenting exclusion as protection.
Historically, populism has not always culminated in authoritarian forms, yet its grammar lends itself to them when grievance becomes the organizing principle of political identity. Suprematism thrives precisely in such moments, because it does not require explicit doctrine; it operates through the normalization of unequal standing and through narratives that portray dominance as restoration. What appears as resistance to change thus becomes a mechanism by which hierarchy is reaffirmed under the guise of necessity and allows power to concentrate while it retains the appearance of democratic expression.
Because the premise concerns order rather than identity, it travels easily across contexts. In one place it is spoken plainly; in another it is implied through custom or history. Everywhere it functions by the same means: by presenting inequality as inheritance rather than choice, and by treating dominance as continuity rather than imposition. Its strength lies not in what it claims, but in how little it needs to explain.
What has been accepted socially soon reorganizes authority. Once unequal power is experienced as stabilizing, its concentration no longer appears alarming. Decisions migrate upward with little resistance, justified less by argument than by temperament, experience, or presumed fitness. Exception enters quietly, not as a rupture but as an adjustment, a temporary deviation said to protect what remains intact. Law continues to exist, but its role shifts. It no longer governs in advance. It follows explaining afterward what authority has already decided.
When this reorganization occurs, authority begins to act directly rather than procedurally. Executive power is justified as the fulfillment of popular expectation and treated as license to bypass legislative and judicial mediation. Enforcement expands inward, organized around targets rather than warrants, and selection shifts from proven violation to presumed risk. At the same time, electoral administration is recast as a security problem, with authority drawn upward from the states on the claim that existing safeguards cannot be trusted. In both cases, an asserted threat is used to replace prior limits with command, to concentrate power, and to present the change as necessity rather than choice.
As this pattern settles, restraint becomes uneven. Rules remain visible, but their force depends increasingly on who invokes them and against whom. Obligation is emphasized downward, while discretion accumulates upward. What was once justified as exception begins to feel ordinary, even prudent. The expectation that authority must submit itself to procedure weakens, replaced by a belief that outcomes matter more than the means by which they are reached. Constitutional life does not disappear; it thins. It survives as language and form, while its discipline is quietly set aside.
Suprematism does not announce itself as cruelty or ambition. It presents itself as common sense. It appears whenever power no longer feels obliged to explain itself, and whenever inequality is treated as a condition of order rather than a failure of it. Societies do not collapse because they lack ideals, but because they grow accustomed to exemption. When supremacy is permitted to justify itself—by history, identity, urgency, or fear—law becomes selective, authority becomes personal, and procedure becomes a formality observed only when convenient. The disorder that follows is not chaos, but a disciplined imbalance in which restraint is asked of some and entitlement is granted to others. This is how constitutional life ends: not in rupture, but in acceptance.
Ricardo F. Morín Ligadura (Binding) Watercolor and ink with incised lines on cardboard 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm) 2005
The United States does not cease to be bound by law when it acquires the power to determine what another country may do. Its officials require authority under American law. The State remains subject to its international obligations. Neither requirement is satisfied merely because the government affected by American power agrees to the resulting arrangement.
Venezuelan constitutional authority and American legal responsibility are distinct questions. The first concerns the competence to grant rights over the Republic’s wealth. The second concerns the means by which the United States obtained those rights and the authority under which its officials acted. An American contract cannot supply a missing Venezuelan competence. Venezuelan governmental consent cannot supply a missing American power or excuse a breach of an international obligation binding the United States.
The distinction was already present before the January intervention. On December 23, 2025, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel advised that the President could order military personnel to assist in removing Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela for prosecution in the United States. The memorandum expressly addressed domestic law. Its opening conclusion depended on the national interests served and on the anticipated force remaining below the level of war in the constitutional sense. [1]
The opinion supplied the executive branch’s interpretation of presidential authority for the proposed operation. Congressional authorization and judicial review remain separate sources of constitutional judgment. Each subsequent exercise of American power over Venezuela’s government, revenues, or petroleum requires its own legal basis.
The Constitution assigns Congress the power to declare war and makes the President Commander in Chief. The disputed boundary between those powers cannot be settled by the President’s description of his own conduct. Nor does an executive opinion addressing that boundary determine whether another State’s sovereignty may lawfully be violated. [2]
On January 4, Ambassador Mike Waltz publicly invoked self-defense under Article 51. [3] On January 5, he told the Security Council that the United States had conducted a law-enforcement operation with military assistance. He invoked the indictments against Maduro and Cilia Flores, the President’s responsibility to protect Americans, and Maduro’s lack of legitimacy. He also denied that the United States was occupying Venezuela. [4]
An indictment authorizes proceedings within a legal system. It does not, by itself, authorize the use of armed force within another State. The United Nations Charter prohibits force against territorial integrity or political independence. The pertinent grounds for departing from that prohibition include Security Council authorization and self-defense; valid territorial consent presents a separate inquiry. Article 51 identifies an armed attack as the condition for the inherent right it preserves. [5]
The Administration must explain how those justifications fit together and establish the conditions required by each. A prosecutorial purpose does not itself satisfy the international requirements for self-defense; invoking self-defense does not itself establish domestic authority for the operation. The Administration must identify the armed attack relied upon and explain the necessity and proportionality of its response. Article 51 also requires immediate reporting of self-defense measures to the Council. [5]
On January 6, the United Nations Human Rights Office rejected unilateral military intervention as a means of obtaining accountability for Venezuela’s human-rights violations and described the operation as undermining the prohibition on force. On January 13, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights likewise insisted on respect for sovereignty, non-intervention, and the prohibitions on aggression and force, while reiterating its findings concerning the Maduro government’s repression. [6][7]
Those institutional assessments identify obligations that remain binding when the target government commits abuses. If the Administration relies instead on an invitation to intervene, it must identify valid consent given before the operation and establish that its forces acted within that consent. Recognition of a preferred authority cannot stand in for the consent itself. [8]
The War Powers Resolution subjects presidential military action to reporting and termination requirements. [9] On January 14, the Senate sustained a point of order against the privileged status of S.J.Res. 98, a measure directing the removal of American forces from unauthorized hostilities within or against Venezuela. Senators divided fifty to fifty; the Vice President voted in the affirmative. [10]
That vote blocked the measure’s progress and left the statutory question unresolved. Congress grants authority through law. A defeated effort to restrain the President records a political failure to impose restraint, rather than an affirmative grant of the disputed power.
The financial arrangements raise their own questions of American authority.
Executive Order 14373, issued on January 9, identifies specified Venezuelan natural-resource revenues as Venezuelan sovereign property and describes American possession as custodial. Yet it assigns the Secretary of State responsibility for determining the public, governmental, or diplomatic purposes for which those funds may be disbursed, and directs Treasury to follow the Secretary’s instructions. [11]
The order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Section 1702(a)(1)(B) authorizes extensive regulation of foreign-property transactions. Section 1702(a)(1)(C) separately permits confiscation when the United States is engaged in armed hostilities or has been attacked, subject to a presidential determination connecting the foreign owner to those hostilities or attacks. The statute distinguishes transaction control from vesting ownership for American benefit. [12]
The Administration must account for its conduct under that distinction. Its January order claims custody while assigning American officials decisions over the use of Venezuelan wealth. Any later acquisition of ownership requires authority for that acquisition. Powers to control transactions cannot simply be treated as powers to take property for American benefit. [11][12]
Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, and Sheldon Whitehouse addressed precisely the problem of control without ownership in a letter dated September 16 and released the following day. Citing public reporting, they referred to at least $13 billion in Venezuelan oil revenues deposited in a Treasury custody account. They asked what constitutional or statutory constraints govern funds that the United States does not own but whose use its officials control. [13]
The senators requested account statements, transaction records, Venezuelan spending requests, and safeguards against improper disbursements. Their October 5 response deadline remained open on September 30. The letter places the Administration under a formal demand to account for its authority and conduct. [13] The Administration’s own order classifies those funds as Venezuelan sovereign property held in American custody. On that premise, the Administration must account for the authority by which American officials determine their use. [11]
The petroleum arrangement adds a further act requiring authority. On August 31, the White House announced that North American Blue Energy Partners had granted the Office of Strategic Capital a 35 percent equity interest in its corporate parent. It also announced preferential purchasing rights and powers over corporate governance. The fact sheet emphasized that the American interest came at no cost to the taxpayer. [14]
Acceptance, administration, and disposition of that interest each require legal authority. A zero acquisition price answers a question about cost, while leaving the agency’s power to acquire the asset to be demonstrated. Any proceeds received for the United States must also be accounted for under federal law governing public receipts and expenditures. [15]
A Congressional Research Service report updated September 8 describes the Office of Strategic Capital’s capital-assistance program in terms of loans, loan guarantees, and technical assistance. It separately identifies proposed legislation that would authorize certain equity investments. [16]
The Administration must therefore identify the particular legal basis for the NABEP interest. The operative instrument and the authority invoked would permit assessment of whether the transaction falls within an existing power and satisfies its conditions. A press announcement leaves that statutory account incomplete.
American statutory authority, even if established, would answer only the domestic question. International law determines separately whether the United States has breached an obligation owed outside its own legal order. Article 3 of the International Law Commission’s articles on State responsibility expresses the distinction: an act’s treatment as lawful under internal law does not determine its international lawfulness. [17]
The Charter of the Organization of American States addresses the acquisition of advantage with particular precision. Article 19 prohibits direct and indirect intervention. Article 20 prohibits economic or political coercion intended to force another State’s sovereign will and obtain advantages. Article 21 rejects recognition of territorial acquisitions or special advantages obtained through force or other coercive means. [18]
These provisions subject the relation between pressure and benefit to law. Coercive intervention can occur without military occupation, and a private company can serve as the vehicle through which governmental pressure secures an advantage.
The documented sequence is consequently material: American force removed the president; an American order placed decisions over Venezuelan revenues under American supervision; the Administration then announced enduring American interests in petroleum production and corporate governance. In April, President Trump had already described the economic relationship as resembling a joint venture and stated that the attack had paid for itself many times over. [4][11][14][19]
The sequence supports an inference connecting intervention to economic advantage. A finding of prohibited coercion must establish how American pressure constrained Venezuela’s sovereign choice and contributed to obtaining the particular rights. The President’s own description supplies evidence of that connection and requires the military action and economic return to be examined together.
The Administration’s reliance on governmental agreement must therefore be examined within the circumstances in which that agreement was obtained. Consent is relevant. Its existence on an instrument cannot, without examination, dispose of a claim that force or coercion procured it.
The corporate structure requires equal precision. The White House distinguishes its agreement with NABEP, governed by American law, from the company’s Venezuelan concessions, governed by Venezuelan legislation. [14] A contract with a private corporation is not automatically a treaty between States. Any associated intergovernmental commitments must be identified before rules governing treaty validity are applied.
Where the instrument is a treaty, the rule expressed in Article 52 of the Vienna Convention addresses consent procured through unlawful threats or force. The United States’ non-ratification requires attention to the applicable customary rule. The prior question about American conduct nevertheless remains direct: did the United States use prohibited force or coercion to obtain the advantages it now claims? [20][21]
American officials remain answerable for their own acts throughout that corporate structure. Their decisions to direct revenues, acquire interests, and exercise governmental powers are conduct of the United States. Attribution of additional corporate conduct requires further evidence, but the Administration’s own participation is already the subject of its announcements. [17]
Permanent sovereignty over natural resources supplies another applicable principle. Its legal standing does not depend solely on the status of a General Assembly declaration. The International Court of Justice has recognized it as a principle of customary international law, expressly reaffirming that character in its advisory opinion of July 19, 2024. [22]
Its application requires attention to the policy and conduct established by the evidence. Here the Administration has expressly announced a policy of securing American benefit from Venezuelan resources. A Venezuelan private beneficiary and an American governmental beneficiary can participate in the same transaction without either representing the sovereign people whose resources give it value.
Occupation would impose additional obligations if the facts establish it. Under the Hague Regulations, the relevant condition is effective authority over territory by hostile armed forces. Financial supervision and political predominance alone do not establish that condition. An American denial does not disprove it. The inquiry must concern the authority actually exercised over particular territory during the relevant period. [23]
If occupation is established, its law limits the occupant’s administration of public property and natural resources. The occupant does not acquire sovereignty. Its powers are temporary, and the rules governing usufruct require preservation of the capital of the resources administered. The International Court of Justice has reiterated those limits. [22][23]
The prohibitions on unlawful force and coercive intervention apply independently of that territorial classification. Responsibility for the intervention and the advantages obtained through it can therefore be examined while the evidence concerning occupation remains incomplete.
The Administration owes a specific account: the authority for its equity interest, the rules governing its directions over sovereign revenues, and the legal justification for the force and pressure through which the announced advantages were obtained. The operative instruments and transaction records are necessary to test that account. Their absence leaves the Administration’s claims of lawful authority unsubstantiated at precisely the points where its conduct requires explanation.
Congressional oversight, statutory limits, and international obligations address the conduct from different legal positions. Enforcement may remain contested and adjudication incomplete. The Administration nevertheless bears the burden of identifying the powers it exercises and answering the obligations its conduct engages.
The Administration has announced what the United States obtained. It has not thereby established what American law authorized its officials to acquire or what international law permitted the United States to exact.
The law governing that conduct is not a condition the United States may impose on Venezuela. It is an obligation the United States must meet itself.
Ricardo F. Morín
September 30, 2026
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
Notes
[1] U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, “Proposed War Department Operation to Support Law Enforcement Efforts in Venezuela,” December 23, 2025, especially pp. 1–2; publicly released in redacted form.
[2] Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, and Article II, Section 2, Clause 1. Congress.gov, Constitution Annotated, 2024 Supplement, discussion of presidential and congressional war powers.
[3] Ambassador Mike Waltz, interview on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures, January 4, 2026, invoking Article 51; broadcaster’s report and embedded interview. This public statement is distinct from a communication to the Security Council reporting measures taken in self-defense.
[5] Charter of the United Nations, Articles 2(4), 39–42, and 51. The record reviewed for this essay does not establish whether the United States submitted an Article 51 communication reporting the January operation. No finding of failure to report is made.
[6] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, statement by spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on the United States intervention in Venezuela, January 6, 2026; official UN Geneva transcript.
[7] Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “IACHR expresses concern over armed incursion in Venezuela, calls for respect for international law, and the end of repression,” January 13, 2026.
[8] International Law Commission, Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with commentaries, 2001, Article 20 and its commentary, concerning valid consent, its limits, and consent given before the act. The commentary supplies the consent framework, not a determination of which Venezuelan authority could invite intervention. A claim of invitation by a recognized authority lacking effective control requires examination of that authority’s international capacity, the timing and scope of its consent, and the conduct authorized. Recognition alone does not resolve those questions.
[9] War Powers Resolution, 50 U.S.C. §§ 1543(a)(1), 1544(b), and 1547. The sixty-day rule concerns the report submitted or required under § 1543(a)(1); the additional thirty-day period requires the presidential determination specified in § 1544(b). Applying the clock requires establishing when a report was submitted or required and whether the relevant use of forces continued. Continuing financial supervision is not itself continuing military hostilities.
[10] United States Senate, Roll Call Vote No. 9, 119th Congress, Second Session, January 14, 2026, point of order concerning the privileged status of S.J.Res. 98.
[11] Executive Order 14373, “Safeguarding Venezuelan Oil Revenue for the Good of the American and Venezuelan People,” January 9, 2026, especially Sections 4(a), 4(b), 4(c)(ii), and 5(a)(ii).
[12] International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701–1702, especially § 1702(a)(1)(B)–(C). The armed-hostilities condition in subsection (C) is distinct from the constitutional-war threshold discussed by OLC. Subsection (C) also requires a presidential determination that the foreign owner planned, authorized, aided, or engaged in the relevant hostilities or attack. Acquisition of a corporate interest requires identification of its own legal basis; it is not classified here as confiscation merely because the acquirer is governmental.
[13] Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, and Sheldon Whitehouse, letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, dated September 16, 2026, released September 17, 2026, pp. 1–3. The committee release and download title bear the September 17 date; the letter itself bears September 16.
[14] The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Announces Historic Oil Agreement to Secure American Energy Dominance and Drive Venezuela’s Economic Recovery,” August 31, 2026.
[15] Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, Clause 7; Miscellaneous Receipts Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3302(b). Section 3302(b) generally requires deposit of money received for the Government, subject to applicable statutory exceptions. The Appropriations Clause governs withdrawals from the Treasury. Venezuelan sovereign funds held in custody are not automatically American public receipts or appropriations. Receipts accruing to an American governmental equity interest require separate classification.
[16] Congressional Research Service, “Office of Strategic Capital: Overview and Considerations,” IF13215, updated September 8, 2026, sections on the capital-assistance pilot program and issues for Congress. Public reproduction of the CRS report.
[17] International Law Commission, Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, 2001, especially Articles 2–5, 8, and 20; annexed to General Assembly Resolution 56/83. These articles are not a treaty; many provisions reflect customary law. Article 4 concerns State organs. Article 5 requires legal empowerment to exercise governmental authority and conduct in that capacity; ordinary corporate governance rights do not themselves establish such delegation. Article 8 concerns particular conduct under State instructions, direction, or control. State equity alone does not attribute all corporate conduct.
[20] Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, Articles 2(1)(a), 46, and 52. Article 46 provides a separate, narrow connection between internal competence and international validity: the violation must concern a fundamental internal rule governing treaty-making competence and be manifest. The expiry of a temporary presidential-substitution period does not by itself establish those conditions or invalidate every subsequent act. That issue remains distinct from responsibility for American force or coercion.
[21] U.S. Department of State, “Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,” archived treaty-law guidance on the United States’ signature, non-ratification, and recognition of customary treaty law.
[22] International Court of Justice, Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Advisory Opinion, July 19, 2024, paragraphs 124–125, 133, and 240; reproduced in UN document A/78/968. The opinion discusses Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda), Judgment, December 19, 2005, paragraph 244. In the 2005 judgment, the Court declined to apply permanent sovereignty to the looting and exploitation there considered. Paragraph 125 of the 2024 opinion distinguishes the absence of credible evidence of a governmental exploitation policy in that case from exploitation pursued as governmental policy contrary to occupation-law duties. The principle is therefore neither categorically inapplicable to occupation nor a substitute for establishing the relevant facts and obligations.
[23] International Committee of the Red Cross, “Occupation and international humanitarian law,” August 4, 2004, especially the discussion of Hague Regulations Articles 42 and 55 and the factual test for occupation.
The constitutional question now presented by Venezuela does not begin with petroleum. It begins with the identity of the sovereign.
Article 5 of the Constitution in force states that sovereignty resides in the people and cannot be transferred. It specifies that the people exercise sovereignty directly in the forms provided by the Constitution and law and indirectly, through suffrage, by the organs exercising Public Power. It then establishes the relation on which the rest depends: the organs of the State emanate from popular sovereignty and remain subject to it. [1]
That language does not identify government with the sovereign people. It distinguishes the sovereign from the organs through which sovereign authority is exercised. A president, legislature, ministry, State enterprise, or interim administration may exercise constitutional competencies. None becomes the sovereign by exercising them. Governmental power is constituted power. Sovereignty remains with the people.
Article 12 gives this distinction a material object. Mineral and hydrocarbon deposits belong to the Republic, are property in the public domain, and are inalienable and imprescriptible. The deposits do not belong to the officials administering the Republic. Temporary control of governmental institutions does not convert public-domain wealth into the property of those who control them. [2]
The relation between Articles 5 and 12 therefore precedes any petroleum agreement. The Republic possesses the deposits. State organs may act concerning them only through authority conferred by the constitutional order. The sovereign source of those organs remains the people.
That structure has acquired immediate consequence because the United States has not merely facilitated commerce in Venezuelan petroleum. The present Administration publicly describes an arrangement designed to secure American governmental and economic advantages over Venezuelan reserves on a scale and for a duration extending far beyond the present political transition.
On August 31, 2026, the White House announced what it called the biggest oil deal in world history. It said Venezuelan interim authorities had granted North American Blue Energy Partners 100-year concessions over 17 fields containing approximately 65 billion barrels of proven reserves. The same announcement described United States “majority control,” governmental governance rights, “economic ownership,” a 35 percent equity interest for the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital, a guaranteed right for the Department of State to purchase 20 percent of production at cost, a right of first refusal over the remaining 80 percent, veto authority over appointments to the company’s board, and a requirement that a majority of directors be United States citizens. [3]
The Administration did not present those provisions as incidental protections surrounding a Venezuelan development program. It presented them as American achievements. The White House said the arrangement would secure American “energy dominance for the next century,” expand the reserves effectively available to the United States, support American refineries and employment, and provide low-cost petroleum for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, military requirements, and other sensitive uses. [3][4]
The United States is not an accidental beneficiary of an arrangement designed elsewhere. The benefits to the United States are stated as objectives of the policy itself.
The same fact sheet describes the arrangement as part of stabilization, reconstruction, and eventual democratic transition. It says the new hydrocarbons framework was adopted with United States support. It describes United States governance and audit provisions, banking reform, payment oversight, and financial monitorship as means by which tax and royalty payments will be supervised. It also says the United States is sponsoring reconciliation talks between the 2015 National Assembly and the interim authorities. [3]
The vocabulary of transition therefore accompanies a structure in which the foreign power that intervened militarily has acquired enduring economic interests, governance rights, purchasing privileges, and supervisory functions over the principal natural resource of the country in transition.
The present interim administration did not obtain its current mandate through a new national election following the January United States military action. As of late September, its president continued to promise elections as part of a transition to full democracy without establishing a firm election date. The United States itself continues to describe democratic transition as prospective. [3][5][6]
That circumstance does not make Article 5 disappear. It makes Article 5 unavoidable.
If sovereignty were vested in whoever happened to control the machinery of government, effective control would answer the constitutional question. Article 5 says otherwise. The organs of the State emanate from popular sovereignty and remain subject to it. The Constitution therefore refuses the identification of governmental possession with sovereign ownership. [1]
The current National Assembly’s subsequent endorsement of the petroleum arrangement is part of the constitutional record. On September 1, it backed the arrangement by a show-of-hands vote. Some opposition deputies abstained because they had not been able to examine the written terms. [7] But an act of a constituted organ is not identical with the sovereign from which Article 5 says constituted authority derives. Legislative approval must possess constitutional competence for the act approved. The existence of a vote cannot, by itself, transform the organ casting it into the sovereign people or cure an antecedent absence of authority if the power purportedly exercised was not constitutionally available to that organ.
This is the distinction between representation and sovereignty. Representatives may exercise constitutionally conferred powers on behalf of the people. They do not own the sovereignty they exercise. Article 5 keeps the representative subject to the sovereign represented.
The distinction is particularly consequential where the commitment is intended to endure for a century. One hundred years is not a transitional interval. A concession of that duration reaches beyond the officials who granted it, beyond the present American Administration, beyond the promised democratic transition, and through generations of Venezuelans who had no part in the governmental circumstances under which it was created.
The American record itself recognizes, in another context, that control and possession do not extinguish Venezuelan ownership. Executive Order 14373, issued on January 9, defines specified natural-resource revenues held in United States Treasury accounts in Section 2 and determines in Section 4(a) that those funds are property of the Government of Venezuela. It says the United States holds those funds solely in a custodial and governmental capacity, not as a market participant, and requires Treasury to designate them as sovereign property of Venezuela rather than property of the United States. [8][9]
Yet Section 4(c)(ii) of the same order provides that those funds are held pending “sovereign disposition” for public, governmental, or diplomatic purposes determined by the United States Secretary of State on behalf of the Government of Venezuela. Section 5(a)(ii) directs Treasury to follow the Secretary of State’s instructions concerning disbursements and transfers. [8]
From January onward, the Administration thus assigned an American officer authority to determine the purposes for which Venezuelan sovereign property would be used. Venezuelan ownership remained formally acknowledged while decisions concerning its exercise passed to an officer of the intervening State. The authority by which that officer could determine sovereign purposes on Venezuela’s behalf was asserted in an American order rather than supplied by the Venezuelan Constitution.
Nearly eight months later, the petroleum arrangement added proprietary advantages to that supervisory structure. The White House described United States economic ownership, majority control, veto rights, preferential acquisition, and a governmental equity interest protected against dilution. Reuters reported that the 35 percent position was structured through penny warrants intended to preserve the United States ownership level as additional capital entered the enterprise. [3][10]
The sequence is not one of ignorance about whose resources are involved. The American documents repeatedly identify the reserves, revenues, concessions, and deposits as Venezuelan. The Administration knows the object is Venezuelan wealth. Its own January order expressly recognizes Venezuelan sovereign property. Its later announcements expressly identify the advantages sought for the United States. [3][8]
The Venezuelan juridical record identifies the force that altered the governmental circumstances. On January 3, the Constitutional Chamber described the United States action as an agresión militar extranjera [foreign military aggression] undertaken for the secuestro[abduction] of Nicolás Maduro. It treated his resulting ausencia forzosa [forced absence] as a material and temporary impossibility of exercising presidential functions. Invoking its interpretation of Articles 234 and 239.8, the Chamber ordered Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to exercise the presidency through an urgent precautionary measure intended to preserve the State and defend the Nation. It left the definitive classification of the absence to the competent State organs. [11]
The ruling that named the aggression also ordered the acting presidency whose consent the United States now invokes. Dismissing the Chamber as an organ of the former government does not supply an independent constitutional basis for that consent. The government maintained through the Chamber’s response subsequently became the channel through which the United States obtained the petroleum advantages it announced in August.
The President of the beneficiary State had already connected the military action to its economic return. On April 30, President Trump described the relationship with Venezuela as “like a joint venture,” said both countries were making money, and declared that the United States had “paid for the attack many times over.” [12]
Exploitation does not mean every foreign investment, petroleum sale, loan, or commercial concession. It denotes the deliberate extraction of advantage from another nation’s resources under conditions in which the foreign beneficiary possesses extraordinary power over the governmental circumstances through which consent is purportedly obtained. The asymmetry is recorded on both sides: the Venezuelan Chamber named the aggression and ordered a defensive measure; the American President described the resulting economic relationship as a joint enterprise that had repaid the attack. The August arrangement then gave enduring economic and governmental form to that advantage.
The White House’s own language makes the contradiction sharper. Its August fact sheet accuses Russian and Chinese actors, along with Venezuelan political cronies, of having “looted Venezuela’s resources” for the benefit of American adversaries. The same document then celebrates the displacement of those actors by a system designed to ensure American dominance in the hemisphere, American governmental control, American economic ownership, American purchasing privileges, and American strategic supply. [3][4]
The nationality of the beneficiary cannot determine whether Venezuelan sovereignty has been respected. If foreign control of Venezuelan resources is objectionable because the resources belong to Venezuela, changing the foreign beneficiary does not alter the constitutional location of Venezuelan sovereignty or the juridical status of the deposits.
The constitutional issue is not whether Venezuela may receive foreign capital, sell petroleum, or enter long-term commercial relations. It is the source of the authority by which the Republic is bound. Investment describes capital. Contract describes an instrument. Recognition describes a foreign government’s diplomatic position. None of those categories, by itself, supplies Venezuelan sovereign competence.
The distinction becomes still more important when corporate form intervenes. The White House has emphasized the role of a private company and the use of private American capital. [3][4] But a private corporation cannot grant itself a Venezuelan petroleum concession. The underlying right to exploit deposits belonging to the Republic must originate in Venezuelan law. Private corporate arrangements can distribute economic interests after a right exists. They cannot create the sovereign authority necessary to create the right in the first place.
Reuters identifies North American Blue Energy Partners as controlled by the Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. [10] The arrangement therefore joins a Venezuelan private beneficiary to the American governmental interests it expressly creates. The advantage obtained by the United States need not be exclusive to be deliberate. Nor does a Venezuelan businessman’s private interest constitute the consent of the Venezuelan people. His participation does not alter the need to establish the constitutional authority for granting rights over the Republic’s deposits.
Nor can American law answer that antecedent Venezuelan question. American statutes, executive orders, licenses, contracts, and judicial jurisdiction can determine what United States officials and American entities may do under United States law. They cannot determine what authority Venezuelan officials possess under the Constitution of Venezuela to bind the Republic.
The American Preamble begins “We the People,” and American constitutional doctrine treats those words as identifying the source that ordained and established the Constitution. But the Supreme Court has not treated the Preamble as an independent source of substantive governmental power. Venezuela’s Article 5 is not prefatory language. It is an operative constitutional provision defining where sovereignty resides, how it is exercised, where State organs derive from, and to what they remain subject. [1][13][14]
Translating Article 5 into the familiar American phrase “We the People” would diminish rather than clarify it.
Article 5 is more exact. The people do not merely appear at the founding moment and then disappear into the institutions they created. Sovereignty remains theirs. Government does not receive sovereignty as property. It exercises constituted powers while remaining subordinate to the sovereign source from which those powers emanate.
The distinction between the sovereign people and their representatives determines what governmental consent can mean.
A representative act can bind the Republic only because the constitutional order gives the representative authority to perform that act. Representation is therefore derivative. Sovereignty is not. To treat the consent of representatives as self-validating is to reverse the constitutional relation Article 5 establishes.
The problem becomes more acute when the governmental order supplying the consent exists under foreign tutelage. The January order placed decisions over Venezuelan sovereign revenues in American hands. The subsequent structure extended that supervision across the transition: the foreign State sponsors political reconciliation, supports the legal framework governing the resource, claims audit and financial-monitoring functions, acquires governance rights and vetoes in the resulting enterprise, receives economic ownership and preferential purchasing rights, and openly describes the arrangement as securing its own dominance. [3][4][8]
Under those conditions, governmental consent cannot be treated as evidence independent of the foreign power obtaining the benefit. The foreign beneficiary participates in the political and institutional environment from which the purported consent emerges.
When the petroleum arrangement was announced, even the maximum temporary-substitution period under Article 234 had expired. Article 234 provides for substitution during a temporary presidential absence for up to ninety days, extendable by the National Assembly for up to ninety more. The first period ended on April 3. [1] On April 6, the Associated Press reported that the Assembly had taken no public vote to authorize an extension. [15] Even assuming authorization of the maximum second period, the outermost 180-day limit ended on July 2. [1]
On July 15, Acceso a la Justicia reported that the Assembly still had not pronounced on the presidential absence. It argued that the exhausted temporary period required the Assembly to activate Article 233 and the new presidential election prescribed within thirty consecutive days. Its reading permits Rodríguez to continue transitionally until an elected president takes office. That continuation does not dispense with the succession determination or the election; it exists pending their completion. [16]
On August 31, the White House announced the grant of rights it described as lasting a century. The Assembly’s failure to resolve the absence had been publicly documented, and the election required under the Article 233 reading had not occurred. By late September, there was still no firm election date. [3][5][6][16]
The Assembly’s endorsement supplied political support for a commitment reaching across generations while the constitutional duties governing the presidency making that commitment remained unperformed. [7][16]
The constitutional authority has not been established merely by pointing to the consent of the interim administration. That consent is precisely what is in question. A government continuing beyond the temporary-substitution period, without completion of the succession and electoral duties governing the transition, cannot be identified with the sovereign Venezuelan people merely because it continues to exercise governmental power. The foreign power that altered the circumstances of that government cannot invoke its consent as independent evidence that the Venezuelan people consented to the appropriation of the Republic’s natural wealth.
The intervening State invokes the consent of the governmental order maintained after its intervention as the juridical basis for its own acquisition. The circle never reaches the sovereign identified by Article 5.
The defense that someone had to govern establishes the need for continuity. It does not establish that continuity required granting the intervening State enduring ownership interests and preferential access to Venezuelan wealth. The Administration’s own January response to the emergency expressly distinguished custody and administration from proprietary acquisition. Its August arrangement crossed that distinction. Neither the need to preserve revenues nor the absence of an elected successor supplies authority to turn temporary administration into century-long foreign advantage.
Calling the arrangement reconstruction does not establish that authority. Calling it privatization does not establish it. Calling it stabilization does not establish it. Calling it a contract does not establish it. Each term describes a policy, mechanism, or objective. None establishes the Venezuelan constitutional source of the authority exercised.
Article 12 places the deposits in the public domain of the Republic. Article 5 places sovereignty in the people. Between those provisions stand the organs of government, possessing only the authority the constitutional order gives them. [1][2]
The constitutional chain therefore runs in one direction: from the sovereign people, through constituted authority, to the administration of the Republic and its public wealth. It does not run backward from possession of governmental offices to ownership of sovereignty.
A foreign power can acquire physical access. It can acquire contractual rights. It can acquire economic leverage. It can obtain governmental cooperation. It can exercise military superiority. It can even obtain effective control over institutions and revenues. None of those conditions changes the constitutional identity of the Venezuelan sovereign.
The Administration’s rhetoric of victory makes the distinction still more stark. On September 22, while discussing Venezuela and the oil agreement in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump said, “To the victor belong the spoils.” [17] A victor may possess the capacity to take advantage of circumstances created by victory. Capacity is not title. Superior force can explain how control was obtained. It cannot establish, by itself, the Venezuelan constitutional authority by which control becomes lawful.
That is why the issue cannot be reduced to whether the petroleum arrangement will increase production, attract investment, lower prices, rebuild infrastructure, or generate tax revenue. Those consequences may be economically important. They do not answer the antecedent question.
The question is who possessed authority to consent.
Under Article 5, that inquiry cannot end with the identification of those presently occupying governmental institutions. The organs of the State are not the source of sovereignty. They emanate from it and remain subject to it. [1]
Under Article 12, the object of the transaction is not ordinary governmental property available to rulers in their own right. The deposits belong to the Republic as public-domain property. [2]
The United States may call its role stabilization. It may call its interests economic ownership. It may call its supervision reconstruction. It may call its dominance strategic necessity. Venezuela’s Constitution supplies the prior vocabulary: people, sovereignty, Republic, Public Power, public domain, competence.
Those terms determine the Venezuelan question.
The American Administration’s own record establishes that the acquisition of advantage is deliberate. It announces the control, quantifies the ownership, fixes the purchasing privilege, protects the equity position, imposes governance conditions, celebrates the absence of cost to the American taxpayer, and states the objective of American dominance. [3][4][10]
The Administration has used the consent of the interim authorities to secure enduring American advantages over Venezuelan wealth. It has not established the Venezuelan constitutional authority by which those authorities could grant them.
Ricardo F. Morín
September 30, 2026
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
Notes
[1] Centro para la Integración y el Derecho Público (CIDEP), Constituciones de Venezuela, Constitución de 1999, Articles 5, 233, 234, and 239.8.
[3] The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Announces Historic Oil Agreement to Secure American Energy Dominance and Drive Venezuela’s Economic Recovery,” August 31, 2026.
[7] Reuters, “Venezuela’s assembly backs oil deal announced with U.S.,” September 1, 2026. Euronews, “Venezuela hands the US control over a fifth of its oil in landmark deal,” September 2, 2026, reports the show-of-hands vote and the abstention of opposition deputies who had not been able to examine the written terms.
[8] Executive Order 14373, “Safeguarding Venezuelan Oil Revenue for the Good of the American and Venezuelan People,” January 9, 2026, especially Sections 2, 4(a), 4(b), 4(c)(ii), and 5(a).
[9] The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Safeguards Venezuelan Oil Revenue for the Good of the American and Venezuelan People,” January 9, 2026.
[10] Reuters, “US structured Venezuela oil position to protect it from dilution, official says,” September 4, 2026. Also identifies NABEP as controlled by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt.
[11] Acceso a la Justicia, “La SC ordena que Delcy Rodríguez, Vicepresidenta Ejecutiva, asuma y ejerza en condición de ‘encargada’ la presidencia de la República,” January 3, 2026. Reproduces the Constitutional Chamber’s decision, including its descriptions of foreign military aggression, abduction, and forced absence, and its precautionary order under Articles 234 and 239.8.
[12] GovInfo, “Remarks During a Document Signing Ceremony and an Exchange With Reporters,” April 30, 2026, p. 8, official presidential transcript, including the descriptions “like a joint venture” and “we’ve paid for the attack many times over.”
[15] Associated Press, “Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez remains acting president after her initial 90-day appointment expired,” April 6, 2026. Reports that the National Assembly had not taken a public vote to extend the initial period.
[16] Acceso a la Justicia, “¿Qué ocurre con la encargaduría presidencial?”, July 15, 2026. Reports the Assembly’s failure to pronounce on the presidential absence, argues for activation of Article 233 following exhaustion of the temporary-substitution period, and reads the Constitution as permitting transitional service until the elected president takes office.
[17] Factba.se / Roll Call, transcript of President Donald J. Trump’s address to the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 22, 2026, including the statement “To the victor belong the spoils” following his discussion of the Venezuela oil agreement.
Ricardo F. Morín Persian Three 19” × 29” Graphite, sanguine and Sumi ink on watercolor paper 2003
The present crisis does not begin with soldiers in the streets or laws being openly suspended. It begins earlier, in our thoughts and conversations, as words change their meaning. Before courts are bypassed or elections are challenged, the language used to describe legality begins to shift. Words once tied to injury become tools of accusation. Authority moves first by changing how things are said, long before procedures are changed.
The shift is often noticed first not in statutes, but in how accusations are repeated on television, in hearings, and in everyday conversation, long before any ruling is issued.
A person opens an official notice declaring that a “violation” has occurred, yet the document contains no description of the act, no evidence to examine, and no process by which the finding might be contested. What is presented is not an allegation awaiting review, but a conclusion that now governs what actions are permitted next.
In earlier constitutional systems, a violation referred to a specific act. Evidence had to be gathered. Law had to be applied. A process had to be followed. Today, a violation is increasingly declared rather than demonstrated. The word no longer signals a legal test. It signals that judgment has already been made. What once required adjudication can become an instrument of command.
A rule can then be enforced before the disputed premise on which it rests has been adjudicated. The affected party may retain a right of review, but review occurs after the language of violation, necessity, security, or compliance has already supplied a reason for action.
Language and procedure meet at that point. A disputed condition is named as though established; governmental action proceeds upon the name; review follows.
This logic became visible on January 6, 2021. An election certified through legal procedures was declared illegitimate by assertion. A lawful transfer of power was described as theft. Defeat was renamed a violation. What followed was not confusion. It was narrative replacing legal process.
The legal aftermath did not produce a single institutional resolution. The federal prosecution concerning efforts to overturn the 2020 election was dismissed in November 2024 after Donald Trump’s reelection, pursuant to the Department of Justice’s longstanding position concerning prosecution of a sitting President. On January 20, 2025, presidential clemency commuted the sentences of fourteen people convicted of offenses related to January 6, granted full pardons to the other individuals convicted of such offenses, and directed the Attorney General to seek dismissal with prejudice of pending indictments arising from January 6. The Georgia election-interference prosecution against Trump was dismissed in November 2025.
Different proceedings ended through different constitutional and procedural mechanisms. None produced a final adjudication of the federal election-interference charges against the returning President.
The sequence also appears in administrative government.
In 2026, the Department of Homeland Security made full receipt of specified counterterrorism grants conditional upon changes to state and local election administration, with 20 percent of an award subject to withholding for noncompliance. Six cities and counties challenged those conditions. On September 28, a federal court held that the Federal Emergency Management Agency lacked congressional authority to impose them and vacated the election-related requirements.
The judgment demonstrates that constitutional restraint had not disappeared. Judicial review remained capable of making restraint effective. The disputed condition nevertheless existed as an administrative command before judicial review determined whether the agency possessed authority to impose it.
The constitutional difficulty lies in that interval. Governmental action and its prospective consequences can precede the institutional judgment that determines the lawful limits of the authority asserted.
The same sequence appears in less formal civic encounters. A courthouse remains open. Hearings are scheduled. Filings are accepted. Yet a consequential determination may already govern the person who seeks review. Procedure remains available, but it begins after the disputed condition has acquired practical effect.
Beyond the United States, a related distinction separates power from sovereign authority. Military or diplomatic power may alter the circumstances in which another State decides. It does not itself determine the sovereign competence by which that decision becomes lawful.
Earlier claims about acquiring Greenland treated territorial control as an object of strategic necessity. On September 22, 2026, the United States, Denmark, and Greenland signed an agreement that instead proceeds through the existing defense relationship. It would permit new American facilities at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, expansion of Pituffik Space Base, and broader American military access while leaving Greenland within the Danish realm and affirming its right to self-determination. The agreement remains subject to parliamentary approval in Greenland and Denmark.
Pressure did not itself transfer sovereignty. The arrangement that followed requires agreement and constitutional process.
On September 1, Venezuela’s National Assembly approved an oil agreement between Venezuela and the United States involving 17 fields and approximately one-fifth of the country’s oil reserves. Some opposition legislators abstained because they had not been able to examine the written terms of the agreement. The legislative act is part of the constitutional record; it cannot simply be disregarded. It also does not answer a different question: what constitutional competence the Venezuelan institutions presently exercising power possess to create rights intended to endure far beyond the present government. American recognition can determine whom the United States treats as Venezuela’s government. It cannot answer that Venezuelan constitutional question.
Across these cases, law has not disappeared. Courts adjudicate. Legislatures enact. Agreements remain subject to constitutional process. The difficulty appears in two related forms: power may act before review determines its lawful limits, and power may alter the circumstances in which another sovereign must exercise its own authority.
Language gives the first condition institutional force and can accompany the second. A disputed premise described as a violation, necessity, security requirement, or act of compliance can begin to govern conduct before the institutions charged with determining its legal consequences have completed that determination.
What emerges is power that remains procedurally recognizable as lawful while the limits of its authority remain subject to determination. Procedure survives. The sequence changes.
The danger lies in what language permits power to present as already decided. When accusation becomes violation, necessity becomes authority, and compliance becomes evidence of legality, judgment begins after its vocabulary has been supplied by power.
The first freedom is judgment.
Freedom survives only where judgment remains possible. Judgment survives only where language has not yet been taken over by power.
Ricardo F. Morín September 30, 2026 Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
From American Authorization to Venezuelan Sovereignty
Ricardo F. Morín Venezuela’s Gold and the Authority to Extract Digital image, 2026
On September 6, 2026, I published Constitutional Authority and Venezuela: A Public Record of Correspondence, an examination of United States governmental actions concerning Venezuelan petroleum, sovereign revenues, reconstruction, and political transition:
That inquiry began with a question of authority rather than policy: who possesses the lawful authority to make decisions concerning resources and sovereign powers belonging to Venezuela?
The question required examination of two constitutional orders. Article 5 of the Venezuelan Constitution provides that sovereignty resides intransferably in the Venezuelan people and that the organs of the State emanate from popular sovereignty and are subject to it. Article 12 places hydrocarbon and mineral deposits within the public domain of the Republic and declares them inalienable and imprescriptible. On the American side, the inquiry asked what constitutional and statutory authority permits the United States Government to acquire governmental, economic, custodial, or proprietary rights concerning another nation’s sovereign resources and revenues.
The documentary record available in early September made petroleum the principal material subject of that inquiry. The White House had announced 100-year concessions covering 17 Venezuelan oil fields and attributed substantial economic and governance rights to the United States Government. Executive Order 14373 separately placed specified Venezuelan oil revenues in United States custody while recognizing those revenues as sovereign property of Venezuela.
Article 12, however, is not confined to petroleum. It expressly encompasses mineral deposits.
The public record now shows that months before the petroleum arrangements announced at the end of August, officials of the United States Government were already participating in the reopening of Venezuela’s mineral sector to American commerce and investment. Gold therefore presents the same constitutional referent through a different sequence of governmental and commercial acts.
On March 4, 2026, United States Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and National Security Council official David Copley led a delegation to Venezuela that included representatives of mining interests. Gold Reserve, a mining company participating in the delegation, subsequently stated that the meetings concerned conditions for renewed foreign investment and mining operations in Venezuela.
Two days later, on March 6, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury issued General License 51, authorizing specified transactions involving Venezuelan-origin gold.
OFAC administers United States economic sanctions. A general license permits categories of transactions that American sanctions would otherwise prohibit. It does not, by performing that function, create a Venezuelan mining right or determine who possesses authority under Venezuelan law to extract a mineral belonging to the Republic.
A commercial transaction was also taking shape. Venezuela’s State mining company, Minerven, entered an arrangement with the commodities trader Trafigura involving approximately 650 to 1,000 kilograms of Venezuelan gold doré intended for processing and distribution for sale in the United States.
Gold doré is a partially refined product produced from mined material. It ordinarily requires further refining before reaching the purity associated with commercial bullion. The transaction concerned gold that had already passed from extraction into commerce.
On March 27, Treasury issued three instruments governing different stages of American participation in Venezuela’s mineral sector.
General License 51A authorized specified transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to the exportation, sale, storage, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin minerals, including gold. It expressly excluded exploration, development, mining, extraction, processing, refining, or production of minerals in Venezuela and the formation of Venezuelan entities for those purposes. The license also required participants to report documentation demonstrating supply-chain due-diligence plans for determining the chain of custody of the minerals.
General License 54 separately authorized the provision from the United States or by United States persons of goods, technology, software, and services for mineral exploration, development, mining, extraction, processing, refining, or production in Venezuela. It also authorized specified maintenance and support for mineral operations, while excluding the formation of new joint ventures or other entities in Venezuela to undertake those activities.
General License 55 separately authorized negotiations and entry into contingent contracts for new investment in Venezuela’s mineral sector, including gold. Performance of those contracts was required to remain expressly contingent upon separate authorization from OFAC.
Treasury distinguished commerce in Venezuelan-origin minerals, the provision of operational goods and services, and prospective investment. General License 51A did not itself authorize extraction in Venezuela, and General License 55 did not itself authorize performance of the investments negotiated under it.
On April 7, Senator Ron Wyden formally sought information from Trafigura concerning the Minerven transaction. His inquiry asked about the origin of the gold, the diligence undertaken to establish its provenance, the role of United States officials in the transaction, and risks arising from illicit mining and criminal activity within Venezuela’s gold sector.
The inquiry did not establish that the Trafigura gold had been illegally mined. It placed the origin of gold entering the United States and the governmental role in facilitating its commerce within the formal congressional record.
For the Trafigura transaction, the relevant chain begins before the gold reaches Minerven.
From what mine or mines was the material extracted? Who conducted the extraction? Under what mining title or governmental authority? Through what intermediaries did the gold pass before reaching the State enterprise? What records permit that chain to be reconstructed?
Venezuela’s gold-producing regions have been associated with extensive illicit mining, armed groups, environmental destruction, smuggling, and unlawful commerce. Those conditions make the provenance of the particular gold consequential, but they do not establish that the gold itself originated in illegal extraction.
Treasury’s own regulatory framework also addressed provenance through General License 51A’s chain-of-custody reporting requirement.
On September 2, Treasury continued the three-part regulatory structure through General Licenses 51D, 54C, and 55A. General License 51D addressed specified transactions involving Venezuelan-origin coal or minerals, including gold. General License 54C addressed specified supplies and services for coal or mineral operations in Venezuela. General License 55A permitted negotiation and entry into specified contingent investment contracts while requiring performance to remain contingent upon separate authorization from OFAC.
On September 16, Heeney Capital announced that it had signed what it described as a mining concession with the Republic of Venezuela and the Corporación Venezolana de Minería to develop and operate a gold project in the El Callao Mining District. Reuters reported that the arrangement concerns the Chocó mine, extends for thirty years, grants rights to export the gold extracted from the mine, involves Mercuria as Heeney’s partner, and contemplates initial investment of up to $1 billion.
The Trafigura transaction concerned gold that had already been extracted and entered commerce. The Heeney-CVM mining agreement reaches instead toward the deposit from which future gold would be extracted.
If the mineral deposit belongs to the Republic, constitutes property in the public domain, and is constitutionally inalienable and imprescriptible, the relevant inquiry precedes the commercial disposition of extracted gold. It concerns the governmental competence by which rights to develop, operate, extract from, and commercially exploit the deposit may be conferred.
The public announcement does not establish that extraction under the agreement has commenced. General License 55A likewise does not, by itself, establish American authorization for performance of every activity contemplated by the agreement.
The public record does not presently supply the complete operative Heeney-CVM mining agreement, the complete Venezuelan legal analysis supporting its execution, or a complete documentary chain establishing which American authorizations apply to each contemplated act of performance.
The gold arrangements operate across two legal systems whose functions are different.
United States law determines whether American persons may undertake transactions otherwise prohibited by American sanctions, what conditions apply to those transactions, and what additional American governmental authorization may be required.
Venezuelan law determines the governmental competence by which rights over Venezuelan mineral deposits may be granted.
A Venezuelan agreement cannot enlarge the constitutional or statutory powers of the United States Government. An American Treasury license cannot enlarge the constitutional competence of Venezuelan officials.
The same separation applies to recognition. The President of the United States possesses constitutional authority concerning recognition of foreign governments. American recognition can determine whom the United States treats as the government of Venezuela for purposes within that recognition authority. It does not determine, merely through the act of recognition, the powers that Venezuela’s Constitution confers upon the officials recognized.
The Heeney-CVM mining agreement presents a question that cannot end with the identity of its governmental counterparties. The authority of the Venezuelan Government and the Corporación Venezolana de Minería to confer the rights described in the agreement must therefore arise within the Venezuelan legal order.
The petroleum and gold records concern different exercises of governmental and commercial power over resources governed by the same constitutional provision.
In petroleum, the United States Government publicly claims economic and governance rights associated with long-term Venezuelan concessions. In gold, the documented American role proceeds through sanctions authorization, governmental facilitation, private commerce, and a long-term mining agreement concerning development and operation of a Venezuelan mineral deposit.
The legal instruments differ. The participants differ. The governmental interests differ.
The constitutional referent does not.
Article 12 encompasses both hydrocarbon and mineral deposits as property within the public domain of the Republic. Article 5 places sovereignty in the Venezuelan people. The constitutional question therefore arises before petroleum becomes oil available for purchase and before a mineral deposit becomes gold available for export. It concerns the authority by which rights over the resource are created.
For gold, the documentary inquiry proceeds along two separate lines. Provenance concerns the origin and legal chain of material already extracted. Sovereign competence concerns the constitutional and statutory authority governing the power of Venezuelan officials to confer mining, operational, extraction, and export rights over mineral deposits belonging to the Republic.
American law may determine whether an American person may purchase Venezuelan gold, provide specified services to a mineral operation, negotiate an investment, or undertake other activities otherwise restricted by American sanctions. Those determinations do not establish the provenance of the mineral and do not determine the sovereign competence by which rights over a Venezuelan mineral deposit are created.
American permission can open an American market. It cannot create Venezuelan sovereignty.
The question is therefore not simply who possesses the gold.
It is who possessed the lawful authority to take it from the ground.
“Geometric Allegory” digital painting (2023) by Ricardo Morín (American visual artist, born in Venezuela, 1954)
Scope and Use
This entry forms part of the constitutional corpus presented in the Appendix, comprising the constitutions of Venezuela organized for consultation rather than sequential reading. Comparison proceeds through permanent rubric codes whose identities remain constant throughout the corpus; absent rubrics signify constitutional silence, while retired rubrics are not reassigned. Citations are anchored first on the article number and follow the CIDEP recension linked at the close of the entry. The corpus definition, editorial methodology, and citation convention are set forth in the Scope and Use note introducing the nineteenth-century constitutions in “Unmasking Disappointment: Series XI”.
Ricardo F. Morín Sept , 2026 Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
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15). The Constitution of 1922
The 1922 Constitución de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Constitution of the United States of Venezuela] was declared sanctioned at the Palacio Federal Legislativo [Federal Legislative Palace], Caracas, on 19 June 1922, after the unanimous ratification recorded for the Asambleas Legislativas de los Estados [State Legislative Assemblies], and promulgated at the Palacio Federal [Federal Palace], Caracas, on 24 June 1922, under the provisional presidency of Victorino Márquez Bustillos.
Historical reference
President Victorino Márquez Bustillos, who had exercised the provisional presidency while President Juan Vicente Gómez held military command, signed the execution formula printed in the CIDEP recension with the date 24 June 1922. Gómez was elected President for the constitutional period 1922–1929 and resumed the exercise of the presidency in 1922.
Sources: CIDEP, Constitution of 1922, pp. 3 and 21; Ramón J. Velásquez, “Gómez, Juan Vicente,” Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela, Fundación Empresas Polar.
The Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela] invoked Article 133 of the existing Pacto Federal [Federal Compact] in its enacting formula:
“The Congress of the United States of Venezuela, in the name of Almighty God, and in exercise of the faculty conferred upon it by Article 133 of the Federal Compact in force, decrees the present Constitution.”
The formula differed from that of June 1914, which identified a congress of plenipotentiary deputies and the authority conferred by the district assemblies (cf. 1914, enacting formula: “The Congress of Plenipotentiary Deputies of the States forming the Venezuelan Union, in exercise of the power conferred upon it by the Assemblies of Plenipotentiary Deputies of the Districts of the States, in the name of Almighty God, decrees the present: Constitution.”).
FND-TER—Territory:
The territory comprised the former Capitanía General de Venezuela [Captaincy General of Venezuela], subject to modifications resulting from public treaties, and consisted of the territories of the States, the Distrito Federal [Federal District], the Territorios Federales Amazonas y Delta-Amacuro [Amazonas and Delta-Amacuro Federal Territories], and the Venezuelan islands in the Caribbean Sea (Art. 1; cont. 1914, Art. 1). The Nation retained the name Estados Unidos de Venezuela [United States of Venezuela], its declared independence, and its republican, federal, democratic, elective, representative, responsible, and alternating form of government (Arts. 8–9; cont. 1914, Arts. 8–9).
State boundaries continued to refer to the Ley de 28 de abril de 1856 [Law of 28 April 1856] and the modifications of 1909. Article 2 additionally recognized the boundary modifications agreed by Aragua and Carabobo in the Maracay Protocol of 31 January 1917 and approved by their respective legislative assemblies on 27 February and 2 March 1917 (cf. 1914, Art. 2: “[…] subject to the modifications established in the Constitution sanctioned by the National Congress on 4 August 1909 and ordered executed on 5 August of the same year.”).
Boundary controversies remained subject to referral by the Cámara del Senado [Chamber of the Senate], at the request of one or more affected States, to a tribunal of árbitros arbitradores [arbitrators empowered to decide in equity] freely appointed by the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] (Art. 3; cont. 1914, Art. 3).
The Distrito Federal [Federal District] retained Caracas, its enumerated outlying parishes, and the Departamento Vargas [Vargas Department]. Caracas remained the capital and seat of the general powers, with temporary executive residence elsewhere within the Federal District permitted in unforeseen circumstances (Arts. 4 and 6; cont. 1914, Arts. 4 and 6). Amazonas and Delta-Amacuro could attain statehood upon satisfying the population and administrative-capacity requirements; the Caribbean islands remained under direct federal administration until constituted as Territories (Art. 5; cont. 1914, Art. 5). The prohibition upon alienating, leasing, or ceding national territory to a foreign power remained (Art. 7; cont. 1914, Art. 7).
POW-LEG—Congress:
Legislative power remained vested in the Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela], composed of the Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] and the Cámara del Senado [Chamber of the Senate] (Art. 34; cont. 1914, Art. 34). The ratio of one Diputado [Deputy] for thirty-five thousand inhabitants, with an additional Deputy for an excess of fifteen thousand and at least one for each State, the equal number of Suplentes [Alternates], and the three-year term remained. Deputies had to be Venezuelan by birth and at least twenty-one years of age. The Federal District and qualifying Federal Territories also elected Deputies (Arts. 35–37; cont. 1914, Arts. 35–37). Article 35 retained votación directa [direct voting], as confirmed by the scanned collection hosted by CIDEP, printed page 235; direct voting was also prescribed by Article 19, base 20, and Article 37 (cont. 1914, corresponding provisions).
The Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] retained the power to censure Ministers, whose offices thereby ceased, and to elect the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] and two Alternates every three years (Art. 38; cont. 1914, Art. 38). Each State assembly elected two principal Senators and two Alternates from outside its membership for three years; Senators had to be Venezuelan by birth and at least thirty years of age (Arts. 39–40; cont. 1914, Arts. 39–40). The Senate retained its functions concerning boundary arbitration, interment in the Panteón Nacional [National Pantheon], foreign gifts and distinctions, and military and naval promotions (Art. 41; cont. 1914, Art. 41). For foreign gifts and distinctions, Article 41(3) referred to public employees, whereas its antecedent referred to national employees.
The Chambers continued to convene on 19 April or the nearest possible date, but their sessions now closed without extension on 5 July (Art. 42; cf. 1914, Art. 42: “The sessions shall last seventy non-extendable days.”). The provisions respecting quorum, public or secret sessions, internal regulation, concurrent sittings, incompatibilities, remuneration, immunity, non-responsibility for votes and opinions, contracts, and vacancies remained (Arts. 43–53; cont. 1914, Arts. 43–53).
The distinction between Leyes [Laws] enacted by the Chambers as co-legislators and Acuerdos [Resolutions] adopted jointly or upon matters exclusive to one Chamber remained, as did the presidency of the joint assembly by the President of the Senate (Arts. 54–56; cont. 1914, Arts. 54–56). The joint assembly retained its electoral, reporting, accounting, military-appointment, and statehood functions; its competence to receive resignations now expressly included the Vice Presidents (Art. 57; cf. 1914, Art. 57(3): “To take cognizance of the resignation of the President of the United States of Venezuela.”).
The common legislative attributions continued to encompass federal organic and electoral laws, taxation, codes, currency, public offices, debt and loans, statistics, sanitation, militia, census, treaties, contracts and concessions, the budget, weights and measures, pensions, military organization, war, and port security (Art. 58; cont. 1914, Art. 58). The census remained decennial; Article 58(8) no longer specified 1 January 1916 as the initial date.
Legislative initiative, three discussions in each Chamber, the treatment of disagreements, rejection, repeal, publication, nondelegation, and nonretroactivity remained regulated in Articles 59–71. Article 65 specified that pending projects received the three discussions in the following year in the Chamber in which they had not received them (cf. 1914, Art. 65: “Projects remaining pending in either Chamber at the end of the sessions shall undergo the same three discussions in the sessions of the following year.”). The other cited procedural provisions retained their corresponding antecedents (Arts. 59–64 and 66–71; cont. 1914, Arts. 59–64 and 66–71).
ECO-TES—Treasury:
The Chambers retained the powers to decree national taxes and authorize annual collection, regulate national debt and interest, decree loans, approve the specified contracts and concessions, and sanction the Presupuesto General de Rentas y Gastos Públicos [General Budget of Public Revenues and Expenditures] (Art. 58, nums. 2, 6–7, and 10–11; cont. 1914, Art. 58, same numbers).
State revenues continued to comprise the Impuesto Territorial [Territorial Tax] collected at customs houses; proceeds from mines, terrenos baldíos [public lands], and saltworks; the statutory share of the Renta de Aguardiente [Distilled-Spirits Revenue]; taxes upon the exploitation of natural products; and papel sellado [stamped paper]. The States delegated the establishment and organization of the first three revenue categories to the federal legislature and their administration to the Nation, with net proceeds distributed according to population (Art. 19, bases 27–28; cont. 1914, Art. 19, bases 27–28). The prohibition upon alienating public lands on maritime, fluvial, and lacustrine islands also remained (Art. 19, base 28, sole paragraph; cont. 1914, same provision).
Exports remained free of duties (Art. 117; cont. 1914, Art. 117). Disbursements from the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury] required a congressional appropriation or an executive decree authorizing a Crédito Adicional [Additional Credit] with the affirmative vote of the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers]. Officials incurred civil liability for unauthorized payments; ordinary expenditures took precedence, and additional credits required submission to the succeeding meeting of the legislature (Art. 118; cont. 1914, Art. 118).
The prohibition upon issuing paper currency or prescribing compulsory circulation of banknotes or other paper-represented value remained. Silver or nickel coinage required prior legislative authorization (Art. 119; cont. 1914, Art. 119). Public-interest contracts could not be transferred to foreign governments and incorporated the prescribed Venezuelan jurisdictional clause; companies formed in their execution had to establish legal domicile in Venezuela (Art. 121; cont. 1914, Art. 121). Ministerial budget and accounting obligations remained (Art. 89; cont. 1914, Art. 89).
POW-EXE—Executive:
The Presidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President of the United States of Venezuela] continued to exercise the federal executive with the Ministros del Despacho [Ministers of the Departments]. Executive functions remained exercisable outside the Federal District only in the constitutional cases (Arts. 72–73; cont. 1914, Arts. 72–73).
The Congreso [Congress] elected the President within the first fifteen days after installation and, in the same sitting, a First and a Second Vice President. The sitting was public and permanent, with five days’ notice; election was by secret ballot and an absolute majority of the members present (Arts. 74–76; cf. 1914, Art. 74: “[…] to elect the President of the United States of Venezuela.”). A designated Minister continued to supply temporary presidential absences. Absolute vacancies were now supplied by the Vice Presidents in their order of election; failing both, the President of the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] assumed office and convened new elections for the unexpired term (Art. 77; cf. 1914, Art. 77: “In the event of an absolute vacancy, the President of the Federal and Cassation Court shall assume power and shall immediately convene Congress to elect a new President for the remainder of the term.”).
The President and Vice Presidents had to be Venezuelan by birth, of estado seglar [secular status], more than thirty years of age, and in possession of civil and political rights. They made the legal promise before the legislature or, if that was impossible, before the Court in Sala Plena [Plenary Session] (Art. 78; cf. 1914, Art. 78: “[…] shall make the legal promise before Congress before entering upon the exercise of his functions.”).
The presidential attributions continued to include appointments, promulgation and execution of laws, regulations, federal administration, loans, diplomatic negotiations, contracts, nationality and navigation instruments, military command, emergency measures, amnesties, and pardons (Art. 79; cont. 1914, corresponding provisions of Art. 79). Public health was added to the services regulated under number 10. Number 21 also permitted the expulsion of foreigners described by the text as pernicious who possessed immovable property valued below forty thousand bolívares, proved by public instruments of ownership (cf. 1914, Art. 79(21): “[…] to expel pernicious foreigners who possess no immovable property in the country.”).
The annual presidential message, statutory remuneration, responsibility for treason and ordinary crimes, and cessation of presidential functions on 19 April of the final year remained (Arts. 80–83; cont. 1914, Arts. 80–83). The executive and judicial terms remained seven years, now counted from 19 April of the election year (Art. 128; cf. 1914, Art. 128: “[…] seven years […] from 19 April 1915.”).
The law continued to prescribe the ministerial departments; Article 84 additionally authorized the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] to create Ministries during the legislative recess (cf. 1914, Art. 84: “The President of the United States of Venezuela shall have for his dispatch the Ministers prescribed by law. The law shall determine their functions and duties and organize their Secretariats.”). Ministerial qualifications, countersignature, personal and joint responsibility, annual reports and accounts, appearances before the Chambers, and the enumerated grounds of responsibility remained (Arts. 85–91; cont. 1914, Arts. 85–91).
POW-JUD—Judicial Power:
Judicial power remained vested in the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] and the other tribunals established by law. Judicial officers remained responsible for treason, bribery, constitutional and legal violations, and ordinary crimes (Arts. 92–93; cont. 1914, Arts. 92–93).
The Court retained seven Vocales [Members], elected for seven years and required to be Venezuelan by birth, more than thirty years of age, of secular status, and attorneys of the Republic. Seven groups of State and Federal District delegations each presented two candidates; the unelected candidates became Alternates, and the Court supplied absolute vacancies by lot until the next legislative meeting (Arts. 94–97; cont. 1914, Arts. 94–97).
Article 98(2) added criminal proceedings against the Vice Presidents to the Court’s jurisdiction. The preliminary determination whether proceedings should be instituted accordingly applied to the first three numbered categories (cf. 1914, Art. 98: “In the two preceding cases, the Court shall declare whether or not there is cause to institute proceedings […]”). The remaining attributions concerning national and State officials, diplomats, claims against the Nation, cassation, prizes, jurisdictional conflicts, constitutional review, statutory collisions, public acts, contracts, foreign judgments, and titles to mines, public lands, and ejidos [municipal common lands] continued, with the subsequent numbered attributions shifted by one (Art. 98, nums. 3–18; cont. 1914, Art. 98, nums. 2–17). The annual report, prohibition upon concurrent executive employment, and statutory remuneration remained (Arts. 99–101; cont. 1914, Arts. 99–101).
The Ministerio Público [Public Ministry] remained entrusted to the Procurador General de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation], elected by the Chamber of Deputies for three years, with two Alternates. Eligibility remained Venezuelan nationality by birth, age above thirty, and qualification as an attorney (Arts. 38(2) and 102–104; cont. 1914, Arts. 38(2) and 102–104). His functions continued to encompass execution of laws, legal opinions, supervision of federal officers, accusations, fiscal proceedings, and representation of the Nation. The reference governing the Ministerio Fiscal [Fiscal Ministry] now included the first four numbered jurisdictions of the Court, including proceedings against Vice Presidents (Art. 105(5); cf. 1914, Art. 105(5): “[…] the proceedings referred to in attributions 1, 2, and 3 of the Federal and Cassation Court […]”).
POW-SUB—Subnational Government:
The same twenty States retained reciprocal recognition of autonomy, political equality, and sovereignty not delegated by the Constitution, subject to the Bases de la Unión [Bases of the Union]. Their obligations respecting constitutional organization, federal enactments, municipal autonomy, foreign relations, justice, inter-State controversies, military contingents, and revenues remained prescribed in Article 19 (cont. 1914, Art. 19). Base 17 added public health to the Nation’s legislative competence alongside public instruction (cf. 1914, Art. 19, base 17: “To reserve to the Nation the faculty of legislating upon Public Instruction […]”).
The Concejos Municipales [Municipal Councils] retained economic and administrative autonomy and their revenue powers subject to the specified restrictions. Wartime assumption of district administration by the State executive continued to require the vote of the State assembly or, during its recess, the State supreme court (Art. 19, base 4; cont. 1914, same provision). States could unite and recover their separate status, retaining the specified Senate and Court-election rights while united (Arts. 20–21; cont. 1914, Arts. 20–21).
Residual competence remained with the States. Their three-year constitutional terms were now counted from 20 February of the year in which the respective term commenced (Art. 106; cf. 1914, Art. 106: “[…] three years, counted from 20 February 1915.”). State tribunals remained independent, subject to the review assigned by law to the federal Court (Art. 108; cont. 1914, Art. 108).
Article 113 retained the prohibition upon resident federal officials exercising authority in the States except in the enumerated services, together with subjection to State laws and removal upon a legally grounded State request. Its enumeration included fiscal, educational, communications, sanitary, resource-administration, and military-establishment personnel. The restriction of the latter jurisdiction to their respective functions and the precincts of fortresses, barracks, naval stations, and ports of entry remained in the scanned collection hosted by CIDEP, printed page 244. The separate reference to frontier forces was not repeated (cf. 1914, Art. 113: “[…] forces assigned to the defence of the frontiers or to garrison fortresses, arsenals, naval stations, and ports of entry […]”).
CON-AMD—Amendment of the Constitution:
The amendment procedure remained in Articles 130–134. Amendments or additions requested by three-fourths of the Asambleas Legislativas de los Estados [State Legislative Assemblies] in ordinary session could be decreed by the Congreso Nacional [National Congress] only in ordinary session and upon the points on which a majority of States concurred (Art. 130; cont. 1914, Art. 130).
The ordinary legislative procedure applied; the President of the legislature submitted the agreed text to the State assemblies for definitive ratification. Legislatively initiated amendments required ratification by three-fourths of those assemblies, and their final votes returned to the national legislature for scrutiny (Arts. 131–134; cont. 1914, Arts. 131–134). The repeated phrase in the CIDEP transcription of Article 130 of 1914 is not repeated in the 1922 recension.
CIV-SUF—Suffrage:
Venezuelans more than twenty-one years of age who satisfied the constitutional qualifications remained electors and eligible for office. Freedom of suffrage remained subject to the Constitution and laws, and citizens enjoying their political rights could elect and be elected to public office (Arts. 12, 22(11), and 123; cont. 1914, same provisions).
The States retained direct voting for the Concejos Municipales [Municipal Councils], Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies], and Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies], and indirect or delegated voting for other popularly elected officers, with secrecy and the federal censo electoral [electoral census] required in both cases (Art. 19, base 20; cont. 1914, same provision). The express direct-vote provision for the Federal District and qualifying Federal Territories remained (Art. 37; cont. 1914, Art. 37). The representation count continued to exclude the population designated by the recension as indígenas que viven en estado salvaje [Indigenous persons living in a savage state] (Art. 37, sole paragraph; cont. 1914, same provision).
The Congreso [Congress] now elected two Vice Presidents in addition to the President, by secret ballot and an absolute majority of those present (Arts. 74–76; cf. 1914, Art. 76: “The voting shall be secret, and the citizen obtaining an absolute majority of the votes of the members of Congress present at the election shall be proclaimed elected President of Venezuela.”). Members of the Fuerza Pública Nacional [National Public Force] on duty remained quartered during voting (Art. 124; cont. 1914, Art. 124).
CIV-CIT—Citizenship:
Article 10 retained nationality of origin and acquired nationality. Nationality by birth comprised persons born in Venezuela and children of Venezuelan parents, irrespective of birthplace. Acquisition extended, under the stated conditions, to adult children born abroad of a father or mother Venezuelan by naturalization; persons born in the Hispanic-American republics; foreigners obtaining a carta de naturaleza [letter of naturalization]; and a foreign woman married to a Venezuelan, including continuation after dissolution upon the prescribed declaration within the first year (cont. 1914, Art. 10).
The declaration before the Registrador Principal [Principal Registrar], its inscription, transmission to the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive], and ordered and completed publication in the Gaceta Oficial [Official Gazette] remained required (Art. 11; cont. 1914, Art. 11). The duties of service and the equality of rights and duties throughout the Union remained (Arts. 13–14; cont. 1914, Arts. 13–14).
The four grounds for suspension of citizenship rights remained undertaking to serve against Venezuela, conviction or punishment carrying political or public-office disqualification, unauthorized acceptance by an official of foreign gifts or distinctions, and judicial interdiction (Art. 24; cont. 1914, Art. 24). The rules concerning foreigners’ rights and duties, political participation, indemnification, and treaties remained in Articles 15–18 (cont. 1914, Arts. 15–18).
RTS-GAR—Rights:
Article 22 retained the inviolability of life and abolition of capital punishment; property; correspondence and private papers; the home; personal liberty; expression; transit; industry; assembly and association; petition; suffrage; teaching; religion; individual security; and equality (cont. 1914, Art. 22). The property guarantee retained legislative contributions, judicial decisions, sanitary measures, and taking for public utility after adversarial proceedings and indemnification. The guarantees concerning forced recruitment and slavery also remained (Art. 22, nums. 1–3 and 5; cont. 1914, same provisions).
The home could additionally be entered to execute judicial decisions in criminal proceedings (Art. 22(4); cf. 1914, Art. 22(4): “[…] only to prevent the perpetration or consummation of a crime, or for sanitary reasons, and this shall also be executed in accordance with the laws.”). The expression guarantee retained fianza de cárcel segura [bail securing provisional liberty] when an arrest order had issued in the specified proceedings. The restrictions upon monopolies, the statutory exceptions to association, the thirty-day maximum preliminary investigation after detention, the prohibition upon incommunicado detention, the twenty-year maximum corporal penalty, and the prohibition upon a second trial for the same offence remained (Art. 22, nums. 6, 8–9, and 14; cont. 1914, same provisions).
The enumeration did not deny other rights; officials issuing or executing measures contrary to guaranteed rights remained punishable; and laws impairing those rights were to be declared unconstitutional and ineffective (Arts. 23 and 25–26, read with Art. 98(11); cont. 1914, Arts. 23 and 25–26, read with Art. 98(10)).
Reference correction: the applicable locus is Article 98(11), which expressly assigns the declaration of nullity of unconstitutional laws. Article 26 prints attribution 10 in both the modern CIDEP transcription and the scanned collection, printed page 235; attribution 10 concerns conflicts of judicial competence. The apparatus supplies the correct parallel reference without altering the recorded source reading.
REG-MIL—The Armed Force:
The States continued to supply their proportional unarmed contingent, prohibit the specified enlistments and levies, and refrain from war against one another (Art. 19, bases 22–24; cont. 1914, same provisions). The joint Congreso [Congress] could continue to appoint annually a Comandante en Jefe del Ejército Nacional [Commander in Chief of the National Army] and determine his functions (Art. 57(2); cont. 1914, Art. 57(2)). The Chambers retained their legislative functions concerning militia, military organization, recruitment, war, and peace (Art. 58, nums. 8 and 18–20; cont. 1914, same provisions).
The President retained the declaration of a legislatively decreed war, command of the Ejército [Army] and Armada [Navy], organization of the Milicia [Militia], and determination of force numbers. The military, extraordinary, pacificatory, and amnesty attributions remained subject to the legislative determination when a Commander in Chief was appointed (Art. 79, nums. 17 and 22–25, and sole paragraph; cont. 1914, same provisions).
The Fuerza Pública Nacional [National Public Force] remained naval and terrestrial, composed of citizen militias and augmentable in war. Civil and military authority could coincide only during disturbances of public order; all military materiel belonged to the Nation. The Fuerza Armada [Armed Force] remained passive, obedient, and non-deliberative, and could requisition assistance only through civil authorities according to law (Arts. 109–111, 115, and 125; cont. 1914, same articles). The electoral quartering requirement remained in Article 124.
REG-REL—Religion:
Religious liberty continued under the laws and the supreme inspection of all worship by the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive] (Art. 22(13); cont. 1914, Art. 22(13)). The Nation retained the Derecho de Patronato Eclesiástico [Right of Ecclesiastical Patronage], exercisable under the Ley de 28 de julio de 1824 [Law of 28 July 1824] (Art. 112; cont. 1914, Art. 112).
ECO-INF—Infrastructure:
The territory to be ceded by the States for federal works now expressly included aerodromos [aerodromes], alongside forts, wharves, warehouses, shipyards, penitentiaries, communication routes, quarantine stations, and national buildings (Art. 19, base 7; cf. 1914, Art. 19, base 7: “[…] forts, wharves, warehouses, shipyards, penitentiaries, communication routes, quarantine stations, national buildings, and other works indispensable to the general Administration.”).
Federal legislative and executive jurisdiction retained Correos, Telégrafos y Teléfonos [Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones], navigation, wharves, and national roads, and now expressly included aerial navigation (Art. 19, base 9; cf. 1914, Art. 19, base 9: “[…] maritime, coastal, and fluvial navigation and wharves and national roads […]”). A new sole paragraph expressly authorized federal provisions governing vehículos de tracción mecánica [mechanically propelled vehicles] on national roads. The definition of roads crossing a State, Territory, or the Federal District and extending beyond its boundaries remained.
National legislative competence and presidential regulatory competence now expressly included Sanidad [Public Health] (Arts. 19, base 17, and 79(10); cf. 1914, Art. 79(10): “To regulate the postal, telegraphic, and public or private telephone services […]”). Legislative approval of communication-route concessions and national-interest contracts, the issuance of navigation patents, and legislation upon maritime port and coastal security remained (Arts. 58(10), 58(21), and 79(12); cont. 1914, same provisions).
CON-FIN—Final Provisions:
Promulgation and entry into force depended upon the Congreso Nacional [National Congress] finding, after scrutiny, that the State legislative assemblies had ratified the amendments and additions (Art. 135; cf. 1914, Art. 135: “[…] at least two-thirds of the Assemblies have ratified the present Constitution.”). The 1914 provision concerned district plenipotentiary assemblies and scrutiny by the constituent congress; the 1922 provision concerned State legislative assemblies and the national legislature.
Seven-year executive and judicial terms were counted from 19 April of the election year; the census basis and official computation of Independence from 19 April 1810 and Federation from 20 February 1859 remained (Arts. 127–129; cont. 1914, Arts. 127 and 129; cf. 1914, Art. 128: “[…] seven years […] from 19 April 1915.”). Article 129 was a general provision, not the transitory provision.
The Disposición Transitoria [Transitory Provision] required immediate election of the First and Second Vice Presidents after promulgation (Art. 136). The Disposición Final [Final Provision] repealed the Constitution of 13 June 1914 (Art. 137; cf. 1914, Art. 141: “The Provisional Constitutional Statute of 19 April 1914 is repealed.”). The concluding attestation was dated 19 June 1922 at the Palacio Federal Legislativo [Federal Legislative Palace], Caracas; the execution order was dated 24 June at the Palacio Federal [Federal Palace], Caracas, and signed by V. Márquez Bustillos and the Ministers.
Source note: this entry follows the recension of the Centro para la Integración y el Derecho Público [Centre for Integration and Public Law] (CIDEP), collated at the specified loci with the CIDEP-hosted scan of Leyes y Decretos de Venezuela [Laws and Decrees of Venezuela], volume 45 (1922), published by the Academia de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales [Academy of Political and Social Sciences], Caracas, 1994. The scanned witness supplies the words omitted from Articles 35 and 113 of the modern transcription and confirms the readings of Articles 26 and 98(11), on printed pages 235, 243, and 244. The antecedent is the Constitution of June 1914, not the separate Provisional Constitutional Statute of April 1914. 1922 recension, 1922 scanned collection, 1914 recension.
*
16). The Constitution of 1925
The 1925 Constitución de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Constitution of the United States of Venezuela] was declared sanctioned at the Palacio Federal Legislativo [Federal Legislative Palace], Caracas, on 24 June 1925, following the unanimous State ratification recorded in the agreement reproduced by the Portal Iberoamericano de Derecho de la Cultura [Ibero-American Portal of Cultural Law]. The concluding attestation in CIDEP bears the same date. The execution order was dated 1 July 1925 at the Palacio Federal [Federal Palace], Caracas, under the presidency of Juan Vicente Gómez.
DOC-PRE—Preamble:
The collated enacting formula identifies the Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela] and invokes Article 133 of the existing Pacto Federal [Federal Compact]:
“The Congress of the United States of Venezuela, in the name of Almighty God, and in exercise of the faculty conferred upon it by Article 133 of the Federal Compact in force, decrees the present Constitution.”
The invocation and article reference corresponded to those of the antecedent (cf. 1922, enacting formula: “[…] in exercise of the faculty conferred upon it by Article 133 of the Federal Compact in force […]”).
Textual correction: the formula and prefatory date are supplied from the reproduction identified in the source note. That witness gives Article 133 and an agreement dated 24 June 1925; the modern CIDEP file prints Article 126 and 24 May 1928 in these positions. The two readings and the basis of the correction are recorded in the accompanying verification record.
FND-TER—Territory:
Article 1 combined the definition of the Nation as a political compact under the name Estados Unidos de Venezuela [United States of Venezuela] with its declared independence, and expressly mentioned foreign protection as well as domination (cf. 1922, Arts. 8–9: “[…] in a compact of political association with the name United States of Venezuela.”“[…] free and independent of every foreign power or domination […]”). The governmental form appeared separately in Article 13.
The territorial reference to the Capitanía General de Venezuela [Captaincy General of Venezuela] and treaty modifications remained. The prohibition upon territorial alienation expressly included transfer and temporary alienation (Art. 2; cf. 1922, Art. 7: “The territory of the Nation may not be alienated, leased, or ceded in any manner to a foreign power.”). Articles 3–4 distinguished the States, Distrito Federal [Federal District], Territorios Federales [Federal Territories], and Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies], and enumerated the same twenty States named in Article 19 of 1922.
Article 5 retained the 1856 boundary reference, the modifications of 1909, and the Aragua–Carabobo agreement of 1917, while expressly accounting for the creation of the federal territorial divisions. It also authorized adjoining States to modify their common boundary by agreements approved by their legislatures, including reciprocal territorial compensation or cession (cf. 1922, Art. 2: “[…] the modifications established in the Protocol concluded at Maracay on 31 January 1917 by the Plenipotentiaries of Aragua and Carabobo […]”).
The Distrito Federal [Federal District] was expressly composed of the Departamentos Libertador y Vargas [Libertador and Vargas Departments], with the same city and outlying parishes enumerated for Libertador. Its municipal powers remained subject to the statutory restriction concerning federal political action (Art. 6; cont. 1922, Arts. 4 and 58(1), as to the territory and that restriction). Caracas remained the capital and seat of the government, subject to the specified wartime transfers and presidential official visits (Arts. 7 and 100, nums. 24(b) and 25; cf. 1922, Art. 6: “[…] the Federal Executive may establish its temporary residence at any other point within the Federal District when an unforeseen circumstance requires it.”).
Amazonas and Delta Amacuro remained Federal Territories. Their boundaries and those of the Federal District could be modified by agreements with neighbouring State governments, approved by the national legislature and the affected State legislatures (Art. 8). The population and administrative-capacity requirements for statehood remained and extended to subsequently created Territories (Art. 9; cont. 1922, Art. 5, as to those requirements). The Dependencias Federales [Federal Dependencies] comprised the Venezuelan Caribbean islands except Margarita, identified with Nueva Esparta, and remained directly administered by the federal executive until elevated by law to territorial status (Art. 10; cf. 1922, Art. 5, sole paragraph: “[…] until they are populated and may constitute one or more Territories.”).
Inter-State boundary controversies were assigned to the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] under the statutory procedure (Art. 11; cf. 1922, Art. 3: “[…] submitted by the Chamber of the Senate […] to a tribunal of arbitrators empowered to decide in equity, freely appointed by the Federal Executive.”).
POW-LEG—Congress:
The Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [Congress of the United States of Venezuela] retained its two Chambers (Art. 55; cont. 1922, Art. 34). The representation ratio, minimum State representation, equal number of Suplentes [Alternates] for Deputies, three-year legislative terms, and nationality and age requirements for Deputies remained (Arts. 56–58; cont. 1922, Arts. 35–37). Article 58 designated the Indigenous population excluded from the representation count as indígenas no reducidos [unassimilated Indigenous persons] (cf. 1922, Art. 37, sole paragraph: “Indigenous persons living in a savage state shall not be included in the population basis.”). State assemblies retained the election of two Senators and two Alternates; senatorial eligibility now specified age above thirty (Arts. 60–61; cf. 1922, Art. 40: “[…] to have attained thirty years of age.”).
The Cámara de Diputados [Chamber of Deputies] retained the voto de censura [vote of censure] against Ministers, but the President was not obliged to remove a censured Minister unless the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] declared legal cause for prosecution (Art. 59(1); cf. 1922, Art. 38(1): “To cast a vote of censure against the Ministers of the Departments, who shall thereby cease in their offices.”). Election of the Procurador general de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] no longer appeared among the Chamber’s functions and was assigned to the President by Article 113.
The Cámara del Senado [Chamber of the Senate] retained the functions concerning the Panteón Nacional [National Pantheon], foreign gifts and distinctions, and military and naval promotions; referral of State boundary disputes was not retained in its enumeration (Art. 62; cont. 1922, Art. 41, nums. 2–5; see 1925, Arts. 11 and 120(16)). Ordinary sessions lasted ninety non-extendable days, rather than ending on 5 July. Extraordinary sessions were confined to the convocation’s subjects and legislation connected with them (Art. 63; cf. 1922, Art. 42: “[…] shall close their sessions, without extension, on the following 5 July.”).
Quorum, public or secret sessions, internal rules, concurrent sittings, incompatibilities, remuneration, contracting restrictions, and vacancies continued in Articles 64–69 and 72–73, corresponding to Articles 43–48 and 52–53 of 1922. Article 70 specified the protections from detention, interference with functions, and compulsory participation in civil proceedings during legislative immunity. It also prohibited waiver by the Chambers (cf. 1922, Art. 49: “[…] immunity, which consists in the suspension of every civil or criminal proceeding, whatever its origin or nature.”). Article 71 retained non-responsibility for opinions, without separately repeating the antecedent’s reference to votes (cf. 1922, Art. 51: “The members of the Chambers are not responsible for the vote or the opinions they express therein.”).
Joint sittings, the distinction between Leyes [Laws] and Acuerdos [Resolutions], and the joint assembly’s presiding officers remained (Arts. 74–76; cont. 1922, Arts. 54–56). Article 77 retained constitutional elections, presidential resignation, reports and accounts, and territorial admission, and expressly included examination of additional credits. It did not reproduce the annual appointment of a Commander in Chief or the separate reference to vice-presidential resignations in Article 57 of 1922.
Common legislative powers were enumerated in Article 78. They included taxes, debt and loans, offices, currency, treaties, contracts, national immovables, the budget, census, pensions, military recruitment, war, ports, and federal legislation. Amnesties appeared among these powers (Art. 78(16); cf. 1922, Art. 79(25): “To grant amnesties and pardons.”). Mining concessions and public-land titles granted under their respective laws were excepted from congressional approval (Art. 78(6); cf. 1922, Art. 58(10)(a): “To approve or deny […] mining titles and concessions and alienations of public lands […]”).
Legislative initiative required at least three members of a Chamber or the executive acting through the competent Minister; the prior requirement of press publication for ministerial proposals was not repeated (Art. 79; cf. 1922, Art. 59: “[…] the project must previously be published in the press and presented by the Minister to one of the Chambers.”). Three discussions in each Chamber remained. Unresolved disagreements proceeded to a joint sitting for decision by majority vote (Arts. 80–82; cf. 1922, Art. 62: “[…] the project shall lapse once the initiating Chamber separately resolves to ratify its insistence.”). Pending projects required renewed presentation and the discussions applicable to new projects (Art. 84; cf. 1922, Art. 65: “[…] in the Chamber in which they did not undergo them.”).
The enacting formula, complete restatement of amending laws, repeal formalities, and nondelegation remained (Arts. 85–87 and 91; cont. 1922, Arts. 66–68 and 70). Articles 88–90 prescribed authenticated duplicates, publication, correction of printing errors, and commencement on the stated date or, absent one, upon publication. Article 92 retained the lesser-penalty exception to nonretroactivity and specified immediate application of procedural laws to pending proceedings, with the stated protection for previously produced evidence in criminal causes (cf. 1922, Art. 71: “No legislative provision shall have retroactive effect, except in matters of judicial procedure and where it imposes a lesser penalty.”).
ECO-TES—Treasury:
Article 48 expressly prohibited collection of taxes not authorized by law and retained the requirement of a budgetary appropriation or a prior Crédito Adicional [Additional Credit], with civil liability for unauthorized disbursements (cf. 1922, Art. 118: “No expenditure shall be made from the National Treasury for which Congress has not expressly appropriated an amount in the General Budget of Public Expenditures or an Additional Credit has not been agreed with the affirmative vote of the Council of Ministers […]”).
The customs receipts, Impuesto Territorial [Territorial Tax], and revenues from saltworks, pearls, mines, and public lands were assigned to the Tesoro Nacional [National Treasury]. State ownership of the specified resources within their territory remained expressly recognized, with federal administration (Art. 15, nums. 14 and 18). The States instead received a Situado Constitucional [Constitutional Allocation] of ten million bolívares annually, distributed according to population. After three years the aggregate allocation was to equal twelve per cent of revenue receipts in the preceding calendar year (Art. 17(4)(1); cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 28: “[…] to cede to the Nation the administration of this revenue, for distribution of its net proceeds among all the States proportionally to the number of their inhabitants.”).
State revenues also included papel sellado [stamped paper], consumption taxes, and other authorized contributions; municipal revenues were separately regulated. The restrictions included prohibitions upon taxing reserved federal or municipal subjects, inter-State transit, goods before consumption, and unequal treatment by origin, and upon requiring federal fiscal cooperation or payment in personal labour or its monetary equivalent (Arts. 17(4) and 18(3); cf. 1922, Art. 19, bases 10–13: “[…] only national customs houses shall exist […]”“[…] not to create taxes whose establishment requires the cooperation of the Nation’s fiscal administration.”). Exports remained untaxed (Art. 15(14); cont. 1922, Art. 117).
The Chambers continued to legislate upon taxation, loans, debt, currency, and the Presupuesto General de Rentas y Gastos Públicos [General Budget of Public Revenues and Expenditures]. They could not order particular disbursements outside the Budget Law through special laws or resolutions (Art. 78, nums. 1–4 and 9). The gold standard and prohibition upon compulsory circulation of paper-represented value remained; the separate prohibition upon issuing paper currency in Article 119 of 1922 was not repeated (cf. 1922, Art. 119: “[…] issue paper currency, or declare banknotes or any value represented on paper to be in compulsory circulation.”).
The President administered national revenues through the respective Ministers and could decree additional credits in Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] for insufficient or unprovided appropriations, provided funds were available without impairing ordinary expenditure. The joint legislature examined those credits against the constitutional procedure. The responsible Minister prepared the annual proposed budget in consultation with the other Ministers (Arts. 100, nums. 19 and 30; 77(6); and 109; cf. 1922, Art. 118: “Every Additional Credit must be submitted to the approval of Congress at its next meeting.”).
Public contracts retained the prohibition upon transfer to foreign governments and the Venezuelan jurisdictional clause. Article 50 additionally prohibited contracting with, or permitting assignment to, companies not legally domiciled in Venezuela (cf. 1922, Art. 121: “Companies formed in execution of such contracts shall establish their legal domicile in Venezuela.”). Article 24 expressly prohibited State and municipal foreign loans.
POW-EXE—Executive:
The Presidente de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela [President of the United States of Venezuela] continued to exercise the federal executive with the Ministros del Despacho [Ministers of the Departments]. Article 94 expressly provided for execution through federal employees and agents, with State assistance in the constitutional cases (Arts. 93–94; cont. 1922, Art. 72, as to the President and Ministers).
There was one Vicepresidente de la República [Vice President of the Republic], with the same nationality, secular-status, age-above-thirty, and civil-and-political-rights requirements as the President (Art. 95; cf. 1922, Art. 74: “In this same sitting a First and a Second Vice President shall be elected […]”). The legislature elected both within the first fifteen days after installation, with at least five days’ notice published in the Gaceta Oficial [Official Gazette] (Arts. 96–97). These articles did not repeat the secret-ballot and absolute-majority formula of Article 76 of 1922. The oath was taken before the legislature or, if necessary, the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] (Art. 99; cont. 1922, Art. 78, as to the alternative institutions).
The Vice President supplied both temporary and absolute presidential vacancies; failing him, the Court’s President assumed the executive and convened elections for the remainder of the term (Art. 98; cf. 1922, Art. 77: “Temporary absences of the President of the United States of Venezuela shall be supplied by the Minister of the Departments designated by him.”). The President could communicate instructions from anywhere within the Republic without leaving office merely through absence from the capital. Official visits could temporarily establish the executive seat where the President was situated, with current administrative business in Caracas regulated by decree (Arts. 98 and 100(25); cf. 1922, Art. 73: “The functions of the Federal Executive may not be exercised outside the Federal District except in the cases provided by this Constitution.”).
Article 100 retained and restated powers concerning appointments, laws and regulations, administration, loans, treaties, national contracts, revenues, nationality, navigation, military command, and extraordinary sessions. It expressly prescribed the participation of the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] for the enumerated decisions. Publication of laws was required as soon as possible, without the former fifteen-day limit (Art. 100(7); cf. 1922, Art. 79(7): “[…] within the first fifteen days after receiving them […]”). Admission of foreigners remained subject to presidential prohibition; expulsion was now referred to international law and national legislation, without the former property-value condition (Art. 100(22); cf. 1922, Art. 79(21): “If they possess such property, expulsion may be decreed only when the immovables are valued below forty thousand bolívares […]”).
The President could exercise powers delegated by State constitutions and reorganize States controlled by rebel forces or whose governments participated in rebellion. Suspension of guarantees was governed by Article 36 and Article 100(24). Pardons remained presidential; amnesties appeared among the common legislative powers (Arts. 100, nums. 24(d), 27–28; and 78(16); cf. 1922, Art. 79(25): “To grant amnesties and pardons.”). The annual message and responsibility for treason and ordinary crimes remained. Article 103 expressly terminated both presidential and vice-presidential functions on 19 April of the final year (Arts. 101–103; cont. 1922, Arts. 80, 82–83, as to the corresponding presidential provisions).
Ministerial countersignature remained, subject to the new Secretario general [Secretary General], who countersigned appointments of Ministers and the Federal District Governor and could transmit presidential instructions. His own appointment required no ministerial countersignature (Arts. 104–105; cf. 1922, Art. 86: “All acts of the President shall be countersigned by the Minister or Ministers to whose departments those acts correspond […]”). Ministers and the Secretary General had to be Venezuelan by birth, above thirty, and in possession of civil and political rights; the prior ministerial secular-status requirement was not repeated (Art. 106; cf. 1922, Art. 85: “[…] of secular status […]”).
Article 107 defined deliberation in Gabinete [Cabinet] and permitted attendance by the Vice President and Secretary General. Personal and joint ministerial responsibility, annual Memorias [Reports] and accounts, and the right and obligation to appear before the Chambers remained (Arts. 108–110; cont. 1922, Arts. 87–90). Article 109 assigned preparation of the proposed budget to the Minister responsible for national revenues, in consultation with the other Ministers.
POW-JUD—Judicial Power:
Judicial power remained vested in the Corte Federal y de Casación [Federal and Cassation Court] and the other tribunals established by law (Art. 116; cont. 1922, Art. 92). Article 117 expressly prescribed fixed terms for all federal judges and removal during those terms only in the statutory cases.
The Court retained seven Vocales [Members] with seven-year terms, Venezuelan nationality by birth, age above thirty, and qualification as attorneys; the secular-status condition was not repeated (Art. 118; cf. 1922, Art. 94, sole paragraph: “[…] more than thirty years of age, of secular status, and attorneys of the Republic.”). The national legislature elected each Member separately by absolute majority and then seven numbered Alternates, who supplied temporary and absolute vacancies in that order (Art. 119; cf. 1922, Art. 95: “[…] each Group shall present two candidates, from among whom Congress shall elect the Member […]”; Art. 97: “[…] the Court itself selecting by lot, in each case, one of the Alternates.”).
Article 120 retained jurisdictions concerning high officials, diplomats, cassation, prizes, public-authority disputes, judicial competence, unconstitutional laws, conflicts of laws, State autonomy, contracts and concessions, foreign judgments, and claims against the Nation. It expressly assigned State boundary disputes to the Court (Art. 120(16); cf. 1922, Art. 3: “[…] a tribunal of arbitrators empowered to decide in equity, freely appointed by the Federal Executive.”). The separate reference to criminal proceedings against Vice Presidents in Article 98(2) of 1922 was not repeated.
The nullity of an unconstitutional law was confined to the conflicting provisions unless their connection with the remainder warranted nullity of the whole law. Executive decrees and regulations altering the spirit, reason, or purpose of a law were expressly subject to annulment. Contract and concession controversies followed juicio contencioso [contentious proceedings], subject to the specified reservation for matters committed by the applicable law to executive decision without judicial recourse (Art. 120, nums. 9, 12–13; cf. 1922, Art. 98(11): “To declare the nullity of national or State laws when they conflict with the Constitution of the Republic.”; Art. 98(15): “To hear controversies arising from contracts or negotiations concluded by the President of the Republic.”). The preliminary procedure for accusations remained in Article 121; Article 122 required an annual report indicating the legal reforms the Court considered appropriate (cont. 1922, Art. 98, procedural paragraph, and Art. 99, as to preliminary determination and annual reporting).
The Ministerio Público Federal [Federal Public Ministry] received a separate constitutional title and was defined as the organ of the federal executive before federal and State judicial authorities. The Procurador general de la Nación [Procurator General of the Nation] was freely appointed and removed by the President (Arts. 111–113; cf. 1922, Art. 38(2): “To elect every three years […] the Procurator General of the Nation and two Alternates […]”). The former three-year term and the eligibility requirements of Article 103 of 1922 were not repeated in these provisions. The Procurator’s functions comprised supervision of lawful adjudication in the specified causes, legal opinions, accusations against officials, fiscal intervention, and judicial representation of the Nation, subject to lawful executive instructions (Arts. 114–115; cf. 1922, Art. 105(7): “[…] in either case, to comply with the instructions communicated by the Federal Executive.”).
POW-SUB—Subnational Government:
The States retained autonomy, political equality, nondelegated sovereignty, and duties concerning national independence and integrity. The republican, federal, democratic, elective, representative, responsible, and alternating governmental form applied expressly to both the Union and each State (Arts. 12–13; cont. 1922, Arts. 9 and 19, opening paragraph and bases 2, 5–6). Article 51 expressly included municipal power in the distribution of public power (cf. 1922, Art. 32: “Public Power is distributed between the Federal Power and the Power of the States […]”).
The Distritos [Districts] retained municipal autonomy in their administrative regime. Wartime assumption of their administration by the State executive was remitted to the State constitution, rather than the nationally prescribed assembly or court approval (Art. 14; cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 4: “[…] with the vote of its Legislative Assembly, and, if the latter is not assembled, with that of its Supreme Court.”).
Article 15 enumerated federal competences; Article 16 required compliance with federal enactments within those competences. The enumeration expressly included banking and credit institutions, social provision, labour, natural-resource conservation, military aviation, and the other listed matters (cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 16: “[…] one and the same substantive civil, commercial, and criminal legislation, as well as procedural legislation.”; base 17: “To reserve to the Nation the faculty of legislating upon Public Health and Public Instruction […]”).
States retained constitution-making, elections, justice, revenue organization, and their other reserved autonomous rights. They could retain or change their names and could delegate specified powers to the President through their constitutions (Art. 17; cf. 1922, Art. 106: “Everything not expressly attributed in this Constitution to the General Administration of the Nation belongs to the competence of the States.”). The uniform three-year State term prescribed in that antecedent was not repeated. Municipal functions, ejidos [municipal common lands], and revenues were separately enumerated in Article 18.
Article 20 expressly authorized the enumerated federal judges, public-ministry agents, administrative and fiscal officers, and forces within the States, limited their jurisdiction to their functions, and prohibited incompatible State duties. It did not repeat removal upon a State government’s legally grounded request (cf. 1922, Art. 113: “[…] subject to immediate removal or replacement […] upon the request of the government of the respective State for a legal cause.”).
Recognition of public and judicial acts, federal works, prohibited levies, and the prohibition upon inter-State war remained regulated (Arts. 19 and 21–23; cont. 1922, Art. 19, bases 7, 15, and 23–24, as to those obligations). States and municipalities could not negotiate foreign loans (Art. 24). States retained the right to unite and recover their separate status (Art. 25; cont. 1922, Art. 20), but the distinct guarantee concerning Senate and Court-election representation in Article 21 of 1922 was not repeated.
CON-AMD—Amendment of the Constitution:
The charter expressly provided for total or partial reform. State-initiated reform still required requests from three-fourths of the Asambleas Legislativas de los Estados [State Legislative Assemblies] in ordinary session, action by the Congreso Nacional [National Congress] in ordinary session, and concurrence upon the points supported by a majority of States (Art. 123; cf. 1922, Art. 130: “This Constitution is susceptible of amendments or additions […]”).
Legislative procedure, submission to State assemblies for definitive ratification, and return of the final State vote to the national legislature for scrutiny remained (Arts. 124–125 and 127; cont. 1922, Arts. 131–132 and 134). For amendments initiated by the national legislature, the ratification threshold was two-thirds of the State assemblies (Art. 126; cf. 1922, Art. 133: “[…] they shall not be considered sanctioned without ratification by three-fourths of the Legislative Assemblies of the States.”).
CIV-SUF—Suffrage:
Article 32(12) placed electoral capacity within the right of suffrage. Venezuelans more than twenty-one years of age who were neither under interdiction nor subject to a criminal sentence entailing political disqualification were electors and eligible for public offices, subject to constitutional restrictions and the special competence or capacity required by law for particular offices (cf. 1922, Art. 12: “Venezuelans more than twenty-one years of age who possess the qualifications required by this Constitution are electors and eligible.”; Art. 22(11): “Freedom of suffrage, with no restrictions other than those established by this Constitution and the laws.”).
Direct and secret voting, based on the federal electoral census, remained prescribed for the Consejos Municipales [Municipal Councils], Asambleas Legislativas [Legislative Assemblies], and congressional Deputies (Art. 17(1); cont. 1922, Art. 19, base 20, as to those elections). The same provision did not repeat the antecedent’s prescription of indirect or delegated voting for other popularly elected officials. Deputy elections and population qualifications remained in Articles 56 and 58 (cont. 1922, Arts. 35 and 37).
The national legislature elected the President and one Vice President (Arts. 95–97; cf. 1922, Art. 74: “[…] a First and a Second Vice President […]”). Article 47 required troops to remain quartered during electoral periods (cf. 1922, Art. 124: “During electoral periods, members of the National Public Force who are on duty shall remain quartered during voting.”).
CIV-CIT—Citizenship:
The charter used nationality by birth and nationality acquired by naturalization (Art. 27; cf. 1922, Art. 10: “Venezuelan nationality is of origin or acquired.”). Birth in the Republic and descent from Venezuelan parents remained the grounds for nationality by birth (Art. 28; cont. 1922, Art. 10(a)).
The naturalization categories retained adult children born abroad of a father or mother Venezuelan by naturalization, statutory naturalization, and a foreign woman married to a Venezuelan under the stated conditions. The republics whose nationals could acquire nationality through residence and declaration were designated Ibero-American, rather than Hispanic-American (Art. 29; cf. 1922, Art. 10(b)(2): “Persons born or to be born in the Hispanic-American Republics […]”). The declaration and publication procedure remained, with acquisition dependent upon completed publication in the Gaceta Oficial [Official Gazette]; Article 30 did not separately repeat the requirement that the executive order that publication (cont. 1922, Art. 11, as to registration and publication).
Article 31 expressly required defence of the Nation and obedience to the Constitution, laws, and lawful public acts. Persons undertaking service against Venezuela were punishable under the law as traidores a la Patria [traitors to the Fatherland] (cf. 1922, Art. 13: “All Venezuelans have the duty to serve the Nation as the laws provide.”; Art. 24(1): “For undertaking to serve against Venezuela.”). Interdiction and politically disqualifying criminal sentences appeared in the suffrage provision, while unauthorized acceptance by officials of foreign gifts and distinctions was separately punishable under Article 49 (Arts. 32(12) and 49; cf. 1922, Art. 24(3): “For accepting, while an employee, gifts, offices, honours, or rewards from foreign governments without prior corresponding authorization from the Senate.”).
Foreigners’ rights and duties remained subject to law and could not exceed those of Venezuelans. The political-participation and indemnification provisions continued, with municipalities expressly included in the latter; the treaty restriction appeared in the presidential treaty power (Arts. 37–39 and 100(20); cont. 1922, Arts. 15–18, as to the corresponding rules).
RTS-GAR—Rights:
Article 32 retained guarantees concerning life, property, correspondence, the home, personal liberty, expression, movement, industry, assembly, association, petition, suffrage, teaching, religion, individual security, and equality. It expressly added work to industrial liberty and placed the right to accuse officials within the enumeration (Art. 32, nums. 8 and 11; cont. 1922, Art. 116, as to accusation).
The property provision expressly required compliance with laws concerning public hygiene and conservation of forests and waters (Art. 32(2); cf. 1922, Art. 22(2): “[…] judicial decision, sanitary measures in accordance with law, and taking for works of public utility […]”). The secrecy of domestic and private papers was qualified by their lack of relation to the proceeding; entry into the home could implement lawful judicial decisions in proceedings generally, alongside crime prevention and sanitary visits (Art. 32, nums. 3–4; cf. 1922, Art. 22(3): “[…] always preserving secrecy concerning domestic and private matters.”; Art. 22(4): “[…] to execute judicial decisions in matters of criminal procedure […]”).
Expression remained subject to responsibility for the enumerated offences. The specific expression-related bail sentence was not repeated; bail appeared in the general security provision (Art. 32, nums. 6 and 15(f); cf. 1922, Art. 22(6): “[…] the accused may furnish bail securing provisional liberty […] until final judgment […]”). The association guarantee referred generally to statutory restrictions and prohibitions instead of the two laws dated 1837 and 1874 (Art. 32(9); cf. 1922, Art. 22(9): “[…] with the exceptions established by the laws of 23 February 1837 and 5 May 1874.”). Petitioners had a right to a timely answer; the former collective-petition signature and factual-responsibility clauses were not repeated (Art. 32(10); cf. 1922, Art. 22(10): “If the petition is submitted by several persons, the first five answer for the authenticity of the signatures, and all for the truth of the facts.”).
Individual security retained natural judges, pre-existing law, detention formalities, the thirty-day preliminary-investigation limit, protection against self-incrimination and incommunicado detention, the twenty-year corporal-penalty ceiling, and prohibition upon a second trial for the same punishable act. Article 32(15) additionally mentioned ascendants, release following a final judicial decision removing the grounds of detention, release upon sufficient bail in statutory cases, and prohibition of perpetual penalties even when non-corporal (cf. 1922, Art. 22(14)(8): “Nor be condemned to corporal punishment for more than twenty years.”). Equality expressly included equal legal protection, statutory limits upon exemptions from contributions, and an exception for diplomatic forms of address (Art. 32(16); cf. 1922, Art. 22(15)(3): “No official form of address shall be given other than Citizen and You.”).
Unenumerated rights remained recognized (Art. 33; cont. 1922, Art. 23). The prohibition upon impairment expressly extended to federal laws, State constitutions and laws, and municipal ordinances (Art. 34; cf. 1922, Art. 26: “[…] shall not be impaired or injured by laws regulating their exercise […]”). The responsibility provision included an exception for measures of national defence or preservation or restoration of peace adopted by competent officials in the cases of Article 36 (Art. 35; cf. 1922, Art. 25: “[…] are culpable and shall be punished according to law.”).
Suspension of guarantees required a declaration by the President in Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] during international or civil war or imminent danger of either. It lasted only until peace was restored and preserved life and the prohibition of infamous punishment. Confiscation was prohibited except for the specified reciprocal wartime reprisals. Arrest, confinement, and expulsion ceased with the circumstances occasioning them, except that expulsion of foreigners could remain unrevoked (Art. 36; cf. 1922, Art. 79(23)(d): “[…] to suspend […] rights whose exercise is incompatible with the defence of the country, except the inviolability of life.”).
REG-MIL—The Armed Force:
Federal competence expressly included the Ejército [Army], Armada [Navy], and Aviación Militar [Military Aviation]. States and municipalities could maintain only police and prison guards, apart from forces organized by federal order. The proportional contingent extended expressly to the States, Federal District, Territories, and Dependencies; the law could organize contractual enlistment as well as citizen militias (Art. 15(8); cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 22: “To supply the unarmed contingent proportionally corresponding to them to constitute the National Public Force […]”). National ownership of military materiel remained (Art. 15(8); cont. 1922, Art. 115).
The prohibition upon concurrent civil and military authority now expressly excepted the President and lawful wartime assignment of military functions to a civil officer (Art. 45; cf. 1922, Art. 111: “[…] except in cases of disturbance of public order.”). The armed force remained passive, obedient, and non-deliberative, with requisitions through civil authorities; the electoral quartering requirement referred to troops (Art. 47; cont. 1922, Art. 125, as to non-deliberation and requisitions; see also 1922, Art. 124).
The President retained direction of war, command of the Army and Navy, organization of the Army and national militia, and determination of force numbers (Art. 100(23); cont. 1922, Art. 79(22)). The Chambers retained the declaration of war and legislation upon formation and replacement of forces (Art. 78, nums. 14–15; cont. 1922, Art. 58, nums. 20 and 19). The 1925 enumeration did not retain the annual legislative appointment of a separate Commander in Chief or the associated qualification of presidential powers (cf. 1922, Art. 57(2): “To appoint each year, if deemed appropriate […] a Commander in Chief of the National Army, and determine his functions in the same act.”; Art. 79, sole paragraph: “[…] in conformity with what Congress determines when exercising attribution 2 of Article 57 […]”).
REG-REL—Religion:
Religious liberty remained under statutory regulation and the supreme inspection of worship by the Ejecutivo Federal [Federal Executive]. The guarantee now expressly preserved the Patronato Eclesiástico [Ecclesiastical Patronage] referred to in Article 52 (Art. 32(14); cf. 1922, Art. 22(13): “Religious liberty in accordance with the laws and under the supreme inspection of every form of worship by the Federal Executive.”). Exercise of that patronage under the Ley de 28 de julio de 1824 [Law of 28 July 1824] remained (Art. 52; cont. 1922, Art. 112).
ECO-INF—Infrastructure:
Federal competence retained aerial, maritime, and fluvial navigation, wharves, national roads, and Correos, Telégrafos y Teléfonos [Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones]. Article 15 expressly included wireless communications, landing works, cables aéreos de tracción [aerial traction cables], and railways even within one State, while reserving urban tramways and urban traction cables to the respective municipalities (Art. 15, nums. 13 and 15–16; cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 9: “[…] aerial, maritime, coastal, and fluvial navigation and wharves and national roads […]”). The rule against restricting navigation of waters requiring no special works remained.
Federal public works throughout the Nation were expressly provided for without excluding works undertaken by States and municipalities (Art. 15(19)). Article 21 authorized federal forts, wharves, warehouses, shipyards, penitentiaries, and the other enumerated establishments in State territory (cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 7: “To cede to the Government of the Federation the territory necessary to erect forts, aerodromes, wharves, warehouses, shipyards, penitentiaries, communication routes, quarantine stations, national buildings, and other works indispensable to the general Administration.”).
The Municipalidades [Municipalities] received express competence for police, supplies, cemeteries, municipal ornamentation, civil architecture, lighting, aqueducts, urban tramways, and other municipal services. Local hygiene remained subject to federal sanitary law, regulation, and inspection (Art. 18(1); cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 4: “[…] municipal autonomy of the Districts and their independence from the political power of the State in matters concerning their economic and administrative regime […]”).
Congressional approval covered the enumerated railway, traction-cable, telegraphic, wireless, immigration, and other national-interest contracts. Mining concessions and public-land titles issued according to their respective laws were excluded from that approval (Art. 78(6); cf. 1922, Art. 58(10): “To approve or deny […] mining titles and concessions and alienations of public lands […] concessions for constructing communication routes […]”). The legislative enumeration included navigation, communications, railways, roads, motor traffic, public lands, saltworks, pearl fisheries, and mines (Art. 78(18); cf. 1922, Art. 19, base 9, sole paragraph: “The Federal Power is authorized to issue legislative and executive provisions concerning mechanically propelled vehicle traffic upon those roads.”).
Presidential regulation of sanitary and communications services required the Consejo de Ministros [Council of Ministers] (Art. 100(10); cont. 1922, Art. 79(10), as to the services regulated). The competent Minister issued navigation patents and titles for public-land adjudications or leases and mining concessions (Art. 100, nums. 12 and 29; cf. 1922, Art. 79(18): “To administer public lands, mines, saltworks, and the distilled-spirits revenue in conformity with this Constitution and the laws.”).
CON-FIN—Final Provisions:
The seven-year federal period was counted from 19 April 1922, with legislative renewal within it (Art. 54; cf. 1922, Art. 128: “The constitutional terms of the Executive and Judicial branches of the Federal Power shall last seven years and shall be counted from 19 April of the election year.”). Article 128 continued the existing President, Vice President, and Court Members for the unexpired period, numbered the Court Alternates by their former electoral groups, retained Senators and Deputies for the remainder of their three-year terms, and required provision of the Procurator’s office under Article 113.
The Disposiciones Transitorias [Transitory Provisions] also authorized provisional presidential organization of the States pending their new constitutions and prescribed reciprocal renunciation of specified State and national fiscal claims through the fiscal year 1924–1925 (Arts. 129–130). These were not the transitory subject of 1922 (cf. 1922, Art. 136: “The First and Second Vice Presidents of the Republic for the present term shall be elected as soon as this Constitution is promulgated.”).
Promulgation and entry into force followed legislative scrutiny establishing State ratification (Art. 131; cont. 1922, Art. 135, as to scrutiny before commencement). The Constitution of 19 June 1922, ordered executed on 24 June 1922, was repealed (Art. 132; cf. 1922, Art. 137: “The Constitution of 13 June 1914 is repealed.”). The official computation of Independence and Federation remained in Article 26 (cont. 1922, Art. 129).
The concluding attestation was dated 24 June 1925 at the Palacio Federal Legislativo [Federal Legislative Palace], Caracas. The execution order was dated 1 July 1925 at the Palacio Federal [Federal Palace], Caracas, and signed by J. V. Gómez and the Ministers. The prefatory agreement of 24 June 1925 used in this apparatus is identified under DOC-PRE and in the source note.
Source note: this entry follows the recension of the Centro para la Integración y el Derecho Público [Centre for Integration and Public Law] (CIDEP), with the prefatory date and enacting formula corrected by collation with the reproduction in the Portal Iberoamericano de Derecho de la Cultura [Ibero-American Portal of Cultural Law], page 1. The Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes [Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library] catalogue independently records sanction on 24 June 1925 and execution and official publication on 1 July 1925. 1925 CIDEP recension, 1925 collation witness, 1925 catalogue record, 1922 antecedent.
