Political Constitution of the United Mexican States Constitution published in the Diario Ofical de la Federación of 5 February 1917 The C. First Head of the Constitutionalist Army, Encargado of the Executive Power of the Nation, on this date has formally addressed the following decree: VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, First Head of the Constitutionalist Army, Encargado of the Executive Power of the United Mexican States, make it known: That the Constituent Congress meeting in this city on the 1st of December of 1916, by virtue of the decree of convocation of 19 September of the same year, issued by the Office of the First Head, in accordance with that provided in Article 4 of the modifications that on the 14th of the cited month have been made to the decree of 12 December 1914, done in the city of the H. Veracruz, in addition to the Plan of Guadalupe, of 26 March of 1913, formally issue the following: Political Constitution of the United Mexican States that reforms that of 5 February 1857 TITLE ONE CHAPTER I Of Human Rights and Their Guarantees Article 1 In the United Mexican States all persons shall enjoy the human rights recognized in this Constitution and in the treaties to which the Mexican State is a party, as well as the guarantees for their protection, of which the exercise may not be restricted or suspended, except in the cases and under the conditions that this Constitution establishes. The norms concerning human rights shall be interpreted in accordance with this Constitution and with the international treaties of the matter, favoring at all times to persons the greatest possible [más amplia] protection. All the authorities, in the scope [ámbito] of their competences, have the obligation to promote, to respect, to protect and to guarantee the human rights in accordance with the principles of universality, interdependence, indivisibility and progressivity. Consequently, the State must prevent, investigate, sanction and make reparation for the violations of the human rights, in the terms that the law establishes. Slavery is prohibited in the United Mexican States. Slaves who enter the national territory from abroad will recover, by this act alone, their liberty and the protection of the laws. Any discrimination motivated by ethnic or national origin, gender, age, disabilities, social status, conditions of health, religion, opinions, preferences, civil estate or any other that infringes human dignity and has for its object to annul or to diminish the rights and freedoms of persons shall be prohibited. Article 2 The Mexican Nation is one and indivisible. The Nation has pluri-cultural composition based originally on its indigenous peoples, who are those who are descended from populations that inhabited the present territory of the country at the beginning of colonization and who preserve their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, or part of them. Consciousness of one's indigenous identity will be a fundamental criterion for determining to whom the provisions concerning indigenous peoples are applied. Communities composed of an indigenous people, are those that form a social, economic and cultural unity, living in a territory and that recognized their own authorities in accordance with their habits [usos] and customs. The right of the indigenous peoples to self-determination will be exercised within a constitutional framework of autonomy that assures the national unity. The recognition of indigenous peoples and communities will be [included] in the constitutions and laws of the federative entities, which must take into account, in addition to the general principles established in the preceding paragraphs of this article, ethno-linguistic criteria and physical settlement. A. This Constitution recognizes and guarantees the right of indigenous peoples and communities to self-determination and, consequently, to the autonomy to: I. Decide on their internal forms of coexistence and social, economic, political and cultural organization. II. Apply their own normative systems in the regulation and solution of their internal conflicts, subject to the general principles of this Constitution, respecting individual guarantees, human rights and, in relevant manner, the dignity and integrity of women. The law shall establish the cases and procedures of validation by the corresponding judges or courts. III. Elect according to their traditional norms, procedures and practices, to the authorities or representatives for the exercise of their own forms of internal government, guaranteeing the participation of women in conditions of equity as opposed to men, in a framework that respects the federal pact and the sovereignty of the States. IV. Preserve and enrich their languages, knowledge and all the elements that constitute their culture and identity. V. Preserve and improve the habitat and preserve the integrity of their lands in the terms established in this Constitution. VI. Accede, with respect to the forms and modalities of ownership and tenancy of the land established in this Constitution and in the laws of the matter, as well as the rights acquired by third parties or by members of the community, to the preferential use and enjoyment of the natural resources of the places [lugares] that the communities inhabit and occupy, except those that correspond to the strategic areas, in terms of this Constitution. For these effects the communities may associate in terms of law. VII. Elect, in the municipalities with indigenous population, representatives to the ayuntamientos [local or town councils]. The constitutions and laws of the federative entities recognize and regulate these rights in the municipalities, with the aim of strengthening the political participation and representation in accordance with their traditions and internal norms. VIII. Accede fully to jurisdictions of the State. To guarantee this right, in all the trials and proceedings in which they are parties, individually or collectively, their cultural customs and specifications must be taken into account respecting the precepts of this Constitution. The indigenous peoples have at all times the right to be assisted by interpreters and defenders who have knowledge of their language and culture. The constitutions and laws of the federative entities shall establish the characteristics of self-determination and autonomy that best express the situations and aspirations of the indigenous peoples in each entity, as well as the norms for the recognition of the indigenous communities as entities of public interest. B. The Federation, the States and the Municipalities, to promote the equality of opportunities of the indigenous peoples and to eliminate any discriminatory practice, shall establish institutions and determine the policies necessary to guarantee the effectiveness of the rights of the indigenous peoples and the full development of their peoples and communities, which must be designed and operated in conjunction with them. To reduce the gaps and shortfalls that affect the indigenous peoples and communities, these authorities, have the obligation to: I. Promote regional development in the indigenous zones with the objective to strengthen the local economies and to improve the living conditions of their peoples, through coordinated actions between the three orders [órdenes] of government, with the participation of the communities. The municipal authorities shall determine, equitably, the budget allocations that the communities administer directly for specific purposes. II. Guarantee and increase the levels of schooling, favoring bilingual and intercultural education, literacy, completion of basic education, productive training and media superior [high school] and superior [college] education. To establish a system of scholarships for indigenous students at all levels. To define and to develop educational programs of regional content that recognize the cultural heritage of their peoples, in accordance with the laws of the matter and in consultation with the indigenous communities. To promote respect and understanding of the diverse cultures existing in the Nation. III. Assuring the effective access to health services by the expansion of the coverage of the national system, properly using traditional medicine, as well as to support the nutrition of the indigenous peoples through food [alimentación] programs, especially for the infant population. IV. Improve the conditions of the indigenous communities and of their spaces for living and recreation, through actions that facilitate the access to public and private financing for the construction and improvement of housing, as well as extending coverage of the basic social services. V. Facilitate the incorporation of indigenous women to development, through support to productive projects, the protection of their health, the provision of incentives to encourage their education and their participation in decisionmaking related to community life. VI. Extend the communications network that enables the integration of the communities, through the construction and expansion of routes of communication [vías de comunicación] and telecommunication. Establish conditions so that the indigenous peoples and communities may acquire, operate and administer the media of communication, in the terms that the laws of the matter determine. VII. Supporting the productive activities and the sustainable development of the indigenous communities through actions to achieve the sufficiency of their economic income, the application of incentives for public and private investments that promote job creation, the incorporation of technologies to enhance their own productive capacity, as well as to assure equitable access to the systems of supply and commercialization. VIII. Establish social policies to protect the migrants of the indigenous peoples, both within the national territory and abroad, through actions to guarantee the labor rights of agricultural day laborers; to improve the conditions of health of women; to support with special programs of education and nutrition the children and youth of migrant families; to see to the respect of their human rights and to promote the diffusion of their cultures. IX. Consult with the indigenous peoples in elaboration of the National Plan of Development and [those of] the states and municipalities and, where appropriate, incorporate the recommendations and proposals that are made. To guarantee the compliance with the obligations specified in this part, the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union, the legislatures of the federative entities and the ayuntamientos, within the domain [ámbito] of theirrespective competences, shall establish the specific allocations [partidas] designated to fulfill these obligations in the budget of expenditures that approves them, as well as forms and procedures by which the communities participate in the exercise and the monitoring of them. Without prejudice to the rights established in favor of indigenous [persons], their communities and peoples, every community comparable to them will have in this regard the same rights and [those] as the law establishes. Article 3 Every individual has the right to receive education. The State—Federation, States, Federal District and Municipalities—shall impart preschool, primary, secondary and media superior [high school] education. Preschool, primary and secondary education compose the basic education; this and the media superior [high school [education]] will be obligatory. The education that the State imparts shall tend to harmoniously develop, all the faculties of the human being and shall foment in him, at the same time, a love of the Country [Patria], the respect for human rights and the consciousness of international solidarity, in independence and in justice. I. As the freedom of religious beliefs is guaranteed by Article 24, said education shall be secular and, for that reason, shall be maintained completely separate from any religious doctrine; II. The criteria which orient this education shall be based on the results of scientific progress, shall combat against ignorance and its effects, servitudes, fanaticism and prejudices. Additionally: a) It shall be democratic, considering democracy not only as a juridical structure and a political regime, but as a system of life founded on the constant economic, social and cultural betterment of the people; b) It shall be national insofar as—without hostility or exclusiveness—it shall attend to the comprehension of our problems, to the utilization of our resources, to the defense of our political independence, to the assurance of our economic independence and to the continuity and growth of our culture, and c) It shall contribute to a better human coexistence, to the end of strengthening the appreciation and respect for cultural diversity, the dignity of the person, the integrity of the family, the conviction of the general interest of society, the ideals of fraternity and equality of rights of all, avoiding the privileges of race, of religion, of groups, of sex or of individuals; III. In order to provide full compliance with that provided for in the second paragraph and in fraction II, the Federal Executive shall determine the plans and programs of study of preschool, primary, secondary and normal [teacher training/magesterio] education for all [of] the Republic. For these effects, the Federal Executive shall consider the opinion of the governments of the federative entities and of the Federal District, as well as the diverse social sectors involved in education, in the terms that the law specifies. IV. All education imparted by the State shall be gratuitous; V. In addition to imparting the preschool, primary, secondary and media superior [high school] education, specified in the first paragraph, the State shall promote and shall attend to all educational types and modalities—including initial education and higher education—necessary for the development of the Nation, it shall support scientific and technological investigation, and shall encourage the strengthening and diffusion of our culture. VI. Private persons [particulares] may impart education in all its types and modalities. In the terms that the law establishes, the State may grant and withdraw the official recognition of validity of the studies realized in private facilities. In the case of preschool, primary, secondary and normal education, the private persons must: a) Impart education that complies with the same objectives and criteria established in the second paragraph and fraction II, as well as comply with the plans and programs to which fraction III refers, and b) Obtain previously, in each case, the express authorization of the public power, in the terms that the law establishes; VII. The universities and other institutions of superior education to which the law grants autonomy, will have the faculty and the responsibility to govern themselves; they shall achieve their objectives to teach, to research and to disseminate culture in accordance with the principles of this Article, respecting the freedom of education and research and the free examination and discussion of ideas; they shall determine their plans and programs; they shall establish the terms of hiring, promotion and permanence of their academic personnel; and they shall administer their patrimony. The labor relationships, of their academic as well as administrative personnel, will be governed by part A of Article 123 of this Constitution, in the terms and with the modalities established by the Federal Law of Labor [Ley Federal de Trabajo] conforming to the proprietary characteristics of special work, in a manner that accords with the autonomy, and freedom of education and research and the objectives of the institutions to which this fraction refers; and VIII. The Congress of the Union, with the objective of unifying and coordinating education in all of the Republic, shall adopt [expedirá] the necessary laws, intended to distribute the educational social function between the Federation, the States and the Municipalities, to establish the economic support corresponding to this public service and to specify the sanctions applicable to the functionaries who do not comply with, or have complied with, the relevant provisions, as well as to all those who infringe them. Article 4 The man and the woman are equal before the law. It shall protect the organization and the development of the family. Every person has the right to decide in a free, responsible and informed manner concerning the number and spacing of their children. Every person has the right to a nutritious, and sufficient diet of quality. The State will guarantee it. Every person has the right to health protection. The law shall define the bases and modalities for the access to health services and shall establish the participation of the Federation and the federative entities in matters of general health, in conformity with the provisions of fraction XVI, of Article 73 of this Constitution. Every person has the right to a healthy environment for their development and wellbeing. The State will guarantee the respect for this right. Environmental damage and deterioration will generate responsibility for whoever provokes it in terms so provided by the law. Every person has the right to access to, provision of and disinfection of water [agua] for personal and domestic consumption in sufficient, healthy, acceptable and attainable form. The State will guarantee this right and the law shall define the bases, supports and modalities for the equitable access to and use and sustainability of water [hídricos] resources, establishing the participation of the Federation, the federative entities and the municipalities, as well as the participation of the citizenry for the attainment of these ends. Every family has the right to enjoy decent and proper housing. The law shall establish the instruments and supports necessary in order to reach this objective. In all the decisions and proceedings [actuaciones] of the State, it sees to and complies with the principle of the superior interest of the child, guaranteeing their rights to them in full manner. Children [masculine] and children [feminine] have the right to the satisfaction of their necessities of food, health, education and healthy recreation for their full development. This principle must guide the design, execution, monitoring [seguimiento] and evaluation of the public policies directed at the child. The ascendant family [ascendientes], guardians [tutores] and custodians have the obligation of preserving and of requiring the fulfillment of these rights and principles. The State shall grant facilities to individuals [particulares] to contribute to the fulfillment of the rights of children. Everyone has the right of access to culture and the enjoyment of the assets and services provided by the State in the matter, as well as the exercise of their cultural rights. The State shall promote the means for the dissemination and development of culture, attending to cultural diversity in all its manifestations and expressions with full [pleno] respect for creative freedom. The law shall establish the mechanisms for the access to and participation [in] any cultural event [manifestación]. Every person has the right to physical culture and the practice of sports. Their promotion, encouragement and stimulation, in accordance with the laws in the matter, corresponds to the State. Article 5 No person may be prevented from engaging in the profession, industry or commerce or work of their choice, if it is licit. The exercise of this freedom may only be restricted [vedarse] by judicial determination when the rights of third parties are infringed [ataquen], or by governmental resolution, issued in the terms that the law specifies, when the rights of society are violated [ofendan]. No one may be deprived of the products of their labor, except by judicial resolution. The Law shall determine in each State which professions require a degree [titulo] for their exercise, the conditions that must be met to obtain it and the authorities that can enact it. No one may be obligated to render personal services [trabajos] without just remuneration and without their full consent, which will conform [ajustará] to that provided in fractions I and II of Article 123, except the labor [trabajo] imposed as a penalty by the judicial authority. Concerning the public services, only military and jury service may be obligatory, in the terms established by the respective laws, as well as the performance of the council offices [cargos concejiles] and those of popular election, direct or indirect. The electoral and census functions will have an obligatory and gratuitous character, but those that are performed professionally in the terms of this Constitution and the corresponding laws shall be remunerated. The professional services of social character will be obligatory and remunerated in the terms of the law and with the exceptions that it specifies. The State may not permit a contract, pact or agreement to be effected that has the objective of the diminishment, loss or irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of a person, for any reason. Similarly, no agreement may be admitted in which a person agrees to his proscription or exile, or that temporarily or permanently renounces the exercise of a specific industrial or commercial profession. A labor contract will only obligate the rendering of the service agreed to and for the time that the law establishes, [and] may not exceed one year to the prejudice of the worker, and may extend, in no case, to the renunciation, loss, or diminishment of any political or civil rights. Default [falta] of compliance [with] such a contract, in that which concerns the worker, will only obligate them to the corresponding civil responsibility, but in no case may coercion [coacción] against their person be made. Article 6 The manifestation of ideas may not be the object of any judicial or administrative inquisition, except in the case where it attacks morals, the rights of third parties, provokes any crime, or disturbs the public order; the right to reply shall be exercised in the terms provided for by the law. For the right of the access to information, the Federation, the States and the Federal District, within the domain [ámbito] of their respective competences, will be governed by the following principles and bases: I. All the information held by any authority, entity, organ [órgano], and federal, state and municipal organ [organismo], is public and may only be temporarily reserved for reasons of public interest in the terms that the law establishes. In the interpretation of this right the principle of maximum publicity must prevail. II. The information that relates to private life and personal data will be protected in the terms and subject to the exceptions that the laws establish. III. Everyone, without necessity to prove [their] interest or to justify their use, will have free access to public information, to their personal data or to the rectification of it. IV. Mechanisms of access to information and procedures for expedited review shall be established. These proceedings shall be brought [sustanciarán] before organs or specialized and impartial organs [organismos], with autonomous operation, of management and of decision. V. The obligated subjects must preserve their documents in administrative archives, updated and published through available electronic media, the information complete and updated concerning their indicators of management and the exercise of the public resources. VI. The laws will determine the manner in which the obligated subjects must make public the information concerning the public resources entrusted to physical or juridical [morales] persons. VII. Non-observance of the provisions in matters of access to public information will be sanctioned in the terms that the laws provide. Article 7 Freedom of writing and publishing writings on any matter is inviolable. No law or authority may establish prior censorship, or require financing from authors or publishers, or restrict the freedom of the press, which shall be limited only by the respect for private life, morals and public peace. In no case may a printing press be sequestered as the instrument of an offense. The organic laws shall establish [dictarán] whatever provisions may be necessary to prevent, under pretext of a denunciation of offenses of the press, the imprisonment of the vendors, "papeleros" [newsboys], operarios [workmen], and other employees of the establishment publishing the writing denounced, unless their responsibility is previously established. Article 8 The public functionaries and employees shall respect the exercise of the right of petition, as long as it is formulated in writing and in a peaceful and respectful manner; but in political matters the use of this right may only be made by citizens of the Republic. Every petition shall be replied to in writing by the authority to whom it is directed, which has the obligation to inform the petitioner within a brief time. Article 9 The right to assemble or associate peacefully for any licit objective may not be restricted; but only the citizens of the Republic may do so to take part in the political matters of the country. No armed meeting, has the right to deliberate. No meeting or assembly shall be considered illegal, nor may it be dissolved, which has for its object the petitioning or the presentation of a protest against any act, to any authority, unless insults are proffered against it or violence is resorted to, or threats are used to intimidate or compel such authority to render a favorable decision. Article 10 The inhabitants of the United Mexican States have the right to possess arms in their homes, for their security and legitimate defense, with the exception of those prohibited by the Federal Law and of those reserved for the exclusive use of the Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard. The federal law shall determine the cases, conditions, requirements and places in which inhabitants may be authorized to carry arms. Article 11 Every person has the right to enter the Republic, to depart from it, to travel through its territory and to change their residence, without the necessity of a letter of security, passport, safe-conduct or any other similar requirement. The exercise of this right will be subordinated to the faculties of the judicial authority, in the cases of civil or criminal responsibility, and to those of the administrative authority insofar as it concerns the limitations that the laws impose concerning emigration, immigration and [the] general health of the Republic, or concerning pernicious foreigners resident in the country. In the case of persecution, for motives of [the] political order, any person has the right to solicit asylum; for causes of humanitarian character, refuge may be granted [recibará]. The law shall regulate the procedures and exceptions. Article 12 Titles of nobility, or hereditary prerogatives or honors may not be granted in the United Mexican States, nor will any effect be given to those granted by any other country. Article 13 No one may be tried by private laws or by special tribunals. No person or corporation may have privilege [fuero], or enjoy greater emoluments than those that are compensation for public services and which are established by the law. Military jurisdiction [fuero] will be recognized for the trial of crimes or offenses against military discipline; but the military tribunals may, in no case and for no motive, extend their jurisdiction over persons who do not belong to the Army [Ejército]. When a civilian [paisano] should be implicated in a military crime or offense [falta], the civil authority that corresponds will take cognizance of the case. Article 14 No law shall be given retroactive effect with prejudice to any person whatsoever. No [person] may be deprived of liberty or of their properties [propiedades], possessions or rights, except by way of trial before a previously established tribunal, in which the essential formalities of the procedure are complied with[,] and in accordance with the Laws adopted [expedidas] prior to the act. In the trials of the criminal order it shall be prohibited to interpose, by simple analogy, and likewise by majority opinion, any penalty that has not been established by a law exactly applicable to the crime that is [being] dealt with. In the trials of the civil order, the definitive sentence must conform to the letter of, or to the judicial interpretation of, the law, and, in default of this, must be founded on the general principles of the law. Article 15 The celebration of treaties for the extradition of political offenders [reos], or for those offenders [delincuentas] of the common order who have been held, in the condition of slaves, in the country where the offense was committed, may not be authorized, nor may any agreement or treaty by virtue of which the human rights recognized by this Constitution and in the international treaties to which the Mexican State is a party, are altered. Article 16 No one shall be disturbed [molestado] in their person, family, home, papers or possessions, except by virtue of a written order of the competent authority, that substantiates and motivates the legal cause of the procedure. Every person has the right to the protection of their personal data, to access, rectification and cancellation of it, as well as to express his opposition, in the terms that the law establishes, which shall establish the postulates [supuestos] of exception to the principles governing the treatment of data, for reasons of national security, provisions of public order, security and public health or to protect the rights of third parties [terceras]. No order for arrest may be issued [librarse] except by the judicial authority and only with the prior denunciation or complaint of an act that the law specifies as a crime, sanctions with a penalty deprivative of liberty and information exists which establishes that such an act has been committed and that the probability exists that the accused committed or participated in its commission. The authority that executes a judicial order of arrest, must place the accused at the disposal of the judge, without any delay and under their most strict responsibility. The contravention of that preceding [above] will be sanctioned by the penal law. Any person may detain the suspect at the moment that a crime is committed or immediately after it is committed, placing him without delay at the disposition of the closest authority, [and] then to the Public Ministry. There will be immediate record of the detention. Only in urgent cases, when it is a matter of a grave crime, so qualified by the law, and considering [ante] the justified risk that the suspect could evade the action of justice, provided they cannot appear before the judicial authority because of the hour, place or circumstance, the Public Ministry may, under its responsibility, order their detention, justifying and expressing the factors [indicios] that motivate it to proceed. In cases of urgency or flagrancy, the judge who is assigned to the detained must immediately confirm the detention or decree liberty under the reservations of law. The judicial authority, at the request of the Public Ministry and in the case of crimes of organized crime, may order [decretar] the temporary custody [arraigo] of a person, with the modalities of place and time that the law specifies, that may not exceed forty days, when it is necessary for the completion of the investigation, the protection of juridical persons or assets, or when there is a substantiated risk that the accused will be removed [sustraiga] from the course [acción] of justice. This period may be extended, whenever the Public Ministry proves that the causes that gave it origin subsist. In no case, may the total duration of the temporary custody exceed eighty days. By organized crime it] is understood [to mean] an organization of three or more persons, acting to commit crimes in permanent or reiterative form, in the terms of the law of the matter. No suspect [indiciado] may be held [retenido] by the Public Ministry for more than forty-eight hours, the period in which their liberty must be ordered or they must be placed at the disposition of the judicial authority; this period may be doubled in those cases that the laws specifies [prevea] as organized crime [delincuencia]. Every abuse of that previously provided shall be sanctioned by the criminal law. In any search order, that only the judicial authority may issue [expedir], on solicitation of the Public Ministry, the place that is to be inspected, the person or persons that are to be apprehended and the objects that are sought, which must be limited uniquely to the course of action [diligencia], will be specified, and a detailed report [acta], witnessed by [en presencia] two witnesses proposed by the occupant of the place searched or, in his absence or refusal, by the authority practicing the course of action, being drawn up to conclude it. Private communication is inviolable. The Law will criminally sanction any act that infringes the liberty and privacy of it, except when it is arises [aportadas] in voluntary form by any of the individuals that participate in it. The judge will validate the scope [alcance] of this, whenever it contains information related to the commission of a crime. In no case will communications that violate the right of confidentiality that the law establishes, be admitted. The federal judicial authority exclusively, at the petition of the federal authority that the law authorizes or of the titular [member] of the Public Ministry of the corresponding federal entity, can authorize intervention in any private communication. For this [purpose], the competent authority must substantiate and give reason for the legal basis [causas] of the request, expressing also, the type of intervention, the subjects of it and its duration. The federal judicial authority may not grant these authorizations when they concern matters of electoral, fiscal, mercantile, civil, labor or administrative character, nor in the case of communications of a detained person with their defense attorney. The Judicial Powers shall rely on judges of control who shall resolve, in immediate form, and by any means, the requests for preventative measures, and precautionary and technical orders of investigation from the authority, that require judicial control, guaranteeing the rights of the suspects and of the victims or offended [persons]. An authentic register of all the communications between judges and Public Ministry and other competent authorities, must be kept [existir]. The authorized interventions will comply with [ajustarán] the requirements and limits specified in the laws. The results of the interventions that do not comply [cumplan] with these, will lack all probative value. The administrative authorities may engage in entry of domiciles only to ascertain whether the sanitary regulations and the [regulations] of the police have been complied with; and it may demand to be shown the books and documents indispensible to prove compliance with the fiscal provisions, subject in these cases to the respective laws and the formalities prescribed for searches. Sealed correspondence sent through the mail will be exempt from any registration, and its violation will be punished [penada] by the law. In time of peace, no member of the army may be quartered in a private dwelling against the consent of the owner, nor may any obligations be imposed. In time of war, the military may demand quarter, equipment, foodstuffs, and other obligations, in the terms that the corresponding martial law establishes. Article 17 No person may arrogate justice, or exercise violence to reclaim their right. Every person has the right to have justice administered to them by tribunals which shall be expeditious to impart it in the time periods and terms that the law establishes, issuing their resolutions in a prompt, complete and impartial manner. Its service shall be gratuitous, therefore, consequentially, judicial costs are prohibited. The Congress of the Union shall adopt [expidirá] the laws that regulate the collective actions. Such laws will determine the matters of application, the judicial procedures and the mechanisms of reparation of the damage. The federal judges, concerning these procedures and mechanisms, take cognizance of them in exclusive form. The laws shall provide alternative mechanisms for the solution of disputes. It shall regulate their application in criminal matters, shall assure the reparation of damage and shall establish the cases in which judicial supervision is required. The sentences which bring the oral procedures to a conclusion must be delivered in public hearing [with the] previous citation of the parties. The federal and local laws shall establish the necessary means so as to guarantee the independence of the tribunals and the full execution of their resolutions. The Federation, the States and the Federal District will guarantee the existence of a public defender service of quality for the population and shall assure the conditions for a professional service career for the defenders [defensores]. The knowledge [percepciones] of the defenders may not be lower than those that correspond to the agents of the Public Ministry. No one may be imprisoned for debts of purely civil character. Article 18 Only crime that merits a penalty deprivative of liberty may give rise to preventative detention. The site of this shall be distinct from that allocated for the serving of the sentence and will be completely separate. The prison system shall be organized on the basis of respect for the human rights, of work, training for the same, education, health and sports as a means to achieve the reintegration of the sentenced [person] into society and to procure that they do not return to delinquency, observing the benefits that the law provides to them. Women shall serve their sentences in places separate from those allocated to men to this effect. The Federation, the States and the Federal District may celebrate agreements by which those sentenced for crimes within the scope of their competence may extinguish the sentences in prisons [establecimientos penitenciarios] dependent to a different jurisdiction. The Federation, the States and the Federal District shall establish, within the domain [ámbito] of their respective competences, an integral system of justice that shall be applicable to those who have been attributed with committing conduct characterized as a crime under the criminal laws and [who] are between twelve years old and under eighteen years of age, in which the fundamental rights recognized by this Constitution to every individual are guaranteed, as well as those specific rights that, as developing persons by their condition, have been recognized to them. Persons under the age of twelve years that have committed conduct specified as a crime under the law, will only be subject to rehabilitation and social assistance. The operation of the system in each order of government will be the responsibility [cargo] of institutions, tribunals and authorities specialized in the procuring and imparting of justice to adolescents. Measures of guidance, protection and treatment may be applied as each case merits, attending to the full protection and best interests of the adolescent. Alternative forms of justice may be observed in implementing this system, where appropriate. In all the procedures directed to the adolescent, the guarantee of a due legal process shall be observed, as well as the independence among the authorities that effect the referral [remisión] and those that impose the measures. These must be proportionate to the actual performed conduct and shall have as an objective the social and familial reintegration of the adolescent, as well as the full development of his person and capacities. Internment will only be used as an extreme measure and for the shortest time possible, and may be applied only to adolescents older than fourteen years of age, for the commission of anti-social behavior qualified as grave. Those of Mexican nationality sentenced to serve penalties in foreign countries, may be transferred to the Republic to serve their sentences based on systems of social reinsertion provided in this Article, and those foreign nationals sentenced for crimes of federal order or of common jurisdiction [fuero], may be transferred to their country of origin or residence, subject to International Treaties that have been concluded to this effect. The transfer of the prisoners may be effected only with their express consent. Those sentenced, in the cases and conditions established by the law, may serve their sentences in prisons closest to their domicile, in order to facilitate their reintegration into the community as a form of social reinsertion. This provision does not apply in the case of organized crime and in respect of other inmates who require special measures of security. For preventive detention and the execution of sentences in matters of organized crime, [the person] will go to special centers. The competent authorities can restrict the communications of the person accused and convicted of organized crime with others, except the access to their counsel, and can impose special surveillance measures on those who are placed within these establishments. The latter can be applied to the other inmates that require special measures of security in terms of the law. Article 19 No detention before a judicial authority will exceed the time of seventy-two hours, from when the accused is put at its disposition, without justifying it with an order for indictment to process [auto de vinculación a proceso] in which is expressed: the crime imputed to the accused; the place, time and circumstances of its execution, as well as the evidence [datos] that establish that an act has been committed that the law specifies as a crime, and that the probability exists that the suspect committed it or participated in its commission. The Public Ministry may only solicit the judge for preventive detention when other precautionary measures are not sufficient to guarantee the appearance of the accused at the trial, for the development of the investigation, for the protection of the victim, of the witnesses or of the community, as well as when the accused is being tried or has been previously sentenced for the commission of a grave crime. The judge will order the preventive detention, officially, in the cases of organized crime, grave homicide, rape, kidnapping, trafficking in persons, crimes committed with violent means such as arms and explosives, as well as grave crimes the law determines as contrary to the security of the Nation, the free development of personality and of health. The law shall determine the cases in which the judge may revoke the liberty of individuals indicted. The time period to issue the order for indictment may be extended solely at the petition of the suspect, in the form that the law specifies. The prolonging of detention to their prejudice will be punished by the criminal law. The authority responsible for the establishment in which the suspect has been interned, that does not receive an authorized copy of the order for indictment and of the order of preventive detention, within the time limit specified, or of the request for extension of the constitutional time period, must bring the attention of the judge to this particular, in the same act of concluding the time period and, if he does not receive the mentioned confirmation [constancia] in the following three hours, the suspect will be released. Any process will be forcefully prosecuted for the criminal act or acts specified in the order for indictment to process. If as a result of a process it should come to light [apareciere] that a separate crime has been committed from that one prosecuted [persigue], it must be [made] the object of [a] separate investigation, without prejudice that the consolidation may be decreed later, if it should be conducive. If subsequent to the issuance of the order for indictment to process for organized crime, the accused evades the action of justice or is placed at the disposition of another judge who claims them abroad, the process will be suspended, along with the deadlines for the prescription of the criminal action. Any mistreatment in the apprehension or in the prisons, any intervention [molestia] that occurs without legal motive, any tax [gabela] or contribution, in the prisons, are abuses to be corrected by the laws and reprimanded by the authorities. Article 20 The criminal process will be accusatory and oral. It will be guided by the principles of publicity, being adversarial, of concentration, continuity and immediacy. A. Of general principles: I. The criminal process shall have has an objective the clarification of the acts, to protect the innocent, to achieve [procurar] that the guilty do not go unpunished and that the damages caused by the crime are repaired; II. Any hearing will be conducted in the presence of the judge, which must be realized in a free and logical manner without the presentation [desahogo] and assessment of the evidence being delegated to any person; III. For the effects of sentencing, only those that have been presented [deshogadas] at the trial hearing [audiencia de juicio] shall be considered as evidence. The law shall establish the exceptions and requirements for admitting evidence at trial in advance, which by its nature requires prior presentation; IV. The trial shall be held before a judge who has not taken cognizance of the case previously. The presentation [presentación] of arguments and the probative elements shall be provided in a public, adversarial and oral manner; V. The burden of proof to demonstrate culpability corresponds to the part of the prosecution, conforming to that established for the criminal grade [tipo penal]. The parties will hold procedural equality for sustaining the prosecution or the defense, respectively; VI. No judge may deal with matters that are subject to process when either of the parties is present without the other, always respecting the principle of being adversarial, with the exceptions established by this Constitution; VII. Once the criminal process is initiated, provided that there is no objection by the accused, it may order an advance termination under the postulates [supuestos] and under the modalities established by law. If the accused acknowledges to the judicial authority, voluntarily and with knowledge of the consequences, their participation in the crime and there exist means of certainty [convicción] to corroborate the allegation, the judge may invoke [citar] a sentence hearing. The law shall establish the benefits that may be granted to the accused when they accept responsibility; VIII. The judge alone shall convict when certainty exists of the guilt of the accused; IX. Any evidence obtained in violation of fundamental rights will be null, and X. The principles provided in this Article, will be observed also in hearings preliminary to trial. B. Of the rights of any person accused: I. Being presumed innocent until their responsibility is declared by way of a sentence issued by the trial judge [juez de la causa]; II. To testify or to remain silent. From the moment of their arrest the reasons for it will be made known to them, and of their right to remain silent, which may not be used to their prejudice. Any solitary confinement [incomunicación], intimidation or torture is prohibited and shall be punished by the criminal law. A confession rendered without the assistance of counsel shall lack any probative value; III. To be informed, at the time of their arrest and in their appearance before the Public Ministry or the judge, of the acts alleged against them and of the rights that assist them. Concerning organized crime, the judicial authority may authorize that the name and address of the accuser be withheld. The law will establish benefits in favor of the accused, tried or sentenced [person] that renders assistance in the investigation and prosecution of crimes in matters of organized crime; IV. The witnesses and other pertinent evidence that they offer, shall be admitted, granting to them the time that the law deems necessary to this effect and assisting them to obtain the appearance [comparecencia] of the individuals whose testimony is requested, in the terms that the law specifies; V. They will be tried in public hearing by a judge or tribunal. The publicity may be restricted only in the cases of exception determined by the law, for reasons of national security, public security, protection of the victims, witnesses and minors, when the disclosure of information legally protected is put at risk, or where the tribunal deems that substantiated reasons exist to justify it. For organized crime, the actions undertaken in the phase of investigation may have probative value, when they cannot be reproduced in a trial or risk exists for witnesses or victims. The foregoing is without prejudice to the right of the defendant to object to them or challenge them and provide evidence to the contrary; VI. To be provided all the information requested for their defense and that figures [consten] in the process. The accused and their counsel will have access to the records of the investigation when the former is in custody and when their statement or interview is taken. Also, before their first appearance before a judge, they may consult these records, for the due opportunity to prepare a defense. From this moment the events [actuaciones] of the investigation may not be kept confidential, save in the exceptional cases expressly specified in the law where it is indispensable to safeguard the conclusion of the investigation and provided they are promptly disclosed so as not to affect the right to defense; VII. They will be tried before four months if it concerns crimes which have a maximum penalty not exceeding two years in prison, and before one year if the penalty exceeds that time, unless they request more time for their defense; VIII. They will have the right to an adequate defense by an attorney, which they may freely elect inclusive from the time of their arrest. If they have not or cannot appoint an attorney, after being requested to do so, the judge shall designate a public defender for them. Also they will have the right to have their counsel appear at all the stages [actos] of the process and this attorney will be obligated to appear as often as it is required, and IX. In no case may the detention or arrest be prolonged, for failure to pay fees of attorneys or any other provision of money, due to civil responsibility or any other analogous motive. Preventive detention may not exceed the maximum time that the law establishes for the crime that motivated the process and in no case will exceed two years, unless its prolongation is due to the right to defense of the accused. If this term has been met and sentence has not been pronounced, the accused will be released immediately while the process continues, without this hindering the imposition of other cautionary measures. In any penalty of imprisonment imposed by a sentence, the time of the detention will count towards it. C. Of the rights of the victim or of the offended: I. To receive juridical advice; to be informed of the rights that the Constitution establishes in their favor and, when they solicit it, to be informed of the development [desarollo] of the criminal proceedings; II. To assist the Public Ministry; that all the information or evidence which they recount is received, both in the investigation and in the process, that the corresponding diligences present it [desahoguen], and to intervene in the trial and interpose recourses in the terms that law provides. When the Public Ministry considers that the presentation to the diligence is not necessary, it must establish and justify its refusal; III. To receive, as a result of the commission of crime, urgent medical and psychological attention; IV. That the damage to them has been repaired. In the cases where it is appropriate, the Public Ministry is obligated to seek reparation for damages, without prejudice that the victim or offended [person] can solicit it directly, and the judge may not acquit the sentenced [person] of such reparation if a condemnatory sentence has been issued. The law shall establish flexible [ágiles] procedures to enforce sentences in matters of reparation for damages; V. To the confidentiality of their identity and other personal data in the following cases: when they are minors; when it concerns the crimes of rape, kidnapping, trafficking in persons or organized crime; and when in the opinion of the judge it is necessary for their protection, safeguarding in every case the rights of the defense. The Public Ministry will guarantee the protection of victims, the offended, witnesses and generally all the subjects involved in the process. The judges must monitor the proper implementation of this obligation; VI. To solicit the precautionary measures and orders [providencias] necessary for the protection and restitution of their rights, and VII. To impugn, before the judicial authority, the omissions of the Public Ministry in the investigation of the crimes, as well as reserved resolutions, not exercised, withdrawal of the prosecution or suspension of the proceedings when the reparation of the damage has not been satisfied. Article 21 The investigation of crimes corresponds to the Public Ministry and to the police, which will act under the leadership and command of that [person who] is in the exercise of this function. The exercise of criminal proceedings [acción] before the tribunals corresponds to the Public Ministry. The law shall determine the cases in which individuals can exercise the criminal proceedings before the judicial authority. The imposition of penalties, their modification and duration are proprietarily [proprias] and exclusively of the judicial authority. The application of sanctions for infractions of the governmental and police regulations belongs to the administrative authority, which may only consist of a fine, of arrest for up to thirty-six hours or in work for the community; but if the offender fails to pay the fine that has been imposed, this will be substituted with the corresponding arrest, that will not in any case exceed thirty-six hours. If the offender of the governmental and police regulations is a day laborer, worker or employee, they will not be sanctioned with a fine exceeding the amount of their wages or salary of one day. Concerning the self-employed, the fine that is imposed for infractions of the governmental and police regulations, shall not exceed the equivalent of one day of their earnings [ingreso]. The Public Ministry may consider criteria of opportunity for the exercise of the criminal proceedings, under the postulates [supuestos] and conditions that the law establishes. The Federal Executive can, with the approval of the Senate in each case, recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Public security is a function of the responsibility [cargo] of the Federation, the Federal District, the States and the Municipalities, that comprehends prevention of crimes; the investigation and prosecution to make it effective, as well as the sanction of the administrative infractions, in the terms of the law, in the respective competences that this Constitution specifies. The performance [actuación] of the institutions of public security shall be governed by the principles of legality, objectivity, efficiency, professionalism, honesty and respect for the human rights recognized in this Constitution. The institutions of public security will be of civil, disciplined and professional character. The Public Ministry and the police institutions of the three orders of government must coordinate between them to meet the objectives of public security and shall comprise the National System of Public Security, which shall be subject to the following minimum bases: a) The regulation of the selection, admission, training, retention, evaluation, recognition and certification of members of the institutions of public security. The operation and development of these actions will be the competence of the Federation, the Federal District, the States and the Municipalities within the domain [ámbito] of their respective attributions. b) The establishment of criminology databases and [databases of] personnel for the institutions of public security. No person may be admitted to the institutions of public security if they have not been previously certified and registered in the system. c) The formulation of public policies designed to prevent the commission of crimes. d) To determine the participation of the community which will contribute, among others, to the processes of evaluation of policies for the prevention of crime as well as of the institutions of public security. e) The funds of federal aid for public security, at national level will be provided to the federative entities and municipalities to be intended exclusively for such objectives. Article 22 The punishments of death, of mutilation, of public humiliation [infamia], of branding, of flogging, of beating, of torture of any kind, excessive fines, the confiscation of assets and any other unusual or extreme [penalties,] are prohibited. Any punishment must be proportional to the crime that it sanctions and of good juridical affect. The use [aplicación] of assets of a person when ordered to pay fines or taxes is not considered confiscation, nor when a judicial authority [so] decrees for the payment of civil responsibility derived from the commission of a crime. Neither shall be considered confiscation the seizure [decomiso] of assets that the judicial authority orders in [the] case of illicit enrichment in the terms of Article 109, or the use in favor of the State of assets that result from abandonment in the terms of the applicable provisions, nor of those assets of which domain is declared extinct in sentencing. In the case of extinction of domain a procedure shall be established that is governed by the following rules: I. It will be jurisdictional and autonomous from criminal matters; II. It will proceed in cases of organized crime, crimes against health, kidnapping, car theft and trafficking in persons, in respect of the following assets: a) Those which are instruments, objects or proceeds of the crime, even when the decision [sentencia] determining the criminal responsibility has not been issued, but sufficient elements exist to establish that the illicit act occurred. b) Those which are not instruments, objects or proceeds of the crime, but which have been used or intended to hide or blend assets [which are] proceeds of the crime, provided they meet the objectives of the preceding paragraph. c) Those that are being used for the commission of crimes by a third party, if the owner had knowledge of it and did not notify the authority or did nothing to impede it. d) Those that are titled in name to third parties, but where sufficient elements exist to determine that they are the product of patrimonial crimes [delitos patriamoniales] or of organized crime, and the accused of these crimes behaved as the owner. III. Any person that considers themselves affected may interpose the respective recourses to demonstrate the licit use [procedencia] of the assets and their use [actuación] in good faith, as well as that they were precluded from knowing the illicit use [utilización] of their assets. Article 23 No criminal trial shall have more than three instances. No [person], may be tried twice for the same offense, whether they were absolved or condemned in the trial. The practice of absolving from an instance is prohibited. Article 24 Every man is free to profess the religious belief [creencia] that they prefer and to practice ceremonies, devotions or acts of the respective belief [culto], as long as it does not constitute a crime or offense [falta] punished by the law. The Congress may not decree laws that establish or prohibit any religion. The religious acts of a public belief shall be ordinarily celebrated in churches [templos]. Those that are extraordinarily celebrated outside of these are subject to the regulatory law. Article 25 The directing [rectoría] of national development corresponds to the State, to guarantee that it is complete and sustainable, that it strengthens the Sovereignty of the Nation and its democratic regime and that, through the promotion of economic growth and employment and a more just distribution of income and of wealth, it shall permit the full exercise of the freedom and the dignity of the individuals, groups and social classes, whose safety this Constitution protects. The State shall plan, shall conduct, shall coordinate and shall orient the national economic activity, and the regulation and implementation [fomento] of the activities that the general interest demands will arise [llevará al cabo] within the framework of the freedoms that this Constitution grants. The public sector, the social sector and the private sector, without diminishing other forms of economic activity that contribute to the development of the Nation, shall participate in the national economic development with social responsibility. The public sector will be given the charge [cargo], in exclusive manner, of the strategic areas that are specified in Article 28, paragraph four of the Constitution, the Federal Government always maintaining domain [propiedad] and the control over the organs [organismos] that are established in this case. It may also participate by itself or with the social and private sectors, in accordance with the law, to promote [impulsar] and organize the priority areas of development. Under criteria of social equity and productivity, the enterprises of the social and private sector of the economy shall be supported and fostered, subjecting them to the modalities that the public interest dictates[,] and to the use, for general benefit, of the productive resources, assuring [cuidando] their conservation and the environment. The law shall establish the mechanisms that facilitate the organization and the expansion of the economic activity of the social sector: of ejidos [public collectively-owned lands], organizations of workers, cooperatives, communities, enterprises belonging in majority part [mayoritaria] or exclusively to the workers, and in general, all forms of social organization for the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services socially necessary. The law shall encourage and protect economic activity realized by private individuals and shall provide the conditions by which the growth of the private sector contributes to the national economic development, within the terms that this Constitution establishes. Article 26 A. The State shall organize a system of democratic planning of national development that prioritizes [imprima] solidity, dynamism, permanence and equity in the growth of the economy for the independence and political, social and cultural democratization of the Nation. The objectives of the national project [proyecto nacional] contained in this Constitution shall determine the goals of planning. The planning shall be democratic. Through the participation of the various social sectors, it shall embody the aspirations and demands of society to incorporate them into the plan and the programs of development. There shall be a national plan of development [plan nacional de desarrollo] to which the programs of the Federal Public Administration shall be obligatorily subject. The law shall enable the Executive to establish procedures of participation and popular consultation in the democratic national system of planning, and the criteria for the formulation, instrumentation, control and evaluation of the plan and the programs of development. Likewise, it shall determine the organs responsible for the process of planning and the bases by which the Federal Executive coordinates, through agreements with the governments of the federative entities for its elaboration and execution, and induces and participates in concert with individuals concerning the actions to be realized. In the system of democratic planning, the Congress of the Union has the capacity for intervention that the law specifies. B. The State will have [cantará] a National System of Statistical and Geographic Information of which the data will be considered official. For The Federation, States, Federal District and municipalities, the data contained in the System will be of obligatory use in the terms established by the law. The responsibility to regulate [normar] and coordinate this system will be the responsibility [cargo] of an organ [organismo] with technical and managerial autonomy, juridical personality and patrimony, with the faculties necessary to regulate the collection, processing and publication of the information that it generates and to provide for its observance. The organ [organismo] will have a Board of Government [Junta de Gobierno] composed of five members, one of whom shall serve as President of it and of the organ itself; they will be appointed by the President of the Republic with the approval of the Chamber of Senators or in its recesses by the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union. The law shall establish the bases of organization and functioning of the National System of Statistical and Geographic Information, in accordance with the principles of accessibility to information, transparency, objectivity and independence; the requirements that members of the Board of Government must comply with, and, the duration and the phasing [escalonamiento] of their responsibilities [encargo]. The members of the Board of Government may be removed only for grave cause, and may not hold any other employment, office or commission, with the exception of non-remunerated [work] in educational, scientific, cultural or charitable institutions; and they will be subject to the provisions of Title Four of this Constitution. Article 27 The ownership of the lands and waters included within the boundaries of the national territory, corresponds originally in the Nation, which has had, and has, the right to transfer the dominion of these to private persons, thereby constituting private property. Expropriations may only take place for reasons of public utility and with indemnization. The Nation will at all times have the right to impose on private property the modalities dictated by the public interest, as well as to regulate, for social benefit, the use of the natural resources [elementos] susceptible to appropriation, with the objective of having an equitable distribution of the public wealth, to care for its conservation, to achieve the balanced development of the country and the improvement of the conditions of life of the rural and urban population. Consequently, the necessary measures shall be taken to order [ordenar] the human settlements and to establish adequate provisions, uses [usos], reserves and purposes [destinos] for lands, waters and forests, to effect the execution of public works and of planning and to regulate the foundation, conservation, betterment and growth of the centers of population; to preserve and restore the ecological balance; for the dividing of the latifundios [large estates]; to provide for [disponer], in the terms of the regulatory law, the collective organization and exploitation of the ejidos [public collectively-owned lands] and communities; for the development of pequeña [small rural parcel] ownership; for the promotion of agriculture, of animal husbandry [ganadería], of forestry and of other economic activities in the rural domain [medio], and to avoid the destruction of the natural resources [elementos] and the damages that property may suffer with prejudice to society. To the Nation corresponds the direct ownership [dominio] of all natural resources [recursos] of the continental shelf and the submarine foundations [zócalos] of the islands; of all the minerals or substances which, in veins, ledges, masses or deposits [yacimientos], constitute deposits of a nature distinct from the components of the soil [terrenos] itself, such as the minerals from which industrial metals and metalloids, used in industry[,] are extracted; deposits of precious stones, of rock salt and the salts formed directly by sea waters; the products derived from the decomposition of rocks, when their exploitation necessitates subterranean works; the mineral or organic deposits of materials susceptible to be utilized as fertilizers; the solid combustible minerals; petroleum and all the solid, liquid, and gaseous hydrocarbons; and the space situated above the national territory, to the extent and the terms that the International Law establishes. The following are property of the Nation[:] the waters of the territorial seas, to the extent and terms established by the International Law; the inland marine waters; those of the lagoons and estuaries permanently or intermittently connected with the sea; those of the inland lakes of natural formation which are directly connected with streams having a constant flow; those of rivers and their direct or indirect tributaries, from the point in their sources where the first permanent, intermittent, or torrential waters begin, to their mouth in the sea, lakes, lagoons, or estuaries of national property; those of constant or intermittent streams and their direct or indirect tributaries, whenever the bed of the stream in all of its extent or in part of it, serves as a limit of the national territory or of two federative entities, or when it flows from one federative entity to another or crosses the dividing line of the Republic; those of the lakes, lagoons or estuaries whose basins, zones, or shores, are crossed by the dividing lines of two or more entities or between the Republic and a neighboring country, or when the shoreline serves as the boundary between two federative entities or of the Republic with a neighboring country; those of the springs that issue from the beaches, maritime zones, beds, basins, or shores of the lakes, lagoons, or estuaries of national property; and those that are extracted from the mines; and the beds, channels, or shores of the interior lakes and streams to the extent that the law establishes. The waters of the subsoil may be brought to the surface freely through artificial works and appropriated by the owner of the surface land, but when the public interest so requires or other uses are affected, the Federal Executive may regulate its extraction and utilization, and may even establish prohibited [vedadas] zones, as is the same for other waters of national property. Any other waters not included in the preceding enumeration, shall be considered as an integral part of the property of the lands through which they flow or in which they are deposited, but if they are located in two or more properties, their utilization shall be considered of public utility, and shall be subject to the provisions that the States enact. In those cases to which the two preceding paragraphs refer, the domain of the Nation is inalienable and imprescriptible and the exploitation, the use, or provision of the resources concerned, by individuals or by companies constituted in accordance with the Mexican laws, may not be realized except through concessions, granted by the Federal Executive, in accordance with rules and conditions that the law establishes. The legal norms concerning the works or labors of exploitation of the minerals and substances referred to in the fourth paragraph, shall govern the execution and validation [comprobación] of what is effected or must be effected as from their validity [vigencia], independent of the date of granting of the concession, and their nonobservance may give rise to the cancellation of them. The Federal Government has the faculty to establish national reserves and to abolish them. The corresponding declarations shall be made by the Executive in those cases and conditions that the laws shall provide for. Concerning petroleum and solid, liquid, or gaseous hydrocarbons or radioactive minerals, no concessions or contracts will be granted, nor may those that have been granted continue, and the Nation shall carry out the exploitation of these products, in the terms that the respective Regulatory Law specifies. It corresponds exclusively to the Nation to generate, conduct, transform, distribute, and supply electric energy which has for its objective the provision of a public service. In this matter no concessions will be granted to individuals and the Nation will make use of the assets and natural resources which are required for these objectives. The provision of nuclear combustibles for the generation of nuclear energy and the regulation of their application to other purposes, corresponds also to the Nation. The use of nuclear energy may only have peaceful objectives. The Nation exercises in an exclusive economic zone situated outside the territorial sea and adjacent to it, the rights of sovereignty and the jurisdictions as determined by the laws of the Congress. The exclusive economic zone shall extend two hundred nautical miles, measured, beginning from the base line from which the territorial sea is measured. In those cases in which that extension produces a superposition with the exclusive economic zones of other States, the delimitation of the respective zones shall be made in the measure that necessarily results, through agreement with those States. The capacity to acquire ownership [dominio] of the lands and waters of the Nation, shall be governed by the following prescriptions: I. Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership of the lands, waters, and their appendages [accesiones], or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines or waters. The State may concede the same right to foreigners, provided they agree before the Secretariat of Relations [Secretaría de Relaciones] to consider themselves as nationals in respect of such assets, and not to invoke, concerning the same assets, the protection of their governments in [matters] concerning them; under the penalty, in case of absence [faltar] of agreement, of loss to the benefit of the Nation, of the assets that have been acquired by virtue of the same. For no reason may foreigners acquire the direct ownership over lands or waters within a zone [faja] of one hundred kilometers along the frontiers and of fifty [kilometers] along the shores. The State, in accordance with its internal public interests and the principles of reciprocity, can, in the judgment of the Secretariat of Relations, concede authorization to foreign States to acquire, at the permanent sites of residence of the Federal Powers, private ownership of real property necessary for the direct services of their embassies or legations. II. The religious associations that are constituted in the terms of Article 130 and its regulatory law have the capacity to acquire, possess or administer, exclusively, the property [bienes] that is indispensable for their objective, with the requirements and limitations that the regulatory law establishes; III. The charitable institutions, public or private, that have the objective of assistance to those in need, of scientific investigation, the diffusion of teaching, of the reciprocal assistance of those associated, or any other licit objective, may not acquire more real property [bienes raíces] than that indispensable for their objective, immediately or directly allocated to it, subject to that which the regulatory law determines; IV. Commercial companies [sociedades mercantile] may be owners, by shares, of rural rústicos [rural] lands but only to the extent necessary for the fulfillment their objective. In no case may companies of this type [clase] have in ownership lands dedicated to agricultural, animal husbandry [ganadería], or forestry activities to a greater extent than the respective equivalent of twenty-five times the limits specified in fraction XV of this Article. The regulatory law shall govern the structure of capital and the minimum number of partners of these companies, to the effect that the lands owned by the company do not exceed in relation to each partner the limits of pequeña [small land] ownership. In this case, all individual share ownership, corresponding to rústicos [rural] lands, will be accumulated for the effects of computation. Likewise, the law shall specify the conditions for foreign participation in these companies. The same [propia] law shall establish the measures of registration and control necessary for compliance with that provided for in this fraction; V. The banks duly authorized, in accordance with the laws on institutions of credit, may hold capital mortgages [capitales impuestos], concerning urban and rústicos [rural] properties in accordance with the prescriptions of such laws, but they may not hold in ownership or in administration more real property than is actually necessary for their direct objective; VI. The States and the Federal District, as well as the municipalities in all of the Republic, shall have full capacity to acquire and possess all the real property necessary for the public services. The laws of the Federation and of the States in their respective jurisdictions, shall determine the cases in which the appropriation [ocupación] of private property will be of public utility; and in accordance with such laws the administrative authorities shall make the corresponding declaration. The price that shall be established as indemnization for the thing expropriated, shall be based on the tax valuation [valor fiscal] of it [which] figures in the assessment or tax offices [oficinas catastrales o recaudadores], whether this value had been declared by the owner or simply accepted by him in tacit mode by having paid taxes on that basis. The increase in value or the decrease, concerning specific [particular] property due to improvements or deterioration occurring after the date of the assessment of the tax valuation, will be solely that established subject to expert judgment and to judicial resolution. This same [procedure] shall be observed when it concerns objects having value [which] is not established in the tax offices [oficinas rentísticas]. The exercise of actions that correspond to the Nation, by virtue of the provisions of this Article, shall be made effective by the judicial procedure; but during this procedure and by order of the corresponding tribunals, which must decide in a maximum time of one month, the administrative authorities may proceed without delay to the appropriation, administration, auction, or sale of the lands or waters in question and all of their appendages, without, in any case, the act being revocable by the same authorities before the executory sentence has been declared.; VII. The juridical personality of the nuclei [núcleos] of ejido and communal population is recognized, and their ownership concerning the land used for human settlement as well as for productive activities is protected. The law shall protect the integrity of the lands of the indigenous groups. The law, in consideration of the respect for and the strengthening of the communal life of the ejidos and communities, shall protect the land for human settlement and shall regulate the exploitation of lands, forests and waters of common use and the provision of actions of support necessary to elevate the standard of living of their inhabitants. The law, with respect for the will of the ejidatarios and comuneros to adopt the conditions that are most advantageous to them in the exploitation of their productive resources, shall regulate the exercise of the rights of the comuneros concerning the land and of each ejidatario over his parcel. Likewise it shall establish the procedures through which the ejidatarios and comuneros may associate among themselves, with the State or with third parties and concede [otorgar] the use of their lands; and, concerning the ejidatarios, transmit their parcel rights among the members of the nucleus of inhabitants; equally it shall establish the requirements and procedures in accordance with which the assembly of the ejido may grant to the ejidatario ownership of his parcel. In cases of alienation of parcels, the right of preference that the law provides for shall be respected. Within the same nucleus of population, no ejidatario may be a title holder of more land than that equivalent to 5% of the total of the ejido lands. In any case, the titling of lands in favor of a single ejidatario must be adjusted to the limits specified in fraction XV. The general assembly is the supreme organ of the nucleus of the ejido or community population, with the organization and functions that the law specifies. The comisariado of the ejido or of [the] communal property, elected democratically in the terms of the law, is the organ of representation of the nucleus and responsible for executing the resolutions of the assembly. The restitution of lands, forests and waters to the nuclei of inhabitants shall be made in the terms of the regulatory law; VIII. The following are declared null: a) All alienations of lands, waters, and woodland [montes] belonging to pueblos [settlements], rancherías [hamlets], congregations [congregaciones], or communities [comunidades], made by political leaders [jefes politicos], Governors of the States, or any other local authorities in contravention of the provisions of the Law of 25 June 1856, and other related laws and provisions; b) All concessions: arrangements [composiciones] or sales of lands, waters, and woodlands, made by the Secretariats of Development, of Finance [Hacienda] or any other federal authority from the first day of December of 1876, to date, by which they have invaded or illegally occupied ejidos, lands held in common, or of any other type, belonging to pueblos, rancherías, congregations [congregaciones], or communities [comunidades], and the nuclei of inhabitants; c) All the procedures of survey or demarcation, transactions, alienations, or auctions performed during the period of time referred to in the preceding fraction, by companies, judges or other authorities of the States or of the Federation, by which they have invaded or illegally occupied the lands, waters, or woodlands of ejidos, lands held in common, or of any other type belonging to the nuclei of inhabitants. Uniquely, the lands which have been titled in lots and acting in the spirit of [con apego] the Law of 25 June 1856 and held in [one's] own name with ownership title for more than tens years [and] when their extent does not exceed more than fifty hectares[,] may be excepted from the nullity [specified] above. IX. The division or allotment which has been made acting with the appearance of legitimacy, between the residents [vecinos] of any nucleus of inhabitants and in which there are errors or defects, can be nullified when it is solicited by three-quarters of the residents that are in possession of one-quarter of the lands, material to the division, or one-quarter of the same residents when they are in possession of three-quarters of the lands. X. [Abrogated [se deroga]]. XI. [Abrogated] XII. [Abrogated] XIII. [Abrogated] XIV. [Abrogated] XV. Latifundios [large estates] are prohibited in the United States of Mexico. Pequeña agricultural property is considered to be that property which does not exceed, individually, one hundred irrigated [de riego] or primarily humid [humedad de primera] hectares or their equivalent in other classes of lands. For the effects of equivalency, one irrigated hectare for two [hectares] seasonal temporal, for four [hectares] workable [apostadero] of good quality and for eight hectares of forest, woodland, or workable in arid terrain[,] will be compute d. Likewise, areas [superficia] that do not exceed one hundred and fifty hectares each will be considered pequeña agricultural property when the lands are dedicated to the cultivation of cotton, if they are irrigated; and three hundred hectares when they are allocated to the cultivation of bananas, sugar cane, coffee, sisal, rubber, palms, grapes, olives, quinine, vanilla, cocoa, agave, nopal or fruit trees. Pequeña livestock property will be considered those that do not exceed, each, the area necessary to maintain up to five hundred head of large livestock or its equivalent in small livestock [ganado menor], in the terms that the law establishes, in accordance with the foraging capacity of the lands. When, due to works of irrigation, drainage or any others executed by the owners or possessors of a pequeña property the quality of their lands is improved, it will still be considered as a pequeña property, even when, by virtue of the improvement obtained, the maximums specified in this section are exceeded, as long as the requirements that the law establishes are met. When in a pequeña livestock property improvements are made to the lands and those allocated to agricultural uses, the area utilized for this objective may not exceed, as the case may be, the limits referred to in the second and third paragraphs of this fraction that correspond to the quality in which these lands were held before the improvement; XVI. [Abrogated] XVII. The Congress of the Union and the legislatures of the states, in their respective jurisdictions, shall enact laws that establish the procedures for the division and alienation of the extensions that come to exceed the limits specified in fractions IV and XV of this Article. That excess must be divided and alienated by the owner within a period of one year from the corresponding notification. If the period has expired and the excess has not been alienated, the sale must be made through public auction. Conditions being equal, the right of preference provided for by the regulatory law shall be respected. The local laws shall organize the patrimony of the family, determining the assets that shall constitute it, on the basis that it will be inalienable and shall not be subject to seizure or any encumbrance; XVIII. All the contracts and concessions made the by previous Governments since the year of 1876, which have consequentially resulted in the monopolization of lands, waters, and natural wealth of the Nation, by one sole person or company, are declared to be revisable, and the Executive of the Union is empowered to declare them null when they imply grave prejudice to the public interest; XIX. On the basis of this Constitution, the State shall make use of measures for the expeditious and honest administration of agrarian justice, with the object of guaranteeing juridical security to the possession of ejidal land, and communal and pequeña property, and shall give legal counsel to the peasants [campesinos]. All questions that concern the limits of ejidos or communal lands, whatever the origin of them, that are pending or arise between two or more nuclei of population, are of federal jurisdiction; as well as those related to the title of the lands of ejidos or community lands. To these effects and, in general, for the administration of agrarian justice, the law shall institute tribunals endowed with autonomy and full jurisdiction, composed of magistrates proposed by the Federal Executive and appointed by the Chamber of Senators or, in its recesses, by the Permanent Commission. The law shall establish an organ for the procuracy of agrarian justice, and XX. The State shall promote conditions for full [integral] rural development, with the proposition of creating work [empleo] and to guarantee the welfare of the rural population and their participation and inclusion in the national development, and shall promote agricultural/stockbreeding [agropecuaria] and forestry activities for optimum use of the land with works of infrastructure, inputs [insumos], credit, [and] services of training and technical assistance. Likewise it shall enact the regulatory legislation to plan and to organize the agricultural/stockbreeding production, its industrialization and commercialization, which shall be considered of public interest. The full and sustainable development to which the preceding paragraph refers, shall always have among its objectives that the State guarantees a sufficient and opportune supply of the basic foodstuffs that the law establishes. Article 28 In the United Mexican States monopolies, monopolistic practices, estancos [small monopolized businesses] and exemptions from taxes will be prohibited in the terms and conditions that the law establishes. The same treatment will be given to prohibitions entitled as protection of industry. Consequently, the law will castigate severely, and the authorities shall effectively prosecute, every concentration or hoarding in one or few hands of articles of necessary consumption and that have as an object [the] obtaining of a rise in prices; any agreement, procedure or combination of the producers, industrialists, commercial [operators] or conductors of services, that in any manner is made, to avoid the free participation or competition [competencia] between them and to obligate consumers to pay inflated prices and, in general, any that constitute an exclusive [and] undue advantage in favor of one or a number of specific persons and with prejudice to the public in general or of any social class. The laws shall establish bases that shall specify maximum prices for the articles, materials or products that are considered necessary for the national economy or popular consumption, as well as to impose modalities for the organization of the distribution of these articles, materials or products, in order to avoid unnecessary or excessive intermediation provoking insufficiency in the supply, as well the rise in process. The law shall protect consumers and shall encourage their organizations for better protection of their interests. The functions that the State exercises in an exclusive manner in the following strategic areas shall not constitute monopolies: the postal system, telegraph and radiotelegraphy; petroleum and other hydrocarbons; basic petrochemistry; radioactive minerals and generation of nuclear energy; electricity and the activities that are expressly specified by the laws that are enacted by the Congress of the Union. Communication by satellite, and the railroads are priority areas for national development in the terms of Article 25 of this Constitution; the State shall exercise in them its guidance, shall protect the security and the sovereignty of the Nation, and by granting concessions or permissions shall maintain or shall establish domain over the respective channels of communication in accordance with the laws [concerning] the matter. The State shall rely on [contará] the organs [organismos] and enterprises that are required for the effective management of the strategic areas of its responsibility [cargo] and in the areas of priority character having, in accordance with the laws, its sole [por sí] participation or with [participation] of the social and private sectors. The State will have a central bank that will be autonomous in the exercise of its functions and in its administration. Its priority objective shall be to procure the stability of the purchasing [adquisitivo] power of the national currency [moneda], strengthening through it the directing [rectoría] of the national development that corresponds to the State. No authority may order the bank to concede financing. The functions that the State exercises in an exclusive manner, by way of the central bank in the strategic areas of coinage of currency and printing of bills, do not constitute monopolies. The central bank, in the terms that the laws establish and with the intervention that corresponds to the competent authorities, shall regulate the adjustments [cambios], as well as intermediation and financial services, possessing the attributions of authority necessary to give rise to [llevar a cabo] such regulation and provide for its observance. The management of the bank will be the responsibility [cargo] of persons whose appointment will be made by the President of the Republic with the approval of the Chamber of Senators or of the Permanent Commission, as the case may be; they shall carry out their responsibilities for periods having a duration and phasing [escalonamiento] required for autonomous exercise of their functions; they may only be removed for grave cause and may not have any other employment [empleo], office [cargo] or commission, with the exception of those in which they act as a representative of the bank and those non-remunerated in educational, scientific, cultural or charitable associations. The persons entrusted [encargadas] with the management of the central bank, may be subject to political trial in conformity with that provided for by Article 110 of this Constitution. The associations of workers formed to protect their own interests and the cooperative associations or societies of producers, do not constitute monopolies, so that, in defense of their own interests or of the general interest, they may sell directly in foreign markets the national or industrial products that are the principal source of wealth of the region in which they are produced, or are not articles of primary necessity, given that these associations are under the supervision or protection of the Federal Government or of the States, and that previous authorization to this effect is obtained from the respective legislatures in each case. The same Legislatures, by themselves or on the proposal of the Executive, can derogate, when public necessities require it, the authorization conceded for the formation of the associations considered herein. Neither will the privileges that for a specific period are conceded, to authors and artists for the production of their works and those which, for the exclusive use of their inventions, may be granted to the inventors and those who perfect any improvements, constitute monopolies. The State, subject to the laws in force, may in the cases of general interest grant concessions for the rendering of public services[,] or for the exploitation, use [uso] or usage [aprovechamiento] of assets of the domain of the Federation, under the exceptions that the [laws] provide. The laws shall establish the modalities and conditions that assure the effectiveness of the provision of services and the social utilization of assets, and the avoidance of the phenomena of concentration that are contrary to the public interest. The liability [sujeción] of the regimes of public service shall follow that provided by the Constitution and will only arise through law. Subsidies may be granted to priority activities, when they are general, of temporary character and do not substantially affect the finances of the Nation. The State shall see to their application and shall evaluate the results of it. Article 29 In the cases of invasion, grave disturbance of the public peace, or any other which places society in grave danger or conflict, only the President of the United Mexican States, with the agreement of the titular [members] of the Secretariats of State, and the Office of the Procurator General of the Republic and with the approval of the Congress of the Union or of the Permanent Commission when it is not meeting, may restrict or suspend in all the country or in a specific place the exercise of the rights and guarantees which could be an obstacle to a rapid and effective [fácilmente] response [frente] to the situation; but he must do so for a limited time, by means of general preventions without the restriction or the suspension being limited to a specified person. If the restriction or suspension should take place while the Congress is meeting, it shall concede the authorizations that it deems necessary for the Executive to respond to the situation; but if it is verified in a time of recess, the Congress shall be convoked immediately to agree to them. In the decrees which are enacted, [the following] may not be restricted or suspended: the exercise of the rights to non-discrimination, to recognition of juridical personality, to life, to personal integrity, to the protection of the family, to one's name, to nationality; the rights of the child; the political rights; the freedoms of thought, conscience and of professing any religious belief; the principle of legality and retroactivity; the prohibition of the penalty of death; the prohibition of slavery and servitude; the prohibition of forced disappearance and torture; neither the judicial guarantees indispensible for the protection of these rights. The restriction or suspension of the exercise of the rights and guarantees must be substantiated and motivated in the terms established by this Constitution and be proportional to the danger that it confronts, observing at each moment the principles of legality, rationality, proclamation, publicity, and nondiscrimination. When the restriction or suspension of the exercise of the rights and guarantees is brought to an end, as well as for the compliance with the time [plazo] or reason [porque] as the Congress decrees it, all the legal and administrative measures adopted during its effectiveness will be of no effect in immediate form. The Executive may not make observations to the decrees by means of which the Congress revokes the restriction or suspension. The decrees enacted by the Executive during the restriction or suspension, must be reviewed [revisdos], of office and immediately, by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, which must decide on them with the greatest promptness concerning their constitutionality and validity. CHAPTER II Of Mexicans Article 30 Mexican nationality is acquired by birth or by naturalization. A. Mexicans by birth are: I. Those that are born in the territory of the Republic, whatever the nationality of their parents may be. II. Those that are born abroad, children of Mexican parents born in the national territory, of a Mexican father born in the national territory, or of a Mexican mother born in the national territory; III. Those that born abroad, children of Mexican parents by naturalization, of a Mexican father by naturalization, or of a Mexican mother by naturalization, and IV. Those that are born on board Mexican vessels or airplanes [aeronaves], either of war or merchant. B. Mexicans by naturalization are: I. The foreigners who obtain from the Secretariat of Relations the letter [carta] of naturalization. II. A foreign woman or man who contracts matrimony with a Mexican man or woman, who holds or establishes their domicile within the national territory and fulfills the other requirements that the law specifies to this effect. Article 31 Obligations of Mexicans are: I. To have their children and wards [pupilos] attend [concurran] public or private schools, to obtain preschool, primary, secondary, and media superior [high school] education, and to receive military training, in the terms that the law establishes. II. To attend [asistir] on the days and hours designated by the ayuntamiento in which they reside, to receive civic and military instruction which maintains their aptitude in the exercise of their rights of citizenship, their skill in the handling of arms, and [their] awareness of military discipline. III. To enlist and to serve in the National Guard, according to the respective organic law, to assure and to defend the independence, the territory, the honor, the rights and interests of the Country [Patria], as well as the domestic tranquility and the internal order; and IV. To contribute to the public resources [gastos], as well as those of the Federation, as well as of the Federal District or of the State and Municipality in which they reside, in the proportional and equitable manner that the laws provide. Article 32 The law shall regulate the exercise of the rights that the Mexican legislation grants to those Mexicans who possess other nationality and shall establish norms to avoid conflicts from double nationality. The exercise of the offices [cargos] and functions for which, by provision of this Constitution, it is required to be Mexican by birth, are reserved to those who hold this status [calidad] and do not acquire other nationality. This reservation shall also de applicable to those cases which other laws of the Congress of the Union so specify. In times of peace, no foreigner may serve in the Army, or in the forces of the police or of public security. In order to participate in active service in the Army in times of peace and in the Navy or in the Air Force at any time, or to discharge any office or commission in them, it is required to be Mexican by birth. This same status will be indispensable for captains, pilots, masters, engineers, mechanics and, in a general manner, for all the personnel that man [tripule] any vessel or airplane that is protected [ampare] with the Mexican flag or merchant insignia. It will be necessary as well to hold [desempenar] the offices of harbormaster and all services of administration [practicaje] and command of an airport. Mexicans shall be preferred to foreigners in equal circumstances, for all classes of concessions and for all employments [empleos], offices and commissions of government in which the status of citizen is not indispensible. CHAPTER III Of Foreigners Article 33 Those who do not possess the status [calidades] determined in constitutional Article 30 are foreign persons, and shall enjoy the human rights and guarantees this Constitution recognizes. The Executive of the Union, with prior hearing, may deport [expulsar] from the national territory foreign persons on the basis [fundamento] of the law, which shall regulate the administrative procedure, as well as the place and time that the detention lasts. Foreigners may not in any manner participate [inmiscuirse] in the political matters of the country. CHAPTER IV Of Mexican Citizens Article 34 The men and women who, having the status of Mexicans, meet, as well, the following requirements, are citizens of the Republic: I. Having reached eighteen years of age, and II. Having an honest mode of living. Article 35 Prerogatives of the citizen are: I. To vote in the popular elections; II. To be voted for [poder ser votado], for all offices of popular election, and to be appointed to any other employment [empleo] or commission, having the status that the law establishes; III. To associate individually and freely for taking part in a peaceful form in the political matters of the country; IV. To bear arms in the Army or National Guard, for the defense of the Republic and of its institutions, in the terms that the laws prescribe; and V. To exercise, in any class of matters [negocios], the right of petition. Article 36 Obligations of the citizen of the Republic are: I. To register in the tax list [catastro] of the municipality, manifesting the property that the same citizen possesses, the industry, profession, or work by which they subsist; and also to register in the National Registry of Citizens [Registro Nacional de Ciudadanos] in the terms that the laws determine. The permanent organization and functioning of the National Registry of Citizens and the issuing of the document that accredits Mexican citizenship are services of public interest, and as such, responsibility that corresponds to the State and to the citizens in the terms that the law establishes, II. To enlist in the National Guard; III. To vote in the popular elections in the terms that the law specifies; IV. To fulfill offices of popular election of the Federation or of the States, which will in no case be gratuitous; and V. To fulfill council offices [cargos concejiles] of the municipality in which they reside, and to fulfill electoral functions and the functions of jury duty. Article 37 A) No Mexican by birth may be deprived of their nationality. B) Mexican nationality by naturalization is lost in the following cases: I. By voluntary acquisition of a foreign nationality, by having made presentation in any public instrument as a foreigner, by using a foreign passport, or by accepting or using titles of nobility that imply obedience to a foreign State, and II. By residing for five continuous years abroad. C) Mexican citizenship is lost: I. By accepting or using titles of nobility of foreign governments; II. By providing voluntarily official services to a foreign government without permission of the Federal Congress or from its Permanent Commission; III. By accepting or using foreign decorations without permission of the Federal Congress or of its Permanent Commission; IV. By accepting [admitir] from the government of another country titles or functions without [the] previous permission [licencia] of the Federal Congress or of its Permanent Commission, excepting the literary, scientific or humanitarian titles which may be accepted [aceptarse] freely; V. By assisting, in opposition to [contra] the Nation, a foreigner, or a foreign government, in any diplomatic claim [reclamación] or one before an international tribunal, and VI. In the other cases that the laws establish. In the case of fractions II to IV of this part [apartado], the Congress of the Union shall establish in the respective regulatory law, the cases of exception in which the permits and licenses may possibly be granted, once the time [period] that the corresponding [propria] law specifies has elapsed, with the simple presentation of the solicitation of the interested person. Article 38 The rights or prerogatives of the citizen are suspended: I. By failure [falta] to comply, without justified cause, with any of the obligations that Article 36 imposes. This suspension shall last one year and may be imposed in addition to the other penalties that the law specifies for the same act; II. By being subject to a criminal process for [an] offense that merits corporal punishment [pena corporal], to be counted from the date of the formal order of imprisonment; III. During the extinction of [the] imprisonment; IV. By vagrancy or habitual drunkenness, declared in the terms that by law provides; V. By being a fugitive from justice, from the pronouncement of the order of arrest until the time the criminal action prescribes; and VI. By executory sentence that imposes such suspension as a penalty. The law shall establish those cases in which the rights of the citizen are lost, and those in which they are suspended, and the manner of achieving [hacer] rehabilitation. TITLE TWO CHAPTER I Of the National Sovereignty and of the Form of Government Article 39 The national sovereignty resides essentially and originally in the people. All public power derives from the people and is instituted for the benefit of them. The people hold at all times the inalienable right to alter or to modify the form of their government. Article 40 It is the will of the Mexican people to be constituted in a representative, democratic, federal Republic, composed of free and sovereign States in all that concerns their internal regime, but united in a federation established according to the principles of this fundamental law. Article 41 The people exercise their sovereignty through the Powers of the Union, in those cases of the competence of them, and through those of the States, in that which concerns [toca] their internal regime, in the respective terms established by this Federal Constitution and the individual [ones] of the States, which may in no case contravene the stipulations of the Federal Pact. The renewal of the Legislative and Executive powers will be realized by way of free, authentic and periodic elections, in accordance with the following bases: I. The political parties are entities of public interest; the law shall determine the norms and requirements for their legal registration and the specific forms of their participation [intervención] in the electoral process. The national political parties will have [the] right to participate in state, and municipal elections and those of the Federal District. The political parties have as their objective to promote the participation of the people in the democratic life, to contribute to the integration of the national representation and as organizations of citizens, to make possible the access of them to the exercise of public power, in accordance with the programs, principles and ideas they postulate and by way of universal, free, secret and direct suffrage. Only citizens may form political parties and affiliate freely and individually with them; therefore, the participation of trade union [gremiales] organizations or organizations with social objectives different from the creation of parties and those of any form of corporate affiliation, shall be prohibited. The electoral authorities alone may intervene in the internal affairs [asuntos] of the political parties in the terms that the Constitution and the law specify. II. The law will guarantee that the national political parties share [cuenten] in an equitable manner, the resources [elementos] that give rise to [llevar a cabo] their activities and shall specify the rules to which the financing of the corresponding [propios] political parties and their electoral campaigns shall be subject, which must guarantee that public resources prevail over those of private origin. The public financing for the political parties that maintain their registry [registro] after each election, shall be composed of amounts [ministraciones] allocated for the sustainment of their ordinary permanent activities, those tending to the obtaining of the vote during the electoral processes and those of specific character. They shall be granted in accordance with the following and with what the law provides: a) Public financing for the sustaining of their ordinary permanent activities shall be established annually, multiplying the total number of citizens inscribed in the electoral register [padron] by sixty-five percent of the minimum daily salary in force in the Federal District. Thirty percent of the quantity that results in accordance with that specified previously, shall be distributed between the political parties in an egalitarian form, and the remaining seventy percent in accordance with the percentage of votes they had obtained in the election of deputies immediately prior. b) The public financing for the activities concerning the obtaining of the vote during the year in which the President of the Republic, federal senators and deputies are elected, shall be equivalent to fifty percent of the public financing that corresponds to each political party for ordinary activities in this same year; when federal deputies only are elected, it shall be equivalent to thirty percent of the said financing for ordinary activities. c) The public financing for specific activities, relative to education, training [capacitación], socioeconomic and political research, as well as editorial tasks, shall be equivalent to three percent of the total amount of the public financing that corresponds in each year for ordinary activities. Thirty percent of the quantity that results in accordance with that specified previously, shall be distributed between the political parties in an egalitarian form, and the remaining seventy percent in accordance with the percentage of votes they had obtained in the election of deputies immediately prior. The law shall establish the limits [limites] of the distributions [erogaciones] in the internal processes of selection of candidates and the electoral campaigns of the political parties. The corresponding [propia] law shall establish the maximum amount of the contributions [aportaciones] that their supporters [simpatizantes] may make [tendrán], of which the total amount may not annually exceed, for each party, ten percent of the limit [tope] of expenditures established in the last presidential campaign; similarly it shall determine [ordenará] the procedure for the control and supervision of the origin and use of all the resources to which they have access [cuentren] and shall provide the sanctions that may be imposed for non-compliance with these provisions. In equal manner, the law will establish the procedure for the liquidation of the obligations of the parties that lose their registration and the postulates [supuestos] under which their assets and residuals [remanentes] will be adjudicated to the Federation. III. The national political parties will have the right to the use in [a] permanent manner of the media of social communication. Part A. The Federal Electoral Institute [Instituto Federal Electoral] will be the sole authority for the administration of the time that corresponds to the State in radio and television allocated for its own purposes and to the exercise of the right of the national political parties, in accordance with the following and with that which the laws establish: a) From the beginning of the primary campaign [precampañas] until the day of the electoral day [jornada electoral], forty-eight minutes daily will be at the disposition of the Federal Electoral Institute, which shall be distributed in two up to three minutes per hour of transmission for each radio station and television channel, between the hours referred to in paragraph d) of this Part; b) During their primary campaigns, the political parties will be provided jointly with a minute for each hour of transmission on each radio station and television channel; the remaining time shall be in accordance with what the law determines; c) During electoral campaigns at least eighty-five percent of the total available time to which paragraph a) of this Part refers, must be spent to cover the right of political parties; d) The transmission on each radio station and television channel will be distributed within the hours of programming contemplated between the sixth and the twenty-fourth hours; e) The time established as a right of the political parties shall be distributed among them in accordance with the following: thirty percent in equal [igualitaria] form and the seventy percent remaining in accordance with the results of the election for federal deputies immediately prior; f) To each national political party without representation in the Congress of the Union will be assigned for radio and television only the part corresponding to the equal percentage established in the preceding paragraph, and g) Independently of that provided for in parts A and B of this basis and outside of the periods of primaries [precampañas] and federal election campaigns, the Federal Electoral Institute will assign them up to twelve percent of the total time that the government is provided in radio and television, in accordance with the laws and under any modality; of the total allocated, the Institute will distribute between the national political parties in equal form fifty percent; the time remaining will be used for its own purposes or those] of other electoral authorities, both federal and of the federative entities. Each national political party will use the time, that by this concept corresponds to it, in a monthly program of five minutes and the remaining in messages with duration of twenty seconds each. In any case, the transmissions to which this paragraph refers will be made in the schedule by hour [horario] that the Institute determines in accordance with that specified in paragraph d) of this Part. In special situations the Institute may provide for corresponding times for partisan messages in support favor of a political party, when these are justified. The political parties at no time [momento] may contract for or acquire, by themselves or by third persons, times in any modality of radio and television. No other physical or juridical [moral] person, whether in their own name [titulo propio] or on account of third parties, may contract propaganda in radio and television directed at influencing the electoral preferences of the citizens, either in support of or against political parties or candidates for offices of popular election. The transmission in the national territory of this type of messages contracted abroad, is prohibited. The provisions contained in the two preceding paragraphs must be complied with in the domain [ambito] of the states and the Federal District in accordance with the applicable legislation. Part B. For electoral objectives in the federated entities, the Federal Electoral Institute will administer the times that correspond to the State in radio and television in the stations and channels of coverage in the entity concerned, in accordance with the following and that which the law determines: a) For the cases of local electoral processes with election days coincident with the federal election days, the time allocated in each federative entity shall be comprehended within the total provided for under paragraphs a), b) and c) of Part A of this basis; b) For the other electoral processes, the allocation will be made in the terms of the law, in accordance with the criteria of this constitutional basis, and c) The distribution of the times between the political parties, including to those of local registry, will be made [realizará] in accordance with the criteria specified in part A of this basis and that which the applicable legislation determines. Where in the judgment of the Federal Electoral Institute the total time in radio and television, to which this part and the previous part refer, should be insufficient for its own purposes or for those of other electoral authorities, it will determine what is conducive to cover the time which is lacking [faltante] in accordance with the faculties that the law confers on it. Part C. The political or electoral propaganda that the parties disseminate must abstain from expressions that denigrate the institutions and the parties themselves, or that slander persons. During the time that the federal and local election campaigns are held [comprendan] and until the conclusion of the respective election day [jornada comicial], the dissemination in the media of social communication of all governmental propaganda must be suspended, both for the federal and state powers, and the municipalities, organs of government of the Federal District, its delegations and any other public entity. The only exceptions to the previous will be the campaigns of information of the electoral authorities, those relative to educative services and to services of health, or those necessary for civil protection in cases of emergency. Part D. The infractions of that provided for in this basis will be sanctioned by the Federal Electoral Institute through expedited procedures, which may include the order of immediate cancellation of transmission in radio and television, of concessionaires [concesionarios] and permitted users [permisionarios], that result in violation of the law. IV. The law shall establish the times [plazos] for the realization of the party processes for the selection and postulation of the candidates to offices of popular election, as well as the regulations for the electoral primaries and the campaigns. The duration of the campaign in the year of the elections for President of the Republic, senators and deputies will be ninety days; in the year that only federal deputies are elected, the campaigns will last sixty days. In no case may the primaries exceed the two-thirds part of the time specified for the electoral campaigns. The violation of these provisions by the parties or by any other physical or juridical moral person will be sanctioned in accordance with the law. V. The organization of the federal elections is a state function that is realized through an autonomous public organ denominated the Federal Electoral Institute, endowed with juridical personality and its own patrimony, in the composition of which the Legislative Power of the Union, the national political parties and the citizens participate, in the terms that the law orders. In the exercise of the state function, certainty [certeza], legality, independence, impartiality and objectivity will be guiding [rectores] principles. The Federal Electoral Institute will be the authority in the matter, independent in its decisions and functioning and professional in its performance; it will include in its structure organs of management [direción], executive, technical [organs], and [organs] of supervision. The General Council will be the superior organ of management and will be composed of a Councilor President and eight electoral councilors, and participating, verbally but without vote, the councilors of the Executive Power, the representatives of the political parties and an Executive Secretary; the laws shall determine the rules for the organization and functioning of the organs, as well as the command relations [relaciones de mando] between them. The executive and technical organs shall have at [their] disposal [dispondran] the qualified personnel necessary to provide [prestar] professional electoral service. An Office of Comptroller General will have the responsibility [cargo], with technical autonomy and [autonomy of management], for the supervision of all the receipts and expenditures of the Institute. The provisions of the electoral law and of the Statute that the General Council approves on the basis of it, will govern the work relations with the employees [servidores] of the public organ [organismo]. The organs of supervision of the electoral list [padron] will be composed in the majority by representatives of the national political parties. The internal [de casilla] directive boards will be composed of citizens. The Councilor President will remain in his office six years and may be reelected one sole time. The electoral councilors will remain in their office nine years, and will be renewed in phased [escalonada] form and may not be reelected. As the case may be, one or the other may be successively elected by the vote of the two-thirds part of the members present of the Chamber of Deputies on the proposal of the parliamentary groups, with the prior realization of an ample consultation of society. In the event of [an] absolute impediment [falta] of the Councilor President or of any of the councilors, a substitute will be elected to conclude the period of vacancy. The law shall establish the rules and the corresponding procedures. The Councilor President and the electoral councilors may not hold other employment [empleo], office [cargo] or commission, with the exception of those in which they act in representation of the General Council and those they perform in non-remunerative teaching, scientific, cultural, research or charitable associations. The titular [member] of the Office of Comptroller General of the Institute will be appointed by the Chamber of Deputies with the vote of the two-thirds part of its members present on proposal of the public institutions of superior education, in the form and terms that the law determines. He will remain six years in the office [cargo] and may be reelected one sole time. He will be administratively adjunct [adscrito] to the presidency of the General Council and will maintain the necessary technical coordination with the entity of superior supervision [fiscalización] of the Federation. The Executive Secretary will be appointed with the vote of the two-thirds part of the General Council on proposal of its President. The law shall establish the requirements that must be met for the designation of the councilor president of the General Council, the electoral councilors, the Comptroller General and the Executive Secretary of the Federal Electoral Institute; those having served as Councilor President, electoral councilors and Executive Secretary may not occupy, during the two years following the date of their retirement [retiro], offices [cargos] in the public powers in whose election they have participated. The councilors of the Legislative Power shall be proposed by the parliamentary groups with party affiliation in either of the Chambers. There may only be one Councilor for each parliamentary group notwithstanding their recognition in both Chambers of the Congress of the Union. The Federal Electoral Institute will have as its responsibility [cargo] in complete [integral] and direct form, as well as that which the law determines, activities relative to civic instruction and education, electoral geography, the rights and prerogatives of the groups [agrupaciones] and of the political parties, the register [padrón] and list of electors, printing of electoral materials, preparation for the electoral day, the [electoral] computations in the terms that the law specifies, declaration of validity and granting [otorgamiento] of certification [constancias] in the election of deputies and senators, electoral computation of the election of President of the Untied Mexican States in each one of the uninomial electoral districts, as well as the regulation of the electoral supervision [observación] and of the surveys [encuestas] or polls [sondeos] of opinion with electoral objectives. The sessions of all the collegiate organs of management [dirección] shall be public in the terms that the law specifies. The supervision [fiscalización] of the finances of the national political parties will be the responsibility [cargo] of a technical organ of the General Council of the Federal Electoral Institute, endowed with autonomy of management, of which the titular [member] will be appointed by the vote of the two-thirds part of the same [propio] Council on proposal of the Councilor President. The law shall develop the composition and functioning of this organ, as well as the procedures for the application of sanctions by the General Council. In the fulfillment of its attributions, the technical organ will not be limited by banking, fiduciary and fiscal secrets. The technical organ will be the conduit [conducto] in matters of party supervision [fiscalización] in the domain [ambito] of the federative entities so that the competent authorities can supersede [superar] the limitation to which the previous paragraph refers. The Federal Electoral Institute assumes, through agreement with the competent authorities of the federative entities that so request it, the organization of local electoral processes, in the terms that the applicable legislation provides. VI. To guarantee the principles of constitutionality and legality of the electoral acts and resolutions, a system of measures of challenge [impugnación] shall be established in the terms that this Constitution and the law specify. This system will establish definitiveness in the separate [distintas] stages of the electoral processes and will guarantee the protection of the political rights of the citizens to vote, to be voted for and of association, in the terms of Article 99 of this Constitution. In electoral matters the interposition of the measures of challenge, constitutional or legal, do not produce suspensive effects concerning the challenged resolution or act. CHAPTER II Of the Integral Parts of the Federation and of the National Territory Article 42 The national territory comprises: I. That of the integral parts of the Federation; II. That of the islands, including the reefs and keys in the adjacent seas; III. That of the islands of Guadalupe and Revillagigedo situated in the Pacific Ocean; IV. The continental shelf and those of submarine zones [zocalos] of the islands, keys, and reefs; V. The waters of the territorial seas to the extent and terms that International Law and domestic maritime [law] specifies; VI. The space located above the national territory to the extent and modalities that the corresponding [propio] International Law on the subject establishes. Article 43 The integral parts of the Federation are the States of Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatán, Zacatecas, and the Distrito Federal [Federal District]. Article 44 Mexico City is the Federal District, seat of the Powers of the Union and Capital of the United Mexican States. It is composed of the territory that it currently occupies [tiene], and in the case that the Federal powers are moved to another place, it will become the Estado del Valle de México with the boundaries [limites] and extent that the General Congress assigns to it. Article 45 The States of the Federation retain [conservan] the extent and boundaries that, as of this day, they have held, provided that there is no difficulty on account of them. Article 46 The federative entities can arrange among themselves, by amicable agreements, their respective boundaries; however no such arrangements may take effect without the approval of the Chamber of Senators. Failing agreement, any of the parties can appeal to the Chamber of Senators, which will act in terms of Article 76, fraction XI of this Constitution. The resolutions of the Senate in the matter will be definitive and unassailable [inatacables]. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation may take cognizance of the matter by way of constitutional controversy [controversia constitucional], at the instance of an interested party, of the disputes [conflictos] derived from the execution of the corresponding decree of the Chamber of Senators. Article 47 The State of Nayarit will have the territorial extent and boundaries which currently comprise the Territorio de Tepic. Article 48 The islands, the keys and reefs of the adjacent seas which belong to the national territory, the continental shelf, the submarine zones of the islands, of the keys and reefs, the territorial seas, the inland marine waters and the space situated above the national territory, shall depend directly on the Government of the Federation, with the exception of those islands over which, until the present, the States have exercised jurisdiction. TITLE THREE CHAPTER I Of the Division of Powers Article 49 The Supreme Power of the Federation is divided for its exercise into Legislative, Executive, and Judicial [Powers]. Two or more of these Powers may not be united in one sole person or corporation, nor the Legislative [Power] be deposited in one individual, except in the case of extraordinary faculties [deposited] to the Executive of the Union, in accordance with that provided in Article 29. In no other case, except as provided for in the second paragraph of Article 131, shall extraordinary faculties be granted to legislate. CHAPTER II Of the Legislative Power Article 50 The legislative power of the United Mexican States is deposited in a General Congress, which will be divided in two Chambers, one of deputies and another of senators. SECTION I Of the Election and Installation of the Congress Article 51 The Chamber of Deputies will be composed of representatives of the Nation, elected in their totality each three years. For each proprietary deputy one substitute [suplente] will be elected. Article 52 The Chamber of Deputies will be composed of 300 deputies elected according to the principle of relative majority voting, within a system of uninomial electoral districts, and 200 deputies who will be elected according to the principle of proportional representation, within the System of Regional Lists [Sistema de Listas Regionales], voting in plurinomial circumscriptions. Article 53 The territorial demarcation of the 300 uninomial electoral districts will be that which results from dividing the total population of the country between the districts specified. The distribution of the uninomial electoral districts among the federative entities will be made with account of the last general census of the population, except that in no case may the representation of a State be less than two deputies of majority. For the election of the 200 deputies, according to the principle of proportional representation and the System of Regional Lists, five plurinomial electoral circumscriptions will be constituted in the country. The Law shall determine the form of establishing the territorial demarcation of these circumscriptions. Article 54 The election of the 200 deputies according to the principle of proportional representation and the system of assignment by regional lists, will be subject to the following bases and to that which the law provides: I. A political party, to obtain the registration of its regional lists, must prove [acreditar] that it participates with candidates for deputies by relative majority in, at the least, two hundred uninominal districts; II. Every political party that attains[,] at the least[,] two percent of the total of the vote emitted for the regional lists of the plurinominal circumscriptions, will have the right of having deputies attributed to it according to the principle of proportional representation; III. The political party that complies with the two prior bases, independent of and additional to the certifications [constancias] of relative majority that its candidates shall have obtained, shall have allotted to it, by the principle of proportional representation, in accordance with the national vote emitted to it, the number of deputies of its regional list that correspond to it in each plurinomial circumscription. The order that the candidates have taken in the corresponding lists shall be followed in the allotment. IV. No political party may have a count of [contar] more than 300 deputies by both principles. V. In no case, may a political party have a count of a number of deputies by both principles that represents a percentage of the total of the Chamber that exceeds by eight points its percentage of the national vote emitted. This basis will not be applicable to the political party that, by its [electoral] triumphs in uninomial districts, obtains a percentage of seats [curules] of the total of the Chamber, greater than the sum of the percentage of its national emitted vote greater than eight percent; and VI. In the terms that the preceding fractions III, IV and V establish, the deputations by proportional representation that remain after the allotment of those that correspond to the political party that are made [halle] on the postulates [supuestos] of fractions IV or V, will be awarded [adjudicarán] to the other political parties with right to them in each one of the plurinomial circumscriptions, in direct proportion to the respective effective national vote [votaciones] for them [de estos últimos]. The law shall develop the regulations and formulas for these effects. Article 55 The following requirements are required to be a deputy: I. To be a Mexican citizen, by birth, in the exercise of their rights. II. To be twenty-one years of age on the day of the election; III. To be of origin of the State in which the election is held or resident of it with effective residence of more than six months prior to the date of it. In order to be able to figure on the lists of the plurinomial electoral circumscriptions as a candidate for deputy, it is required to be of origin of any of the federative entities that comprise the circumscription in which the election is held, or [to be] resident of it with effective residence of more than six months prior to the date that it is celebrated. Residency is not lost for absence in the discharge of public offices [cargos] of popular election. IV. Not to be in active service in the Federal Army or to hold command [mando] in the police or rural gendarmería [police] in the District where the election is held, within at least ninety days prior to it. V. Not to be the titular [member] of any of the organs [organismos] to which this Constitution grants autonomy, or to be Secretary or Assistant Secretary of State, or titular [member] of any of the decentralized or deconcentrated organs [organismos] of the federal public administration, unless they definitively separate from their functions 90 days before the day of the election. Not to be Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, or Magistrate, or Secretary of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation, or Councilor President or Electoral Councilor in the General Council, or local or district councils of the Federal Electoral Institute, or Executive Secretary, Executive Director or of directive professional personnel of the same [propio] Institute, except [when] having been separated from their responsibilities [encargo], in definitive manner, three years before the day of the election. The Governors of the States and the Head of Government of the Federal District may not be elected in the entities of their respective jurisdictions during the period of their responsibilities [encargo], even when definitively separated from their posts [puestos]. The Secretaries of the Government of the States and of the Federal District, the Federal Magistrates and Judges or [those] of the State[s] or of the Federal District, as well as the Municipal Presidents and titular [members] of any political-administrative organ in the case of the Federal District, may not be elected in the entities of their respective jurisdictions, if not definitively separated from their offices [cargos] ninety days before the day of the election; VI. Not to be a minister of any religious belief, and VII. Not to be included [comprendido] in any of the incapacities that Article 59 specifies. Article 56 The Chamber of Senators will be composed of one hundred twenty-five senators, of whom, in each State and in the Federal District, two shall be elected following the principle of relative majority vote and one will be assigned to the first minority. For these effects, the political parties must register a list with two formulations [formula] of candidates. The office of senator of the first minority [senaduría de primera minoría] will be assigned to the formulation of candidates that heads [encabeca] the list of the political party that, by itself, has occupied [ocupado] the second place in the number of votes in the corresponding entity. The thirty-two senators remaining will be elected following the principle of proportional representation, through the system of lists voted in a sole national plurinomial circumscription. The law shall establish the regulations and formulas for these effects. The Chamber of Senators will be renewed in its totality each six years. Article 57 For each proprietary senator one substitute [suplente] will be elected. Article 58 To be a senator the same requirements are required as for deputy, except that of age, which shall be 25 years of age on the day of the election. Article 59 The Senators and Deputies to the Congress of the Union may not be re-elected for the term immediately following. The Substitute Senators and Deputies may be elected for the term immediately following with the character of proprietaries, as long as they have not been established [estado] in the exercise of proprietary; but the proprietary Senators and Deputies may not be elected for the term immediately following in the character of substitutes. Article 60 The public organ [organismo] provided for in Article 41 of this Constitution, in accordance with that which the law provides, shall declare the validity of the elections of deputies and senators in each one of the uninomial electoral districts and in each one of the federative entities; it shall grant the respective certifications [constancias] of the formulations of candidates that have obtained the majority of votes and shall make the assignments of senators of first minority in accordance with that provided for in Article 56 of this Constitution and in the law. Likewise, it shall make the declaration of validity and the assignment of deputies following the principle of proportional representation in accordance with Article 54 of this Constitution and the law. The determination concerning the declaration of validity, the granting of the certifications [constancias] and the assignment of deputies or senators can be challenged before the regional chambers of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation, in the terms that the law specifies. The resolutions of the chambers to which the preceding paragraph refers, may be reviewed [revisadas] exclusively by the Superior Chamber of the same [propio] Tribunal, by way of the means of challenge [impugnación] that the political parties may only [únicamente] interpose when[,] by the offenses done [agravios esgrimidos], the result of the election may be modified. The decisions [fallos] of the Chamber will be definitive and unassailable. The law shall establish the postulates [presupuestos], requirements of origin [procedencia] and the procedure for this means of challenge. Article 61 The deputies and senators are inviolable for the opinions that they manifest in the performance of their offices, and may never be reproached for them. The President of each Chamber shall see to the respect for the constitutional privilege of the members of it and for the inviolability of the building [recinto] in which it meets in session. Article 62 The proprietary deputies and senators, during the period of their responsibility [encargo], may not perform any other commission or employment [empleo] of the Federation or of the States for which they receive a salary, without prior permission [licencia] from the respective Chamber; except [pero] when, while the new position [ocupación] lasts, ceasing in their representative functions. The same rule will be observed with the substitute deputies and senators, when they are in exercise [as proprietaries]. The infraction of this provision will be castigated with loss of the character of deputy or senator. Article 63 The Chambers may not open their sessions or exercise their offices [cargos] without the presence, in each one of them, of more than half of the total number of its members; but those present in either must meet [on] the day specified by the law and compel those absent to attend within the thirty days following, with the notification [advertencia] that if they do not, it will be deemed by this sole act, that they do not accept their responsibilities [encargo], then calling their substitutes, who must present themselves in an equal period, and if they do not, the vacancy of the post [puesto] will be declared. Both the vacancies of deputies and senators of the Congress of the Union that are presented at the beginning of the legislature, as well as those that occur during its exercise, will be covered as follows: for the vacancy of deputies and senators of the Congress of the Union by the principle of relative majority, the respective Chamber will convoke extraordinary elections in accordance with that provided for on fraction IV of Article 77 of this Constitution; the vacancy of members of the Chamber of Deputies elected by the principle of proportional representation, will be covered by the formulation of candidates of the same party that follows [siga] in the order of the respective regional list, after the deputies that have corresponded have been assigned; the vacancy of members of the Chamber of Senators elected by proportional representation, will be covered by the formulation of candidates of the same party that follows in the order of the national list, after the senators that have corresponded have been assigned; and the vacancy of members of the Chamber of Senators elected by the principle of first minority, will be covered by the formulation of candidates of the same party for the corresponding federative entity have been registered in second place in the corresponding list. It is also understood that the deputies or senators who are absent [falten] ten consecutive days, without justified cause or without prior permission of the president of their respective Chamber, by which it is made aware of it, renounce their participation until the period immediately following, then calling on their substitutes. If there should not be a quorum to install either of the Chambers or to exercise their functions once installed, the substitutes will be convoked immediately to present themselves with the greatest brevity to perform their office [cargo], within the elapse of the thirty days as previously stated. Those having been elected deputies or senators, who do not present themselves, without justified cause in the judgment of the respective Chamber, to occupy the office [cargo] within the time specified in the first paragraph of this Article, will incur responsibility and will be accredited [se harán acreedores] with the sanctions that the law specifies. The National Political Parties that having nominated candidates in an election for deputies or senators, according [acuerden] that their members who have been elected have not presented themselves to perform their functions, also incur responsibility, that the same law will sanction. Article 64 The deputies and senators who do not participate in a session, without justified cause or without permission of the respective Chamber, do not have right to the per diem [dieta] corresponding to the day on which they were absent [falta]. Article 65 The Congress will meet from the 1st of September of each year, to celebrate a first period of ordinary sessions and from the 1st of February of each year to celebrate a second period of ordinary sessions. In both Periods of Sessions the Congress occupies itself [with] the study, discussion and voting of the Initiatives of Law that are presented to it and [with] the resolution of the other matters [asuntos] that in accordance with this Constitution correspond to it. In each Period of Ordinary Sessions the Congress occupies itself in a preferential manner with the matters that its Organic Law specifies. Article 66 Each period of ordinary sessions shall last [for] the time necessary to treat all the matters mentioned in the preceding Article. The first period may not be prolonged beyond [sino hasta] the 15th of December of the same year, except when the President of the Republic initiates his responsibilities [encargados] on the date provided for by Article 83, in which case the sessions may be extended until the 31st of December of this same year. The second period may not be prolonged beyond [más allá] the 30th of April of the same year. If the two Chambers should not find themselves in agreement as to the termination of the Sessions before the date indicated, the President of the Republic will resolve it. Article 67 The Congress or only one of its Chambers, when it concerns a matter exclusive to it, shall meet in extraordinary sessions whenever the Permanent Commission convokes it for that objective; but in both cases only the matter or matters which that same [propio] Committee submits to its cognizance will occupy it, which will be stated [expresarán] in the respective convocation. Article 68 The two chambers will reside at the same place and may not be transferred to another without [the] prior consent [convengan] to the transference and to the time and mode of verifying it, designating a same period [punto] for the meeting of both. But if the two, [while] consenting to the transfer, differ on account of the time, mode, and place, the Executive will end [terminará] the difference, electing one of the two options [extremos] in question. Neither Chamber may suspend its sessions for more than three days, without the consent of the other. Article 69 At the opening of the Ordinary Sessions of the First Period of each year of exercise of the Congress, the President of the Republic shall present a report [informe] in writing, in which he manifests the general state concerning [que guarda] the public administration of the country. At the opening of the extraordinary sessions of the Congress of the Union, or of only one of its Chambers, the President of the Permanent Commission shall report as to the motives or reasons that initiated [originaron] the convocation. Each one of the Chambers shall perform [realizará] an analysis of the report and can solicit the President of the Republic for more [ampliar] information through questions in writing [pregunta por escrito] and summons [citar] of the Secretaries of State, of the Procurator General of the Republic and of the directors of the para-statal [paraestatales] entities, who will appear and will render reports under oath to tell the truth. The Law of the Congress [Ley del Congreso] and its regulations will govern the exercise of this faculty. Article 70 Every resolution of the Congress will have the character of a law or decree. The laws or decrees will be communicated to the Executive signed by the presidents of both Chambers and by a secretary of each one of them, and will be promulgated in this form: “The Congress of the United Mexican States decrees: (text of the law or decree)”. The Congress shall enact the law that shall govern its internal structure and functioning. The law shall determine the formalities and procedures for the grouping [agrupación] of the deputies, according to their party affiliation, to the effect of guaranteeing the free expression of the ideological currents [corrientes] represented in the Chamber of Deputies. This law may not be vetoed nor will promulgation by the Federal Executive be necessary for it to have force. SECTION II Of the Initiative and Enactment [Formación] of the Laws Article 71 The right of initiative of laws or decrees belongs: I. To the President of the Republic; II. To the Deputies and Senators of the Congress of the Union; and III. To the Legislatures of the States. The initiatives presented by the President of the Republic, by the Legislatures of the States or by the deputations of them will be referred [pasarán] at once to a commission. Those that the deputies or senators present, will be subject to the procedures [trámites] that the Law of the Congress and their respective regulations designate. Article 72 Every Bill of law or decree, of which the resolution is not exclusive to either of the Chambers, will be discussed successively in both, observing the Law of the Congress and their respective regulations, concerning the form, intervals and mode of procedure in the discussions and voting: A. A Bill approved in the Chamber of its origin, will be referred for its discussion to the other. If this [Chamber] approves it, it will be remitted to the Executive, who, if he should have no observations to make, will publish it immediately. B. Every Bill not returned [devuelto] with observations to the Chamber of its origin within the thirty natural [naturales] days following the reception, will be considered [reputará] approved by the Executive Power; [when] this time period [plazo] has elapsed [vencido], the Executive will have [dispondrá] ten natural days to promulgate and publish the law or decree. [When] this second time period has elapsed [transcurrido], the law or decree will be considered promulgated and the President of the Chamber of origin will order, within the following ten natural days[,] its publication in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, without it requiring assent [refrendo]. The time periods referred to in this fraction may not be interrupted if the Congress ends [cierra] or suspends its sessions, in which case the devolution will be made to the Permanent Commission. C. The Bill of law or decree rejected in total or in part by the Executive, will be returned, with his observations, to the Chamber of its origin. It must be discussed again [del nuevo] by it, and if it should be confirmed by the two-thirds part of the total number of votes, it will be referred [pasará] another time to the revisory Chamber. If it should be sanctioned by it with the same majority, the Bill will be a law or decree and will be returned [volverá] to the Executive for its promulgation. The voting of [a] law or decree, will be by names [nominales]. D. If any Bill of law or decree, should be rejected in its totality by the Chamber of revision, it will be returned to that of its origin, with the observations that have been made by it. If, being examined again, it should be approved by the absolute majority of the members present, it will be returned to the Chamber that rejected it [desechó], which again will place it in consideration, and if it approves it by the same majority, it will be referred to the Executive for the effects of fraction A; but if it disapproves it, it cannot be returned for presentation in the same period of sessions. E. If a Bill of law or decree should be rejected in part, or modified, or added to by the revisory Chamber, the new discussion in the Chamber of its origin will concern [versará] only [that] rejected or the reforms or additions, without the articles approved being altered in any way. If the additions or reforms made by the revisory Chamber should be approved by the absolute majority of votes present in the Chamber of its origin, the whole of the Bill is referred [pasará] to the Executive, for the effects of fraction A. If the additions or reforms made by the revisory Chamber should be disapproved by the majority of votes in the Chamber of its origin, they will be returned to the other so that the reasons for it may be placed in consideration, and if these additions or reforms are rejected in this second revision by the absolute majority of votes present, the Bill, concerning that which was approved by both Chambers, will be referred to the Executive for the effects of fraction A. If the revisory Chamber insists, by the absolute majority of votes present, on such additions or reforms, [the] total Bill may not be returned for presentation until the following period of sessions, unless both Chambers agree, by the absolute majority of their members present, that the law or decree [may] be enacted [expeda] only with the articles approved, and that those added or reformed are reserved for [their] examination and vote in the following sessions. F. In the interpretation, reform, or abrogation [derogación] of the laws or decrees, the same procedures established for their enactment, will be observed. G. Every Bill of law or decree which has been rejected in the Chamber of its origin, may not be returned for presentation in the sessions of the year. H. The enactment of laws or decrees can commence without distinction in either of the two Chambers, with the exception of Bills concerning loans [empréstitos], taxes [contribuciones], or duties [impuestos], or concerning recruitment of troops, all of which must be discussed first in the Chamber of Deputies. I. The initiatives of laws or decrees will be preferentially discussed in the Chamber in which they are presented, unless one month elapses from when they were sent to the Reporting Commission [Comisión dictaminadora] without it rendering a report, in which case this bill of law or decree can then be discussed in the other Chamber. J. The Executive of the Union may not make observations to the resolutions of the Congress or of either of the Chambers, when they are exercising functions of an electoral body or of a jury, similarly when the Chamber of Deputies declares that one of the high functionaries of the Federation must be impeached [acusarse] for official infractions [delitos]. Neither may he make them [to] the Decree of convocation to extraordinary sessions that the Permanent Commission issues [expida]. SECTION III Of the Faculties of the Congress Article 73 The Congress holds the faculty: I. To admit new States into the Federal Union; II. [Abrogated] III. To form new States within the limits of those existing, to effect which it will be necessary: 1st. That the fraction or fractions seeking to be made into States, must have [cuenten con] a population of one hundred and twenty-thousand inhabitants, at the least. 2nd. That it is proved before the Congress that they have the resources necessary [elementos bastantes] to provide for their political existence. 3rd. That the legislatures of the States of the territories concerned are heard, concerning the desirability or undesirability [conveniencia o inconveniencia] of the creation [ereción] of the new State, thereby being obligated to give their report within six months, counting from the day that the respective communication was remitted to them. 4th. Equally, that the Executive of the Federation is heard, who shall send his report [informe] within seven days counting from the date on which it was requested of him. 5th. That the creation of the new State will be voted by the two-thirds part of the deputies and senators present in their respective Chambers. 6th. That the resolution of the Congress will be ratified by a majority of the Legislatures of the States, with prior examination of [a] copy of the report [expediente] before them, provided that the Legislatures of the States of the territory concerned have given their consent. 7th. If the Legislatures of the States of the territory concerned, have not given their consent, the ratification of which the prior fraction has spoken, must be made by the two-thirds part of the total of [the] Legislatures of the other States. IV. [Abrogated] V. To change the seat [residencia] of the supreme powers of the Federation. VI. [Abrogated] VII. To impose the necessary taxes to cover the Budget. VIII. To provide [dar] bases concerning which the Executive can contract loans [celebrar emprésitos] on the credit of the Nation, to approve these same loans, and to take cognizance of and to mandate payment [of] the national debt. No loan may be contracted except for the execution of works that directly produce an increase in the public receipts, except those that are achieved with proposals for monetary regulation, the operations of conversion and those which are contracted during any emergency declared by the President of the Republic in the terms of Article 29. Likewise, to annually approve the amounts of indebtedness that must be included in the law of receipts [ley de ingresos], that the Government of the Federal District and the entities of the public sector require, in that case, in accordance with the bases of the corresponding law. The Federal Executive shall annually report to the Congress of the Union concerning the exercise of said debt, to which effect the Head of the Federal District shall make a report [informe] to him that concerns the exercise of the corresponding resources having been realized. The Head of the Federal District shall equally report to the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District, to render the account public; IX. To prevent the establishment [of] restrictions on commerce from State to State. X. To legislate, for all of the Republic, concerning hydrocarbons, mining, chemical substances, explosives, [the] cinematographic industry, commerce, games with betting and lotteries, mediation and financial services, electrical and nuclear energy, and to issue the labor laws regulatory of Article 123; XI. To create and suppress public offices [empleos] of the Federation and to specify, augment, or diminish their salaries [dotaciones]. XII. To declare war, in view of the data the Executive presents to it. XIII. To enact [dictar] laws according to which seizures [presas] on the sea and land must be declared good or evil, and to enact laws [leyes] concerning maritime law [derecho] in peace and war. XIV. To raise and maintain the armed institutions of the Union, namely: the National Army, Navy and Air Force, and to regulate their organization and service. XV. To provide regulations with the objective to organize, to arm, and to discipline the National Guard, reserving to the citizens who form it, the respective appointment of heads [jefes] and officers [oficiales], and to the States the faculty of training them in accordance with the discipline prescribed by these regulations. XVI. To enact [dictar] laws concerning nationality, the juridical status [condición] of foreigners, citizenship, naturalization, colonization, emigration and immigration, and the general health of the Republic. 1st. The Council for General Health [Consejo de Salubridad General] shall depend directly to the President of the Republic, without intervention of any Secretariat of State, and its general provisions will be obligatory in the country. 2nd. In case of epidemics of grave character or danger of invasion by exotic diseases in the country, the Secretariat of Health will have the obligation to order [dictar] immediately the indispensible preventive measures, under reserve of their being sanctioned later by the President of the Republic. 3rd. The health authority will be executive and its provisions shall be obeyed by the administrative authorities of the country. 4th. The measures which the Council has put into force in the Campaign against alcoholism and the sale of substances which poison [envenenan] the individual and degenerate the human species, as well as those adopted to prevent and to combat environmental pollution, shall be reviewed by the Congress of the Union, in the cases of its competence. XVII. To enact [dictar] laws concerning the general means of transportation, and concerning [the] mail and post offices, to enact [expedir] laws concerning the use [uso] and utilization [aprovechamiento] of the waters of federal jurisdiction. XVIII. To establish mints [casas de moneda], establish the conditions that these must meet, to enact [dictar] rules to determine the relative value of foreign currency and to adopt a general system of weights and measures; XIX. To establish the rules to which the occupation and alienation of vacant lands must be subject and the price of them. XX. To enact [expedir] laws of organization of the Mexican Diplomatic Corps and of the Consular Corps. XXI. To establish the crimes and the infractions [los delitos y las faltas] against the Federation and to establish the punishments that must be imposed for them; to enact [expedir] general laws in matters of kidnapping, and trafficking in persons, that establishes, at the minimum, the criminal grades [tipos penales] and their punishments [sanciones], the distribution of competences and the forms of coordination between the Federation, the Federal District, the States and the Municipalities; as well as to legislate [legislar] in matters of organized crime. The federal authorities can also take cognizance of crimes of common law [fuero comun], when these have a connection to federal crimes; In concurrent matters provided for in this Constitution, the federal laws shall establish the postulates [supuestos] under which the authorities of common law may take cognizance of and resolve concerning federal crimes; XXII. To grant [conceder] amnesties for crimes of which the cognizance belongs to the tribunals of the Federation. XXIII. To enact [expedir] laws that establish the bases of cooperation between the Federation, the Federal District, the States and the Municipalities, as well as to establish and to organize the institutions of public security in federal matters, in accordance with that established in Article 21 of this Constitution. XXIV. To enact [expedir] the law that governs the organization of the entity of superior supervision [fiscalización] and the others that provide norms for the management, control and evaluation of the Powers of the Union and of the federal public entities; XXV. To establish, organize, and maintain in the whole of the Republic rural, elementary, superior, secondary, and professional schools; [schools] for scientific research, of fine arts, and of technical training; practical schools of agriculture and of mining, of arts and crafts [ofocios], museums, libraries, observatories, and other institutions concerned with the general culture of the inhabitants of the Nation, and to legislate in all [matters] which concern [se refiere] these institutions; to legislate concerning fossil finds or remains and concerning archeological, artistic, and historic monuments, of which the conservation is of national interest; and also to enact [dictar] the laws designed to distribute appropriately [convenientemente] between the Federation, the States, and the Municipalities the exercise of the educative function and the economic appropriations [oportaciones] corresponding to this public service, seeking to unify and to coordinate education in the whole of the Republic. The Degrees [Titulos] that are granted [expedir] by these concerned establishments will maintain [surtiran] their effects in the whole of the Republic. To legislate in matters of copyright and other forms [figuras] of intellectual property related to it. XXVI. To grant [conceder] leave of absence to the President of the Republic, and to be constituted as an electoral college and to designate the citizen who must substitute for the President of the Republic, which will be in the character of a substitute, interim or provisional, in the terms of Articles 84 and 85 of this Constitution. XXVII. To accept the resignation from office of the President of the Republic. XXVIII. To enact [expedir] laws in matters of governmental accountability that shall govern the public accountability and the homogeneous presentation of financial information, of income and expenditures, as well as patrimonial information of the Federation, the States, the Municipalities, the Federal District and the political-administrative organs of the territorial demarcations, with the objective of guaranteeing their harmonization at the national level; XXIX. To establish taxes [contribuciones]: 1st. On foreign commerce; 2nd. On the utilization and exploitation of the natural resources included in the 4th and 5th paragraphs of Article 27; 3rd. On institutions of credit and insurance companies; 4th. On public services under concession or exploited directly by the Federation; and 5th. Especially concerning: a. Electrical energy; b. Production and consumption of processed [labrados] tobaccos; c. Gasoline and other products derived from petroleum; d. Matches [cerillos y fósforos]; e. Maguey [aguamiel] and products of its fermentation; and f. Forestry exploitation. g. Production and consumption of beer. The federative entities shall participate in the revenues [rendimiento] of these special taxes in the proportion that the secondary federal law [ley secundaria federal] determines. The local legislatures shall establish the percentage corresponding to the Municipalities, from the revenues corresponding to [por concepto] the tax on electrical energy. XXIX-B. To legislate concerning the characteristics and use of the National Flag, Coat-of-Arms and Anthem. XXIX-C. To enact [expidir] laws that establish the concurrence of the Federal Government, of the States and of the Municipalities, in the domain [ámbito] of their respective competences, in matters of human settlements [asentamientos], with the objective of compliance with the objectives provided for in the third paragraph of Article 27 of this Constitution. XXIX-D. To enact [expidir] laws concerning national planning of economic and social development, and also in matters of statistical and geographic information of national interest; XXIX-E. To enact [expidir] laws for the programming, promotion, coordination [concertacion] and execution of actions of economic order, especially those related to supply [abastos] and others that have as their objective the sufficient and opportune production of goods and services, which are socially and nationally necessary. XXIX-F. To enact [expidir] laws attending to the promotion of Mexican investment, the regulation of foreign investment, the transfer of technology and the generation, diffusion and application of scientific and technological knowledge [conocimientos] that the national development requires. XXIX-G. To enact [expidir] laws that establish the concurrence of the Federal Government, of the governments of the States and of the municipalities, in the domain [ámbito] of their respective competences, in matters of protection of the environment and of preservation and restoration of the ecological balance. XXIX-H. To enact [expidir] laws that institute contentious-administrative tribunals, endowed with full autonomy to issue [dictar] their judgments, and that have as their responsibility [cargo] to settle [dirimir] the disputes between the federal public administration and individuals, as well as to impose the sanctions on the public servants for administrative responsibility that the law determines, establishing the norms for their organization, their functioning, and the procedures and the recourses against their resolutions; XXIX-I. To enact [expidir] laws that establish the bases on which the Federation, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, coordinate their actions in matters of civil protection, and XXIX-J. To legislate in matters of physical culture and sports with the object of complying with that specified in Article 4 of this Constitution, establishing the concurrence between the Federation, the States, the Federal District and the municipalities; as well as of the participation of the social and private sectors; XXIX-K. To enact [expidir] laws in matters of tourism, establishing the general bases of coordination of the concurrent faculties between the Federation, States, Municipalities and the Federal District, as well as the participation of the social and private sectors. XXIX-L. To enact [expidir] laws that establish the concurrence of the federal government, of the governments of the federative entities and of the municipalities, in the domain [ámbito] of their respective competences, in matters of fishing and aquaculture, as well as the participation of the social and private sectors, and XXIX-M. To enact [expidir] laws in matters of national security, establishing the requirements and limits to the corresponding investigations. XXIX-N. To enact [expidir] laws in matters of constitution, organization, functioning, and termination [extinción] of cooperative societies. These laws shall establish the bases of concurrence in matters of formation and sustainable development of the cooperative activity of the Federation, States and Municipalities, as well as the Federal District, in the domain [ámbito] of their respective competences. XXIX-Ñ. To enact [expidir] laws that establish the bases on which the Federation, the States, the Municipalities and the Federal District coordinate their actions in matters of culture, save that provided in fraction XXV of this Article. Also, [it] shall establish the mechanisms of participation of the social and private sectors, with the objective of compliance with the goals [fines] provided for in the ninth paragraph of Article 4 of this Constitution. XXIX-O. To legislate in matters of protection of personal data in the possession of individuals [particulares]. XXIX-P. To enact [expidir] laws that establish the concurrence of the Federation, the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities, in the domain [ámbito] of their respective competences, in matters of the rights of children [feminine], children [masculine] and adolescents, seeing at each moment to their superior interests and complying with the international treaties in the matter, to which Mexico is a party. XXX. To enact [expidir] all laws that are necessary, with the objective of making effective the aforementioned faculties, and all others granted by this Constitution to the Powers of the Union. Article 74 The exclusive powers of the Chamber of Deputies are: I. To enact [expedir] the Solemn Proclamation [Bando Solemne], so as to make known in all [of] the Republic the oath [declaración] of President Elect that shall be made by the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation; II. To coordinate and to evaluate, without prejudice to its technical autonomy and [autonomy] of management, the performance of the functions of the entity of superior supervision [fiscalización] of the Federation, in the terms that the law provides; III. [Abrogated] IV. To approve annually the Budget of Expenditures of the Federation [Presupuesto de Egresos de la Federation], with prior examination, discussion and, as the case may be, modification of the Bill sent by the Federal Executive, once [having] approved the taxes [contribuciones] that, in its judgment, must be decreed to cover it. Similarly, it shall authorize in this Budget the pluri-annual distributions [erogaciones] for those projects [proyectos] of investment in infrastructure that are determined in accordance with that provided for in the regulatory law; the corresponding distributions must be included in the subsequent Budgets of Expenditures. The Federal Executive shall deliver [hará llegar] to the Chamber the Initiative of Law of Revenues [Iniciativa de Ley de Ingresos] and the Bill of [the] Budget of Expenditures of the Federation no later than the 8th day of the month of September at the latest, [and] the corresponding secretary of the cabinet [despacho] must have appeared to give account of them. The Chamber of Deputies must have approved the Budget of Expenditures of the Federation no later than the 15th day of the month of November. When his responsibilities [encargo] commence [inicie] on the date provided for in Article 83, the Federal Executive shall deliver to the Chamber the Initiative of Law of Revenues and the Bill of [the] Budget of Expenditures of the Federation no later than the 15th day of the month of December. There may not be other secret parts, beyond [fuera] those that are considered necessary, with this character, in the same budget; the secretaries shall employ those by written agreement of the President of the Republic. The time of presentation of the Initiative of Law of Revenues and the Bill of the Budget of Expenditures may only be extended [ampliar] when by way of a solicitation of the Executive sufficiently justified in the judgment of the Chamber or of the Permanent Commission, in which case the corresponding Secretary of the Cabinet must have appeared to report [informar] on the reasons that motivate it; V. To declare if there is or is not cause to criminally proceed against the public servants who have incurred in [a] crime in the terms of Article 111 of this Constitution. To take cognizance of accusations [imputaciones] that are made against the public servants to which Article 110 of this Constitution refers and to act [fungir] as an organ of impeachment [accusación] in the political trials that are begun against them. VI. To review the Public Account [Cuenta Pública] of the prior year, with the objective of evaluating the results of the financial management, to establish [comprobar] if it has been adjusted by the criteria specified by the Budget and to verify the fulfillment of the objectives contained in the programs. The review of the Public Account is realized by the Chamber of Deputies through the entity of superior supervision the [fiscalización] of the Federation. If in the examination that it realizes, discrepancies appear between the quantities corresponding to the revenues or the expenditures, with relation to the respective concepts and the [respective] parts, or exactitude or justification does not exist in the revenues obtained or in the expenditures [gastos] realized, it will determine the responsibilities in accordance with the Law. In the case of the review concerning the fulfillment of the objectives of the programs, this entity may only issue [emitir] the recommendations for the improvement in the performance [desempeño] of them, in the terms of the Law. The Public Account of the corresponding fiscal year [ejercicio] will be presented to the Chamber of Deputies at the latest [on] the 30th of April of the year following. The time [plazo] may only be extended [ampliar] in the terms of fraction IV, last paragraph, of this Article; the extension [prórroga] must not exceed 30 natural days and, under such postulate [supuesto], the entity of superior supervision of the Federation shall have [contará] the same additional time for the presentation of the report of the results of the review of the Public Account. The Chamber will conclude the review of the Public Account no later than the 30th of September of the year following its presentation, based on the analysis of its content and in the technical conclusions of the report of the result by the entity of superior supervision of the Federation, to which Article 79 of this Constitution refers, without diminishing that the work [trámite] of the observations, recommendations and actions initiated [promovidas] by the entity of superior supervision of the Federation, shall follow its course in the terms of what that Article provides. The Chamber of Deputies shall evaluate the performance of the entity of superior supervision of the Federation and to effect it may require that it report concerning the evolution of its work of supervision; VII. [Abrogated] VIII. The others which this Constitution expressly confers on it. Article 75 The Chamber of Deputies, to approve the Budget of Expenditures, may not fail to specify the remuneration [retribución] which corresponds to an office [empleo] which is established by the law; and in case that for any circumstance it omits to establish such remuneration [remuneración], that which had been established in the previous Budget or in the law which established the office, shall be deemed to be specified. In any case, this specification must respect the bases provided for in Article 127 of this Constitution and in the laws that the General Congress enacts [expida] in the matter. The Legislative, Executive and Judicial federal powers, as well as the organs [organismos] with autonomy recognized in this Constitution using [ejerzan] resources of the Budget of Expenditures of the Federation, must include within their bills of budgets, the itemized tabulations [tabuladores desglosados] of the remunerations that it proposes [that] its public servants [shall] receive. These proposals must observe the procedure for the approval of the budget of expenditures, provided for by Article 74 fraction IV of this Constitution and other applicable legal provisions. Article 76 Exclusive faculties of the Senate are: I. To analyze the foreign policy developed by the Federal Executive based on the annual reports that the President of the Republic and the corresponding Secretary of the Cabinet render to Congress. Also, to approve the treaties and diplomatic conventions subscribed by the Federal Executive, as well as its decision to terminate, to denounce, to suspend, to modify, to amend, or to retract [retirar] reservations and to formulate interpretive declarations concerning them; II. To ratify the appointment that [this] same functionary makes for the Procurator General of the Republic, Ministers, diplomatic agents, consuls general, superior offices [empleos] of the Public Finance [Hacienda], colonels and other superior officers [jefes] of the National Army, Navy and Air Force, in the terms that the law provides; III. To authorize him, as well, so that the departure of national troops beyond the borders [limites] of the Country[,] the passage of foreign troops through the national territory and the stationing of squadrons of another power [potencia] for more than one month, in Mexican waters, may be permitted. IV. To give its consent so that the President of the Republic may deploy [disponer] the national guard outside of their respective States, establishing the force necessary. V. To declare, when all the constitutional powers of a State have disappeared [desaparecido], that the case has arisen for appointing a provisional Governor, who shall convoke elections in accordance with the constitutional laws of that State. The appointment of Governor will be made by the Senate on proposal of a terna list of three of the President of the Republic, with the approval of the two-thirds part of the members present, and in the recesses, by the Permanent Commission, in accordance with the same rules. The functionary so appointed may not be elected constitutional Governor in the elections that are held [verifiquen] by virtue of the convocation that he orders [expidiere]. This provision shall govern whenever the constitutions of the States do not provide for this case. VI. To resolve the political questions which arise between the powers of a State when any of them approach [ocurra] the Senate with this objective, or when by reason of these questions the constitutional order has been interrupted, through an armed conflict. In this case the Senate shall declare its resolution, subjecting itself to the General Constitution of the Republic and to that of the State. The law shall regulate the exercise of this faculty and of the previous one. VII. To form itself [erigirse] as a grand jury [Jurado de sentencia] to take cognizance in political trial of errors [faltas] or omissions that the public servants commit and that are prejudicial to the fundamental public interests and to their proper management [despacho] in the terms of Article 110 of this Constitution. VIII. To appoint [designar] the Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, from among the terna that the President of the Republic submits to its consideration, as well as to grant or to deny its approval to the solicitations for leave [licencia] or cancellation [renunciación] of it, that this functionary submits to it; IX. To appoint [nombrar] and remove the Head [Jefe] of the Federal District within the postulates [supestos] provided for in this Constitution; X. The authorize through a decree adopted with the vote of the two-thirds part of the individuals present, the friendly agreements that the federative entities adopt [celebren] that concern their respective boundaries [limites]; XI. To resolve in definitive manner the conflicts concerning territorial boundaries of the federative entities when they so solicit it, through a decree adopted by the vote of the two-thirds part of the individuals present; XII. The others which this Constitution attributes to it. Article 77 Each one of the Chambers can, without the intervention of the other: I. Adopt [dictar] economic resolutions relating to its internal regime. II. Communicate with the co-legislative Chamber and with the Executive of the Union, by way of commissions of its own [seno]. III. Appoint the employees of its secretariat and make the internal regulations of it. IV. Adopt [expidir] a convocation, within the time of 30 days counting from the occurrence of the vacancy, for extraordinary elections that must be held within the 90 days following, with the objective of covering the vacancies of its members to which Article 63 of this Constitution refers, in the case of vacancies of deputies and senators of the Congress of the Union by the principle of relative majority, except when the vacancy occurs within the final year of the exercise of the functions of the corresponding legislator. SECTION IV Of the Permanent Commission Article 78 During the recesses of the Congress of the Union there will be a Permanent Commission composed of 37 members of whom 19 will be Deputies and 18 Senators, appointed by their respective Chambers on the evening [vispera] of the close of the ordinary period of sessions. For each titular member, the Chambers will appoint, from among their members in exercise of the functions, a substitute. The Permanent Commission, as well as the attributions which this Constitution expressly confers on it, will have the following [attributions]: I. To give its consent for the use of the National Guard in those cases specified in Article 76, fraction IV; II. To receive, as the case arises, the oath [protesta] of the President of the Republic; III. To resolve the matters of its competence; to receive, during the recess of the Congress of the Union, the initiatives of law, the observations to the bills of law or decree that the Executive sends [envie], and proposals directed to the Chambers, and convey them [turnarlas] for opinion [dictamen] to the Commissions of the Chamber to which they are directed [vayan dirigidas], to the end that they may be dealt with in the next immediate [inmediato] period of sessions; IV. To decide by itself or on proposal of the Executive, on the convocation of the Congress or of one sole Chamber to extraordinary sessions, the vote of the two-thirds part of the individuals present being necessary in both cases. The convocation will specify the objective or objectives of the extraordinary sessions; V. To grant [ortogar] or to deny its ratification of the appointment [designación] of the Procurator General of the Republic, that the titular [member] of the Federal Executive submits to it; VI. To grant [conceder] leave of thirty days to the President of the Republic and to appoint the interim [person] that substitutes in this absence [falta]; VII. To ratify the appointments that the President of the Republic makes of ministers, diplomatic agents, consuls general, superior employees of the Public Finance [Hacienda/Treasury], colonels and other superior officers [jefes] of the National Army, Navy, and Air Force, in the terms that the law provides, and VIII. To take cognizance of and to resolve concerning the requests for leave that are presented to it by the legislators. SECTION V Of the Superior Supervision of the Federation [Fiscalización Superior de la Federación] Article 79 The entity of superior supervision of the Federation, of the Chamber of Deputies, has technical autonomy and [autonomy] of management in the exercise of its attributions and to decide concerning its internal organization, functioning and resolutions, in the terms that the law provides. The function of supervision will be exercised in accordance with the principles of subsequent action, annual action, legality, definitiveness, impartiality and reliability. This entity of superior supervision of the Federation has for its responsibility [cargo]: I. To supervise in subsequent form the revenues and expenses; the handling, the custody and the application of funds and resources of the Powers of the Union and of the federal public entities, as well as to perform [realizar] audits concerning performance in the fulfillment of the objectives contained in the federal programs, through reports that it renders in the terms that the laws provide. Also to supervise directly the federal resources that the states, the municipalities, the Federal District and the political-administrative organs of their territorial demarcations administer or use [ejerzan], with exception of the federal participations; as well as, to supervise the federal resources that are allocated to and that are used by any entity, physical or juridical [moral], public or private, and those transferred to trusts [fideicomisios], agencies [mandatos], funds [fondos] or any other juridical figure, in accordance with the procedures established in the laws and without prejudice to the competence of other authorities and of other rights of the users of the financial system. The supervised entities, to which the preceding paragraph refers, must maintain [llevar] the countable, patrimonial and budgetary control and registration of the resources of the Federation that have been transferred and assigned to them, in accordance with the criteria that the Law establishes. Without prejudice to the principle of annual [action], the entity of superior supervision of the Federation may solicit and revise, in causal and concrete manner, information of fiscal years [ejercicios] prior to that of the Public Account in review, without by this reason intending, by any legal effects, to open again [abierta nuevamente] the Public Account of the fiscal year to which the information solicited pertains [pertenece], exclusively when the program, project or the expenditure [erogación], contained in the budget in review covers [abarque] for its execution and payment several [diversos] fiscal years or addresses [se trate] reviews concerning the fulfillment of the objectives of the federal programs. The observations and recommendations that, respectively, the entity of superior supervision of the Federation issues, may only refer to the use [ejercico] of the public resources of the Public Account in review. Similarly, without prejudice to the principle of subsequent [action], in the exceptional situations that the law determines, derived from challenges [denuncias], the supervised entities may be required to proceed with a review, during the fiscal years in course, of the concepts challenged and render a report to it. If these requirements should not have been attended to in the times and forms specified by the Law, the sanctions provided for in the same will be imposed. The entity of superior supervision of the Federation shall render a specific report to the Chamber of Deputies and, as the case may be, raise [fincará] the corresponding responsibilities or initiate [promoverá] other responsibilities before the competent authorities; II. To deliver the report of the results [informe del resultado] of the review of the Public Account to the Chamber of Deputies at the latest [on] the 20th of February of the year subsequent to its presentation, which it will submit to the consideration of the plenary of this Chamber and [which] will have public character. Within this report will be included the audits accomplished [practicadas], the conclusions [dictámenes] of its review, the parts corresponding to the supervision of the handling of the federal resources on the part of the supervised entities to which the previous fraction refers, and the verification of the performance in the fulfillment of the objectives of the federal programs, as well as also a specific part with the observations of the entity of superior supervision of the Federation that includes the justifications and clarifications that, as the case may be, the supervised entities have presented concerning the same. To such effect, in a manner prior to the presentation of the report of the result, the part that corresponds to them of the results of its review will be brought to the cognizance of the supervised entities, to the effect that they may present the justifications and clarifications that correspond, which must be validated by the entity of superior supervision of the Federation for the drafting [elaboración] of the report of the result of the review of the Public Account. The titular member of the entity of superior supervision of the Federation will send to the supervised entities, at the latest 10 working days subsequent to that when the report of result is dedicated to the Chamber of Deputies, the resolutions and actions initiated that correspond, so that, in a time of up to 30 working days, the information is presented and the considerations that are deemed pertinent are realized, in case of not having been accredited with the sanctions established in Law. The latter, shall not apply to the written questions [pliegos] of observations and to the initiatives of responsibility, which will be subject to the procedures and terms that the law establishes. The entity of superior supervision of the Federation must decide [pronunciarse] in a time of 120 working days concerning the responses issued by the supervised entities, and in case it has not done so, the recommendations and initiated actions will be held to be attended to. In the case of the recommendations on performance[,] the supervised entities must make precise before the entity of superior supervision of the Federation the improvement realized or, as the case may be, justify their inappropriateness. The entity of superior supervision of the Federation must deliver to the Chamber of Deputies, on the 1st day of the months of May and November of each year, a report concerning the situation that contains [guardan] the observations, recommendations and actions initiated. The entity of superior supervision of the Federation must hold [guardar] in reserve its acts [actuaciones] and observations until the report of result to which this fraction refers is rendered to the Chamber of Deputies; the Law shall establish the sanctions applicable to whoever infringes this provision; III. To investigate the acts or omissions that implicate any irregularity or illicit conduct in the revenue, expenditure, handling, custody and application of the federal funds and resources, and to effect searches [visitas] of domicile, uniquely to require the presentation [exhibición] of books, papers or archival [materials] indispensible for the realization of its investigations, subject to the laws and to the formalities established for searches [cateos], and IV. To determine the damages and prejudices that affect the Federal Public Treasury [Hacienda Pública Federal] or the patrimony of the federal public entities and impose [ficar] directly on those responsible the corresponding indemnities and pecuniary sanctions, as well as to initiate before the competent authorities the imposition [fincamiento] of other responsibilities; to initiate the actions of responsibility to which Title Four of this Constitution refers, and to present criminal challenges [denuncias] and complaints [querellas], in which procedures it shall have the intervention that the law specifies. The sanctions and other resolutions of the entity of superior supervision of the Federation may be challenged [impugnadas] by the entities supervised and, as the case may be, by the affected public servants, assigned [adscritos] to them, before the same entity of supervision or before the tribunals to which Article 73, fraction XXIX-H of this Constitution refers, in accordance with that provided for in the Law. The Chamber of Deputies will appoint the titular [member] of the entity of supervision by the vote of the two-thirds part of its members present. The law shall determine the procedure for his appointment. This titular [member] remains in is responsibility [encargo] eight years and may be appointed again [nuevamente] for one sole time. He may be removed, exclusively, for the grave causes that the law specifies, with the same voting required for his appointment, or for the causes and in accordance with the procedures provided for in Title Four of this Constitution. To be titular member of the entity of superior supervision of the Federation requires compliance with, in addition to the requirement established in fractions I, II, IV and VI of Article 95 of this Constitution, those that the law specifies. During the exercise of the responsibilities [encargo] [he] may not form part of any political party, or perform any other employment [empleo], office [cargo] or commission, except those non-remunerative ones in scientific, teaching, artistic or charitable associations. The Powers of the Union, the federative entities and the other supervised entities shall facilitate the auxiliaries that the entity of superior supervision of the Federation requires for the exercise of its functions and, in the case of not doing so, they will be accredited with the sanctions that the Law establishes. Similarly, the federal and local civil servants, as well as any entity, physical or juridical [moral] person, public or private, trust, agent or fund, or an other juridical figure, that receives or uses [ejerzan] federal public resources, must furnish the information and documentation that the entity of superior supervision of the Federation solicits, in accordance with the procedures established in the laws and without prejudice to the competence of other authorities and of the rights of the users of the financial system. In case the information has not been furnished, those responsible will be sanctioned in the terms that the law establishes. The Executive Power shall apply the administrative procedure of execution for the collection of the of the indemnities and pecuniary sanctions to which fraction IV of this Article refers. CHAPTER III Of the Executive Power Article 80 The exercise of the Supreme Executive Power of the Union is deposited in one sole individual, who will be denominated “ Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [President of the United Mexican States].” Article 81 The election of the President will be direct and in the terms that the electoral law provides. Article 82 To be President it is required: I. To be a Mexican citizen by birth, in full enjoyment of their rights, [a] child of Mexican father or mother and to have resided in the country for at least twenty years. II. To be [tener] 35 years of age at the time of the election; III. To have resided in the country during all of the year prior to the day of the election. The absence [ausencia] from the country for up to thirty days, does not interrupt residency. IV. To not possess ecclesiastical status or be a minister of any belief [culto]. V. To not be in active service, in case of belonging to the Army, six months prior to the day of the election. V. To not be a Secretary or Undersecretary of State, Procurator General of the Republic, governor of any State, or Head of Government of the Federal District, unless he has separated [separe] from the post [puesto] six months prior to the day of the election; and VII. To not be included in any of the causes of incapacity established in Article 83. Article 83 The President will enter into the exercise of his responsibilities [encargo] on the 1st of December and remain in [them] six years. The citizen who has performed the office [cargo] of President of the Republic, popularly elected, or with the character of interim [interino], provisional, or substitute, in no case and for no reason [motivo] may return to perform this post [puesto]. Article 84 In case of the absolute absence [falta] of the President of the Republic, occurring in the first two years of the respective term [periodo], if the Congress should be in session, it shall be immediately constituted as an Electoral College, and when at least the two-thirds part of the total number of its membership participate, it will appoint in secret ballot and by absolute majority of votes, an interim president [presidente interino]; the same Congress shall order [expedirá], within the ten days subsequent to the designation of the interim president, the convocation for the election of the president that must complete the respective term; there must be between the date of the convocation and that [which] is specified for holding [verificación] of the elections, a time of not less than fourteen months, or more than eighteen. If the Congress should not be in session, the Permanent Commission shall immediately appoint a provisional president [presidente provisional] and will convoke the Congress to extraordinary session in order that it, in its turn, designates an interim president and orders [expida] the convocation to presidential elections in the terms of the preceding paragraph. When the absence of the president occurs in the last four years of the respective term, if the Congress of the Union is in sessions, it will designate a substitute president [presidente substituto] who must complete the term; if the Congress should not be meeting, the Permanent Commission shall appoint a provisional president and will convoke the Congress of the Union to extraordinary sessions so that it is constituted [erija] in Electoral College and makes the election of the substitute president. Article 85 If the President elected does not present himself to commence the constitutional term, or if the elections should not have been held [hecha] or declared valid on the 1st of December, the President whose term has concluded, will cease nevertheless, and the person that the Congress of the Union designates, will be immediately placed in the responsibilities of the Executive Power, with the quality [calidad] of interim president, or in its default [falta] with the character [carácter] of provisional, the [person] that the Permanent Commission designates, proceeding in accordance with that provided in the previous Article When the absence [falta] of the president is temporary, the Congress of the Union, if it is meeting, or if in its default [defecto], the Permanent Commission, will designate an interim president to function during the time that this absence lasts [dure]. When the absence [falta] of the president is for more than thirty days and the Congress of the Union is not meeting, the Permanent Commission will convoke the Congress to extraordinary sessions so that it may resolve concerning the absence [licencia] and appoint, as case may be, to the interim President. If the absence, of temporal character is converted to absolute character, it will proceed as provided for in the previous Article. Article 86 The office [cargo] of President of the Republic is only renounceable for grave cause, that the Congress of the Union will qualify, and before which the resignation will be presented. Article 87 The President, to take possession of his office, will make before the Congress of the Union, or before the Permanent Commission in the recesses of it, the following oath [protesta]: “I promise to observe and to have observed the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the laws that emanate from it, and that I will discharge faithfully and patriotically the office of President of the Republic which the people have conferred on me, seeing in all [matters] to the good [bien] and prosperity of the Union; and if I should not do so may the Nation demand it of me.” Article 88 The President of the Republic may be absent [ausentarse] from the national territory for up to seven days, previously informing the reasons for the absence to the Chamber of Senators or to the Permanent Commission as the case may be, as well as the results of the activities [gestions] realized. For absences greater than seven days, permission of the Chamber of Senators or of the Permanent Commission will be required. Article 89 The faculties and obligations of the President, are the following: I. To promulgate and execute the laws enacted [expida] by the Congress of the Union, providing in the administrative sphere [esfera], for their exact observance. II. To appoint and remove freely the secretaries of the cabinet [secretarios del despacho], to remove the diplomatic agents and superior employees of Public Finance [Hacienda], and to appoint and remove freely the other employees of the Union, whose appointment or removal is not determined in other mode in the Constitution or in the laws; III. To appoint the ministers, diplomatic agents, and consuls general, with the approval of the Senate. IV. To appoint, with the approval of the Senate, the Colonels and other superior officers of the National Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the superior employees of Public Finance [Hacienda]. V. To appoint the other officers of the National Army, Navy, and Air Force, in accordance with the laws. VI. To preserve the national security, in terms of the respective law, and to deploy [disponer] the entire permanent Armed Force, including the Army, the Navy and the Air Force for the internal security and exterior defense of the Federation. VII. To deploy the National Guard for the same purposes, in the terms that fraction IV of Article 76 provides for. VIII. To declare war in the name of the United Mexican States, with prior law of the Congress of the Union. IX. To appoint, with the ratification of the Senate, the Procurator General of the Republic; X. To direct foreign policy and celebrate international treaties, as well as to terminate, to denounce, to suspend, to modify, to amend, to withdraw reservations [reservas] and to formulate interpretive declarations concerning them, submitting these to the approval of the Senate. In the conduct of this policy, the titular member of the Executive Power shall observe the following normative principles: the self-determination of peoples; non-intervention; the peaceful solution to disputes [controversias]; the proscription of the threat or the use of force in international relations; the juridical equality of States; international cooperation for development; the respect for, the protection and promotion of human rights and the struggle for international peace and security; XI. To convoke the Congress to extraordinary sessions, when the Permanent Commission agrees to it. XII. To provide to [facilitar] the Judicial Power the assistance [auxilios] that is necessary for the expeditious exercise of its functions. XIII. To operate [habilitar] all classes of ports, establish maritime and frontier custom houses, and designate their location. XIV. To grant, in accordance with the laws, pardons to the criminals sentenced for crimes of the competence of the federal tribunals and to those sentenced for crimes of the common order [orden común] in the Federal District; XV. To grant exclusive privileges for limited times, in accordance with the respective law, to the discoverers, inventors, or developers [perfeccionadores] in any branch of industry. XVI. When the Chamber of Senators is not in session, the President of the Republic can make the appointments to which fractions III, IV and IX refer, with approval of the Permanent Commission; XVII. [Abrogated] XVIII. To present to the consideration of the Senate, the terna for the designation of Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice and to submit leaves of absence and retirements to the approval of the same; XIX. [Abrogated] XX. The others that this Constitution expressly confers on him. Article 90 The Federal Public Administration shall be centralized and para-statal [parestatal] in accordance with the Organic Law that the Congress enacts [expida], that shall distribute the matters [negocios] in the administrative order of the Federation that shall be the responsibility [cargo] of the Secretariats of State, and that shall define the general bases of creation of the para-statal entities and the participation [intervención] of the Federal Executive in their operation. The laws shall determine the relations between the para-statal entities and the Federal Executive, or between these and the Secretariats of State. Article 91 To be a secretary of the Cabinet [secretario del Despacho] it is required: to be a Mexican citizen by birth, to be in exercise of one's rights, and be [tener] thirty years of age. Article 92 All the regulations, decrees, agreements and orders of the President must be signed by the Secretary of State to which the matter corresponds, and without this requirement they shall not be obeyed. Article 93 The Secretaries of the Cabinet, as soon as the period of ordinary sessions is opened, will render account to the Congress on the state of [estado que guarden] their respective branches. Any of the Chambers may summon [citar] the Secretaries of State, the Procurator General of the Republic, the directors and administrators of the parastatal departments, as well as the titular [members] of the autonomous organs, so as to report under oath of solemn truth [protesta de decir verdad] when a law is being discussed or matters [negocios] concerning their respective branches or activities is being studied or to respond to interpellations or questions [preguntas]. The Chambers, at the request [pedido] of [the] one-fourth part of their members, concerning the Deputies, and of one-half, if it concerns the Senators, have the faculty to form [integrar] commissions to investigate the functioning of these decentralized organs [organismos] and enterprises of State majority participation. The results of the investigations shall be brought to the cognizance of the Federal Executive. The Chambers may require information or documentation from the titular members of the dependencies and entities of the federal government, through written questions, which must be responded to in a time no greater than 15 natural days counting from their reception. The exercise of these attributions shall be realized in accordance with the Law of the Congress and its regulations. CHAPTER IV Of the Judicial Power Article 94 The exercise of the Judicial Power of the Federation is deposited in one Supreme Court of Justice, in one Electoral Tribunal, in Collegiate [Colegiados] Tribunals and Unitary Circuit Tribunals, and in District Courts [Juzgados de Distrito]. The administration, supervision and discipline of the Judicial Power of the Federation, with the exception of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, will be the responsibility [cargo] of the Council of the Federal Judicature [Consejo de la Judicatura Federal] in the terms that, in accordance with the bases that this Constitution specifies, the laws establish; The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation will be composed of eleven Ministers and shall function in Plenary or in Chambers. In the terms that the law provides, the sessions of the Plenary and of the Chambers will be public, and by exception secret in those cases in which morals or the public interest so requires. The competence of the Supreme Court, its functioning in Plenary and in Chambers, the competence of the Circuit Tribunals, the District Courts and of the Electoral Tribunal, as well as the responsibilities incurred by the public servants of the Judicial Power of the Federation, shall be governed by that which the laws provide, in accordance with the bases that this Constitution establishes. The Council of the Federal Judicature shall determine the number, division in circuits, territorial competence and, as the case may be, specialization by matter, of the Collegiate and Unitary Circuit Tribunals and the District Courts. Additionally, by way of general directives [acuerdos], Circuit Plenaries [Plenos de Circuito] shall be established, attending to the number and specialization of the Collegiate Tribunals that belong to each circuit. The laws shall determine their composition and functioning. The Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice shall be competent [facultado] to issue [expedir] general directives [acuerdos], with the objective of achieving an adequate distribution between the Chambers of the matters that the Court is competent to take cognizance of, and as well as to remit to the Collegiate Circuit Tribunals, for the greater promptness in the dispatch of matters, those in which it has established jurisprudence or those that, in accordance with the directives [acuerdos] referred to [above], that this same Court determines [to be] for the better provision [impartación] of justice. These directives will be effective on their publication. The actions of amparo, the constitutional disputes and the actions of unconstitutionality are substantiated and resolved in priority manner when either the Cambers of the Congress, by way of [a través] its President, or the Federal Executive, by way of [por conducto] the judicial councilor of the government, justifies the urgency, attending to social interest or to public order, in the terms which are provided for by the regulatory laws. The law shall establish the terms in which the jurisprudence that the Tribunals of the Judicial Power of the Federation and the Circuit Plenaries establish, concerning the interpretation of the Constitution and general norms, will be obligatory, as well as the requirements for their interruption and modification. The remuneration that the Ministers of the Supreme Court, the Circuit Magistrates, the District Judges and the Councilors [Consejeros] of the Federal Judicature, as well as the Electoral Magistrates, receive for their services may not be diminished during their tenure [encargo]. The Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice shall remain in their responsibility [encargo] fifteen years, and may only be removed from it in the terms of Title Four of this Constitution and, on expiration of their term [periodo], they will have [the] right to a salary [haber] for retirement. No person who has been a Minster may be appointed for a new term, except if he has exercised the office [cargo] in provisional or interim character. Article 95 To be elected minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, necessitates: I. To be a Mexican citizen by birth, in full exercise of their political and civil rights. II. To be [tener] at least thirty-five years on the day of the appointment; III. To possess [on] the day of appointment, with a minimum of experience [antigüedad] of ten years, [the] professional title of attorney [licenciado] in law, issued by an authority or institution legally enabled [facultado] to do so; IV. To enjoy a good reputation and not to have been convicted of a crime [delito] that merits corporal punishment of more than one year in prison; but if robbery, fraud, forgery [falsificación], abuse of confidence or other offense is concerned[,] which seriously injures [lastime] their good name in the public view [concepto], they will be disqualified [inhabilitará] for the office [cargo] whatever the penalty may have been. V. To have resided in the country during the two years prior to the day of the appointment; and VI. To not have been Secretary of State, Procurator General of the Republic or Justice of the Federal District, senator, federal deputy or governor of any State or Head of the Federal District, during the year prior to the day of their appointment. The appointments of the Ministers must preferentially fall [recaer] among those persons who have served with efficiency, capacity and probity in the imparting of justice or that have distinguished themselves by their honorability, competence and professional history [antecedentes] in the exercise of the juridical activity. Article 96 To appoint the Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice, the President of the Republic will submit a terna to the consideration of the Senate, which, with prior appearance of the proposed persons, shall appoint the Minister that must cover the vacancy. The appointment will be made by the vote of the two-thirds part of the members of the Senate present, within the non-extendable time [plazo] of thirty days. If the Senate does not resolve it within this time, the person who, within the said terna, that the President of the Republic designates, will occupy the office [cargo] of Minister In the case that the Chamber of Senators rejects the totality of the terna, the President of the Republic shall submit a new one, in the terms of the previous paragraph. If this second terna should be rejected, the person who, within the said terna the President of the Republic designates, will occupy the office [cargo]. Article 97 The Circuit Magistrates and the District Judges will be appointed and enrolled [adscritos] by the Council of the Federal Judicature, on the basis of objective criteria and in agreement with the requirements and procedures that the law establishes. They shall remain six years in the exercise their office [cargo], at the end of which, if they should be reaffirmed [ratificados] or promoted to superior office, they may only be dismissed from their posts [puestos] in the cases and in accordance with the procedures that the law establishes. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation may solicit the Council of the Federal Judicature, to investigate the conduct of any federal judge or magistrate. The Supreme Court of Justice will appoint and remove its secretary and other functionaries and employees. The Magistrates and judges will appoint and remove the respective functionaries and employees of the Circuit Tribunals and the District Courts, in accordance with what the law concerning the judicial profession establishes. Every four years, the Plenary will elect from among its members the President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, who may be reelected for the immediately following term [periodo]. Each Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice, to enter into exercise of his responsibility [encargo], will swear [an oath] before the Senate, in the following form: President: “Do you swear to faithfully and patriotically fulfill the office [cargo] of Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation which has been conferred on you and to respect, and to have respected, the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the laws that emanate from it, seeking in all [matters] for the good and prosperity of the Union?” Minister: “I so swear. President: “If you do not do so, may the Nation demand it of you”. The Circuit Magistrates and District Judges will swear [an oath] before the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of the Federal Judicature. Article 98 When the absence [falta] of a Minister exceeds one month, the President of the Republic shall submit the appointment of an interim Minister to the approval of the Senate, observing that provided for in Article 98 of this Constitution. If a Minister is absent due to death [defunción] or for any cause of definitive separation, the President shall submit a new appointment to the approval of the Senate, in the terms of Article 96 of this Constitution. The resignations of the Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice may only proceed for grave causes; they shall be submitted to the Executive and, if he accepts them, they shall be sent to the Senate for its approval. The leaves [licencias] of the Ministers, when they do not exceed one month, may be granted by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation; those that exceed this time [tiempo], may be granted by the President of the Republic with the approval of the Senate. No leave of absence may exceed the time [término] of two years. Article 99 The Electoral Tribunal will be, with the exception of that provided in fraction II of Article 105 of this Constitution, the highest [máxima] jurisdictional authority in the matter and is a specialized organ of Judicial Power of the Federation. For the exercise of its attributions, the Tribunal will function in permanent form with a Superior Chamber and regional chambers, [and] its sessions of resolution will be public, in the terms that the law determines. It shall have [contará] the juridical and administrative personnel necessary for its adequate functioning. The Superior Chamber will be composed of seven Electoral Magistrates. The President of the Tribunal will be elected by the Superior Chamber, from among its members, to exercise the office [cargo] for four years. It corresponds to the Electoral Tribunal to resolve in definitive and unchallengeable [inatacable] form, in the terms of this Constitution and according to what the law provides, concerning: I. The challenges [impugnaciones] to the federal elections of deputies and senators; II. The challenges that are presented concerning the election of the President of the United Mexican States, that will be resolved in sole [única] instance by the Superior Chamber. The Superior and regional chambers of the Tribunal may only declare the nullity of an election for the reasons that are expressly established in the laws. The Superior Chamber realizes the final count of the election of the President of the United Mexican States, once resolving the challenges that may have been interposed concerning it, proceeding to formulate, as the case may be, the declaration of validity of the election and that of the President Elect in respect of the candidate that has obtained the greater number of votes. III. The challenges to acts and resolutions of the federal electoral authority, distinct from those specified in the two prior fractions, that violate constitutional or legal norms; IV. The challenges to the definitive and conclusive [firmes] acts and resolutions of the competent authorities of the federative entities that organize and qualify the elections [comicios] or resolve the disputes [controversias] that arise during them, that may determine as a result the development of the respective process or final result of the elections. This process [vía] will only proceed when the reparation solicited is material and juridically possible within the electoral periods [plazos], and is feasible before the constitutional or legally established date for the installation of the organs or the possession of office of the functionaries elected; V. The challenges to acts and resolutions that violate the political electoral rights of citizens to vote, to be voted for, and of free and peaceful affiliation to take part in the political matters of the country, in the terms that this Constitution and the laws specify. So that a citizen may accede to [acudir] the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for violations of their rights by the political party to which they are affiliated, as they must have previously exhausted the instances of solution of conflicts specified in their internal norms, the law shall establish the rules and times [plazos] applicable; VI. The labor conflicts or disagreements between the Tribunal and its employees [servidores]; VII. The labor conflicts or disagreements between the Federal Electoral Institute and its employees; VIII. The determination and imposition of sanctions on the part of the Federal Electoral Institute on political parties or groups or physical or juridical [moral] persons, national or foreign, that infringe the provisions of this Constitution and the laws, and IX. The others that the law specifies. The chambers of the Electoral Tribunal will have use of the measures of urgency [medios de apremio/court orders] necessary to have their sentences and resolutions complied with in expedited manner, in the terms that the law establishes. Without prejudice to that provided for in Article 105 of this Constitution, the chambers of the Electoral Tribunal may resolve the non-applicability of laws concerning electoral matters contrary to this Constitution. The resolutions that are adopted [dicten] in the exercise of this faculty will be limited to the concrete case that the process [juicio] deals with verse. When a chamber of the Electoral Tribunal sustains an opinion [tesis] concerning the unconstitutionality of any act or resolution or concerns the interpretation of a precept of this Constitution, and [should] this opinion may be contradictory to one sustained by the chambers or the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice, any of the Ministers, the chambers or the parts, may denounce the contradiction in the terms that the law specifies, so that the plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation decides definitively which opinion must prevail. The resolutions that are adopted [dicten] under this postulate [supuesto] will not affect those matters [asuntos] already resolved. The organization of the Tribunal, the competence of the chambers, the procedures for the resolution of matters of its competence, as well as the mechanisms to establish criteria of obligatory jurisprudence in the matter, will be those that this Constitution and the laws determine. The Superior Chamber can, of office, on petition of part or of all of the regional chambers, take over [atraer] processes [juicios] that these are taking cognizance of themselves; similarly, it may send matters [asuntos] of its competence to the regional chambers for their cognizance and resolution. The law shall specify the rules and the procedures for the exercise of such faculties. The administration, supervision [vigilancia] and discipline in the Electoral Tribunal shall correspond, in the terms that the law specifies, to a Commission of the Council of the Federal Judicature, that will be composed of the President of the Electoral Tribunal, who will preside over it, an Electoral Magistrate of the Superior Chamber designated by the drawing of lots [insaculación]; and three members of the Council of the Federal Judicature. The Tribunal shall propose its budget to the President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation for its inclusion in the Bill for the Budget of the Judicial Power of the Federation. Likewise, the Tribunal shall enact [expedirá] its Internal Regulations and its general directives [acuerdos] for its adequate functioning. The Electoral Magistrates that compose the Superior and regional chambers will be elected by the vote of the two-thirds part of the members present of the Chamber of Senators on proposal of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. The election of those who compose it will be phased [escolonada], in accordance with the rules and the procedure that the law specifies. The Electoral Magistrates that compose the Superior Chamber must satisfy the requirements that the law establishes, [and] they may not be younger than what is required to be Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, and they shall remain in their responsibilities [encargo] nine years non-extendable. The resignations, absences and leaves [licencias] of the Electoral Magistrates of the Superior Chamber shall be transacted, covered and granted by that Chamber, as it shall correspond, in the terms Article 98 of this Constitution. The Electoral Magistrates that compose the regional chambers must satisfy the requirements that the law specifies, [and] they may not be younger than what is required to be Magistrate of the Collegiate Circuit Tribunal. They shall remain in their responsibilities [encargo] nine years non-extendable, except if they are promoted to superior offices [cargos]. In the case of definitive vacancy a new Magistrate will be appointed for the time remaining to the original person appointed. The personnel of the Tribunal shall govern the work relations in accordance with the provisions applicable to the Judicial Power of the Federation and to the special rules and exceptions that the law specifies. Article 100 The Council of the Federal Judicature will be an organ of the Judicial Power of the Federation with technical independence, independence of management and independence to issue its resolutions. The Council will be composed of seven members of whom, one will be the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, who will be so also for the Council; three Councilors designated by the Plenary of the Court, by majority of at least eight votes, from among the Circuit Magistrates and District Judges; two Councilors designated by the Senate, and one by the President of the Republic. All the Councilors must meet the requirements specified in Article 95 of this Constitution and be persons that are distinguished by their professional and administrative capacity, honesty and honorability in the exercise of their activities, and in the case of those designated by the Supreme Court, they must enjoy, as well, recognition in the juridical domain [ámbito]. The Council will function in Plenary or in commissions. The Plenary shall resolve concerning the designation, assignment [adscripción], ratification and dismissal of magistrates and judges, as well as the other matters that the law determines. Except the President of the Council, the other Councilors will remain five years in their office [cargo], will be substituted in phased [escalonada] form, and may not be appointed for a new term [período]. The Councilors do not represent those who designated them, so that they may exercise their function with independence and impartiality. During their responsibilities [encargo], they may only be removed in the terms of Title Four of this Constitution. The law shall establish the bases for the training [formación] and continuing education [actualización] of functionaries, as well as for the development of the judicial career, which shall be ruled by the principles of excellence, objectivity, impartiality, professionalism and independence. In accordance with that established in the law, the Council will be enabled [facultado] to issue general directives [acuerdos] for the adequate exercise of its functions. The Supreme Court of Justice can solicit of the Council the issuing of such general directives that it considers necessary to assure an adequate exercise of the federal jurisdictional function. The Plenary of the Court may also review and, as the case may be, revoke those that the Council approves, with the majority of at least eight votes. The law shall establish the terms and procedures for the exercise of these attributions. The decisions of the Council will be definitive and unchallengeable [inatacables] and, therefore, no process [juicio] or recourse whatever may proceed, against them, except those that refer to the designation, assignment and dismissal of magistrates and judges, which may be reviewed by the Supreme Court of Justice, only to verify that they have been adopted in accordance with the rules that the respective organic law establishes. The Supreme Court of Justice shall prepare [elaborará] its own budget and the Council shall do it for the rest of the Judicial Power of the Federation, without prejudice to that provided for in the seventh paragraph of Article 99 of this Constitution. The budgets so prepared will be remitted to the President of the Supreme Court for their inclusion in the Bill of [the] Budget of Expenditures of the Federation. The administration of the Supreme Court of Justice shall correspond to its President. Article 101 The Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Circuit Magistrates, the District Judges, the respective secretaries, and the Councilors of the Federal Judicature, as well as the Magistrates of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal, may not, in any case, accept or perform office [empleo] or responsibility [encargo] of the Federation, of the States, of the Federal District or of individuals [particulares], except for those non-remunerative offices [cargos] in scientific, educational, literary or charitable associations. The persons that have occupied the office [cargo] of Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice, Circuit Magistrate, District Judge or Councilor of the Federal Judicature, as well as Magistrate of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal, may not within the two years subsequent to the date of their retirement, act as advisors [patronos], attorneys or representatives in any process before the organs of the Judicial Power of the Federation. During this time [plazo], the persons who have performed as Ministers, except those who should have acted with the character of provisional of interim [Minister], may not occupy the offices [cargos] specified in fraction VI of Article 95 of this Constitution. The impediments of this Article will be applicable to the judicial functionaries that enjoy leave [licencia]. The infraction of that provided in the previous paragraphs, will be sanctioned with the loss of the respective office [cargo] within the Judicial Power of the Federation, as well as the payments [prestaciones] and benefits that successively correspond to the same, independently of the other sanctions that the laws provide. Article 102 A. The law shall organize the Public Ministry of the Federation, whose functionaries shall be appointed and removed by the Executive, in accordance with the respective law. The Public Ministry of the Federation will be presided over by a Procurator General of the Republic, designated by the Titular member of the Federal Executive with the ratification of the Senate or, in its recesses, of the Permanent Commission. To be Procurator it is required: to be a Mexican citizen by birth; to have attained thirty-five years on the day of the designation; to have, with minimum experience [antigüedad] of ten years, a professional title of licenciate [licenciado] in law; to enjoy a good reputation; and not to have been convicted of a serious [deloso] crime. The procurator can be removed by the Executive freely. The prosecution, before the tribunals, of all crimes of the federal order is incumbent on the Public Ministry of the Federation; and, therefore, to it will correspond to solicit the arrest orders [órdenes de aprehensión] against those accused [inculpados]; to search for and to present evidence that establishes [acrediten] their responsibility; to see [hacer] that the trials are conducted with all regularity so that the administration of justice may be prompt and expeditious; request the application of the penalties; and intervene in all matters [negocios] that the law determines. The Procurator General of the Republic shall personally intervene in the disputes and actions to which Article 105 of this Constitution refers. In all of the matters in which the Federation has a part; in the cases of the diplomats and the consuls general and in the others in which the Public Ministry of the Federation must intervene, the Procurator General shall act [lo hará] by himself or through his agents. The Procurator General of the Republic and his agents, will be responsible for any error [falta], omission or violation of the law in which they participate [incurran] by reason of their functions. The function of juridical counselor of the Government, will be an office [cargo] of the dependency of the Federal Executive that, to this effect, the law establishes. B. The Congress of the Union and the legislatures of the federative entities within the domain [ámbito] of their respective competencies, shall establish organs of protection of the human rights that the Mexican juridical order protects [ampara], those that shall take cognizance of complaints [quejas] against the acts or omissions of a nature of administrative provenance of any public authority or servant, with the exception of those of the Judicial Power of the Federation, that violate those rights. The organs [organismos] to which the previous paragraph refers, shall formulate public recommendations, non-binding, [and] denouncements and complaints [quejas] before the respective authorities. Any public servant is obligated to respond to the recommendations that these organs [organismos] present. When the enacted recommendations are not accepted, or complied with, by the public authorities or servants, they must substantiate, motivate and make public their refusal [negativa]; additionally, the Chamber of Senators or in its recesses the Permanent Commission, or the legislatures of the federative entities, as it corresponds, may summon [llamar], at the request of these organs [organismos], the public authorities or servants responsible to appear before these legislative organs, to the effect of explaining the motive for the refusal. These organs [organismos] will not be competent concerning electoral and jurisdictional matters. The organs [organismo] that the Congress of the Union establishes will be denominated the Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos [National Commission of Human Rights]; it will have autonomy of management and budgetary autonomy, juridical personality and its own patrimony. The Constitutions of the States and the Statute of Government of the Federal District shall establish and shall guarantee the autonomy of the organs of protection of human rights. The National Commission of Human Rights will have a Consultative Commission composed of twelve councilors that will be elected by the vote of the two-thirds part of the members present of the Chamber of Senators or, in its recesses, by the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union, with the same qualified vote. The law shall determine the procedures to be followed for the presentation of proposals to the appropriate Chamber. Two councilors of the greatest seniority [antigüedad] in office [cargo] will be substituted annually, unless they should be proposed and confirmed [ratificados] for a second term [período]. The President of the National Commission of Human Rights, who will also be that of the Consultative Commission, will be elected in the same terms of the previous paragraph. He will remain in his responsibility [encargo] five years, may be reelected for one sole time and may only be removed from his functions in the terms of the Title Four of this Constitution. The election of the titular [member] of the presidency of the National Commission for Human Rights, as well as of the members [integrantes] of the Consultative Commission, and of the titular members of the organs [organismos] of protection of human rights of the federative entities, will comply with [ajustarán] a procedure of public consultation, that must be transparent, in the terms and conditions that the law determines. The President of the National Commission of Human Rights will present annually to the Powers of the Union a report of activities. To this effect, he will appear before the Chambers of the Congress in the terms that the law provides. The National Commission of Human Rights shall take cognizance of the nonconformities that are presented to it concerning the recommendations, agreements or omission of the equivalent organs [organismos] in the federative entities. The National Commission of Human Rights may investigate acts that constitute grave violations of human rights, when it so judges as appropriate or when the Federal Executive, either of the Chambers of the Congress of the Union, the governor of a State, the Head of Government of the Federal District or the legislatures of the federative entities, require it. Article 103 The Tribunals of the Federation will resolve any dispute that arises: I. From general norms, acts or omissions of the authority that violates the human rights and the guarantees granted for their protection by this Constitution, as well as from the international treaties to which the Mexican State is party; II. From general norms or acts of the federal authority that makes vulnerable or restricts the sovereignty of the States or the sphere [esfera] of competence of the Federal District, and III. From general norms or acts of the authorities of the States or of the Federal District that invade the sphere of competence of the federal authority. Article 104 The Tribunals of the Federation take cognizance: I. Of all the procedures concerning the crimes of federal order; II. Of all the disputes of the civil or commercial order that arise concerning the compliance with and application of federal laws or of the international treaties celebrated by the Mexican State. The judges [jueces] and tribunals of the common order can also take cognizance of them, at the election of the plaintiff [actor], when these disputes only affect individual interests. The decisions [sentencias] in first instance are appealable [apelables] before the immediate superior of the judge [juez] who took cognizance of the matter at the first level [grado]; III. Of the recourses of revision that are interposed against the definitive resolutions of the contentious-administrative tribunals, to which fraction XXIX-H of Article 73 and fraction IV, paragraph e) of Article 122 of this Constitution refer, only in those cases that the laws specify. The revisions, of which the Collegiate Circuit Tribunals [Tribunales Colegiados de Circuito] shall take cognizance, will be subject to the procedures that the regulatory law of Articles 103 and 107 of this Constitution establish for the revision in indirect amparo, and against the resolutions that the Collegiate Circuit Tribunals dictate [dicten] in them no judgment or recourse whatsoever may proceed; IV. Of all the disputes that concern maritime law; V. Of those in which the Federation is a party; VI. Of the disputes and of the actions to which Article 105 refers, the same that will be of the exclusive cognizance of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation; VII. Of those that arise between a State and one or more inhabitants [vecinos] in another State, and VIII. Of those cases concerning members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps. Article 105 The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation shall take cognizance of, in the terms that the regulatory law specifies, the following matters: I. Of the constitutional disputes that, with the exception of those that concern electoral matters and those established in Article 46 of this Constitution, arise between: a) The Federation and a State or the Federal District; b) The Federation and a municipality; c) The Executive Power and the Congress of the Union; one or either of the Chambers of it or, in such case, the Permanent Commission, also federal organs or organs of the Federal District; d) One State and another; e) One State and the Federal District; f) The Federal District and a municipality; g) Two municipalities of different States; h) Two Powers of the same State, concerning the constitutionality of their acts or general provisions; i) One State and one of its municipalities, concerning the constitutionality of their acts or general provisions; j) One State and one municipality of another State, concerning the constitutionality of their acts or general provisions; and k) Two organs of the government of the Federal District, concerning the constitutionality of their acts or general provisions. Whenever the disputes concern general provisions of the States or of the municipalities challenged [impugnadas] by the Federation, of the municipalities challenged by the States, or in cases to which the previous paragraphs c), h) and k) refer, and the resolution of the Supreme Court of Justice declares them invalid, that resolution will have general effects when it has been approved by a majority of at least eight votes. In the other cases, the resolutions of the Supreme Court of Justice only have effect with respect to the parties in the dispute. II. Of the actions of unconstitutionality that have for their object to establish [plantear] the possible contradiction between a norm of general character and this Constitution. The actions of unconstitutionality can be exercised, during the thirty natural days following the date of publication of the norm, by: a) The equivalent of thirty-three percent of the members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union, against the federal laws or laws of the Federal District enacted [expedidas] by the Congress of the Union; b) The equivalent of thirty-three percent of the members of the Senate, against the federal laws or laws of the Federal District enacted by the Congress of the Union or of international treaties celebrated by the Mexican State; c) The Procurator General of the Republic, against the laws of federal, state and Federal District character, as well as the international treaties celebrated by the Mexican State; d) The equivalent of thirty-three percent of the members of any of the state legislative organs, against the laws enacted by that same organ, and e) The equivalent of thirty-three percent of the members of the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District, against the laws issued by the same Assembly. f) The political parties with registration before the Federal Electoral Institute, by [por conducto] their national directorships [dirigencias], against the federal or local electoral laws; and the political parties with state registration, by [a través] their directorships, exclusively against the electoral laws enacted by the legislative organ of the State that granted registration to them. g) The National Commission of Human Rights, against the laws of federal, state, and of Federal District character, as well as the international treaties celebrated by the Federal Executive and approved by the Senate of the Republic, that make vulnerable the human rights consecrated in this Constitution and in the international treaties to which Mexico is party. Also the equivalent organs [organismos] of protection of human rights in the states of the Republic, against the laws enacted by the local legislatures, and the Commission of Human Rights of the Federal District, against the laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District. The sole way to establish [plantear] the non-conformity of the electoral laws to the Constitution is that provided in this Article. The federal and local electoral laws must be promulgated and published at least ninety days before the electoral process to which they will apply is initiated, and during it there may be no fundamental legal modifications. The resolutions of the Supreme Court of Justice can only declare the invalidity of the challenged norms, when they are approved by a majority of at least eight votes. III. Of office, or on substantiated [fundada] petition of the corresponding Unitary Circuit Tribunal or of the Procurator General of the Republic, it can take cognizance of the recourses of appeal against the decisions of the District Judges dictated in those processes in which the Federation is a party and that so merit it by their interest and importance [transcendencia]. The declaration of invalidity of the resolutions to which fractions I and II of this Article refer will have no retroactive effects, except in criminal [penal] matters, in which the general principles and legal provisions applicable to this matter will govern. In case of non-compliance with the resolutions to which fractions I and II of this Article refer, the procedures established in the two first paragraphs of fraction XVI of Article 107 of this Constitution will be applicable concerning them. Article 106 It corresponds to the Judicial Power of the Federation, in the terms of the respective law, to settle [dirimir] the disputes that, by reason of competence, arise between the Tribunals of the Federation, between these and those of the States or of the Federal District, between those of one State and those of another, or between those of one State and those of the Federal District. Article 107 The disputes that Article 103 of the Constitution concerns, with the exception of those in electoral matters, will be subject to the procedures and formalities [formas] of the juridical order that the law determines, in accordance with the following bases: I. A trial in amparo will always be held [seguirá] at the instance of the party injured [agrivada], having such character any person claiming to be entitled titular to a right or to an individual or collective interest, whenever it is alleged that the challenged act violates the rights recognized by the Constitution and furthermore affects its juridical sphere, either in direct manner or by virtue of its special situation before [frente] the juridical order. Concerning the acts or resolutions proceeding from the judicial, administrative or labor tribunals, the complainant must claim to be entitled to a subjective right that affects them in a personal and direct manner; II. The decisions that are issued in the actions of amparo only concern [ocuparán] the complainants who have solicited them, being limited to the protections [amparlos y protegerlos], if it proceeds, in the special case concerning which the demand refers. When the actions of indirect amparo in revision [amparo indirecto en revisión] resolve the unconstitutionality of a general norm for the second consecutive occasion, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation informs the corresponding emitting authority of it. When the organs of the Judicial Power of the Federation establish jurisprudence by reiteration in which the unconstitutionality of a general norm is determined, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation notifies the emitting authority of it. Within the time of 90 natural days from which the problem of unconstitutionality is resolved [supere], the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation will issue, providing that there is approval by a majority of at least eight votes, the general declaration of unconstitutionality, in which shall be established its scope and conditions in terms of the regulatory law. That provided for in the two previous paragraphs will not be applicable to general norms in tax matters. In the actions of amparo, the deficiency of the concepts of violation or grievance [agravio] must be addressed in agreement with that which the regulatory law provides. When acts are challenged [reclamen] that have or could have as a consequence the deprivation of the ownership or of the possession and enjoyment of their lands, waters, pastures, and forests of the ejidos[,] or of the nuclei of populations that de facto [de hecho] or de jure [por derecho] protect the communal status [estado], or of the ejidatorios or comuneros, all the evidence that could be beneficial to the entities and individuals mentioned must be obtained, of office, and the diligences that are deemed necessary to make their agrarian rights specific, as well as the nature and effects of the acts challenged, must be accorded. In the actions [juicios] to which the previous paragraph refers, the dismissal of proceedings [sobreseimiento] for procedural inactivity or for the lapse of prosecution [caducidad de la instancia], will not proceed, in prejudice to the ejidal or communal nuclei, or to the ejidatorios of comuneros, but one or the other can be decreed to their benefit. When acts are challenged that affect the collective rights of the nucleus[,] the withdrawal of [desistimiento] or the consent to [consentimiento] these same acts, may also not proceed, unless that the first has been agreed to by the General Assembly of the second emanates from it; III. When acts of judicial, administrative or labor tribunals are challenged, the amparo will only proceed: a) Against definitive judgments [sentencias] or awards and resolutions that bring an end to the action, either that the violation is committed in them or that, committed during the procedure, affect the defenses of the complainant transcending the results of the judgment [fallo]. Concerning the amparo to which this paragraph and fraction V of this Article refers, the Collegiate Circuit Tribunal must decide concerning all the procedural violations that should be established, and those which, when they proceed, result in substitution of the complaint, and establish the precise terms in which the new resolution must be issued. If the procedural violations do not result in [invocaron] a first amparo, or if the corresponding Collegiate Tribunal has asserted them, of office, in the cases in which the substitution of the complaint proceeds, it may not be a matter of concept of violation, nor of officious diligences [estudios] in subsequent actions of amparo. The party that has obtained the favorable decision and that has juridical interest in which the challenged act subsists, must present amparo in a form adhesive to that advanced by any of the parties that participated [intervinieron] in the action from which the challenge emanated [emana]. The law shall determine the form and terms in which it must be advanced [promoverse]. For the procedure of the action, the ordinary recourses that are established in the law of the matter must be exhausted previously, by virtue of which those definitive decisions, awards and resolutions maybe modified or revoked, except in the case where the law permits renunciation of the recourses. To challenge the definitive decisions, awards or resolutions that bring the action to an end, the violation of the laws of the procedure must be established, whenever the complainant has challenged them during the conduct of the action by way of the recourse or defenses that, in this case, specify the respective ordinary law. This requirement [requsito] will not be required [exigible] in amparos against acts that affect the rights of minors or the incapacitated, to civil estate, or to the order or stability of the family, or in those of criminal nature promoted by the sentenced person; b) Against acts in trial of which the execution would be of impossible reparation, out of court, or at its conclusion, once the recourses that in such case may proceed are exhausted, and c) Against acts that affect persons extraneous [extrañas] to the action; IV. In administrative matters, amparo may proceed, as well, against acts or omissions that originate from specific [distintas] authorities of the judicial, administrative or labor tribunals, and that cause a grievance not reparable through any measure of legal defense. It will be necessary to exhaust these measures of defense whenever, by conforming to the same laws, the effects of these acts are suspended, of office or thorough interposition of the action, recourse or means of legal defense that the injured [party] has established, with the same scope that the regulatory laws provide and without requiring greater requirements than those that the same consign to concede the definitive suspension, nor greater time that that established for the concession of the provisional suspension, independently from whether the act itself is considered susceptible or not of being suspended in accordance with the law. The obligation to exhaust such recourses or measures or defense does not exist if the challenged act lacks substantiation [fundamentación] or when only direct violation of this Constitution is alleged; V. Amparo against definitive decisions, awards or resolutions which bring an end to the action shall be brought before the competent Collegiate Circuit Tribunal in accordance with the law, in the following cases: a) In criminal matters, against definitive resolutions dictated by judicial tribunals, being those federal [ones] of common or military order. b) In administrative matters, when particular definitive sentences and resolutions which bring an end to the trial, dictated by administrative or judicial tribunals, are challenged by individuals, not reparable by an recourse, action or ordinary measure of legal defense; c) In civil matters, when definitive sentences are challenged which were decreed in federal or commercial trials, it being a federal or local authority issuing the decision [fallo], or in trials of the common order. In the civil actions of Federal order, the decisions can be challenged in amparo by any of the parties, including by the Federation, in defense of their patrimonial interests, and d) In labor matters, when awards dictated by Local or Federal Boards [Juntas] of Conciliation and Arbitration, or by the Federal Tribunal of Conciliation and Arbitration of the Workers at the Service of the State [Tribunal Federal de Conciliación y Arbitraje de los Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado], are challenged; The Supreme Court of Justice can, of office or on substantiated petition of the corresponding Collegiate Circuit Tribunal, or of the Procurator General of the Republic, take cognizance of the direct amparos that by their interest and transcendence so merit it. VI. In the cases to which the preceding fraction refers, the regulatory law shall specify the procedure and the terms to which the Collegiate Circuit Tribunals and, in such case, the Supreme Court of Justice, must submit themselves to dictate their respective resolutions; VII. Amparo against acts or omissions at trial, outside of trial or after its conclusion, or that affect persons extraneous to the action, against grievances or against acts or omissions of administrative authority, will be interposed before the District Judge under whose jurisdiction the place is located in which the act challenged was executed or was to be executed, and its conduct will be limited to the report of the authority, at one hearing for which will be cited in the same order auto that the report is required to be produced [se mande pedir] and to receive the evidence that the interested parties offer and to hear the allegations, issuing [pronunciándose] the decision in the same hearing; VIII. Against the decisions that the District Judges or the Unitary Circuit Tribunals, issued in amparo, revision proceeds. The Supreme Court of Justice shall take cognizance of them: a) When general norms have been challenged in the demand of amparo, for considering them [estimaraos] directly in violation of this Constitution, the issue [problema] of constitutionality subsisting in the recourse. b) When it concerns those cases comprehended in fractions II and III of Article 103 of this Constitution. The Supreme Court of Justice, of office or on substantiated petition of the corresponding Collegiate Circuit Tribunal, or of the Procurator General of the Republic, will take cognizance of the amparos in revision, that by their interest and transcendence so merit it. In the cases not provided for in the previous paragraphs, the Collegiate Circuit Tribunals will take cognizance of the revision and their decisions will not admit any recourse; IX. In matters of direct amparo, the recourse of revision proceeds against the decisions that resolve [matters] concerning the constitutionality of general norms, establishing the direct interpretation of the precept of this Constitution or omitting to decide concerning such questions when these have been raised, whenever it establishes a criterion of importance and transcendence, according to what the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation provides, in compliance with the general directives [acuerdos] of the Plenary. The matters of recourse shall be limited to the decision of the questions appropriately constitutional, without power to consider [comprender] others; X. The challenged acts may be the object of suspension in the cases and by way of the conditions that the regulatory law determines, for which the jurisdictional organ of amparo, when the nature of the act permits it, must produce [realizar] a thoughtful analysis of the likelihood of beneficial [buen] law and of social interest. This suspension must be granted with respect to definitive decisions in criminal matters by communicating the prosecution [promoción] of amparo, and in civil, commercial and administrative matters, by way of surety [garantía] made by the complainant to respond to the damages and prejudices that such suspension may cause to the third party interested. The suspension shall be without effect of the latter gives counter-surety [contagarantía] to assure the restoration of matters [cosas] to the state they should be in [guardaban] if the amparo is conceded and to pay the consequential damages and prejudices; XI. The complaint of direct amparo will be presented before the responsible authority, which shall decide concerning the suspension. In the other cases the complaint will be presented before the District Judges or the Unitary Circuit Tribunals which shall decide concerning the suspension, or before the Tribunals of the State in the cases that the law so authorizes; XII. The violation of the guarantees of Articles 16, in criminal matters, and 19 and 20 will be claimed [reclamará] before the superior of the tribunal that committed it, or before the District Judge or Unitary Circuit Tribunal that corresponds, requesting recourse, in either case, to the decisions that are issued, in the terms prescribed by fraction VIII. If the District Judge or the Unitary Circuit Tribunal does not reside in the same place as the responsible authority, the law shall determine the judge or tribunal before which the writ [escrito] of amparo is to be presented, which may provisionally suspend the act challenged, in the cases and terms that the same law establishes; XIII. When Collegiate Tribunals of one same Circuit sustain contradictory opinions [tesis] in the actions of amparo of their competence, the Procurator General of the Republic, the tribunals mentioned and their members, the District Judges or the parties in those matters that have motivated them, may denounce the contradiction before the corresponding Circuit Plenary, to the end that it decides on the opinion that must prevail as jurisprudence. When the Circuit Plenaries of specific Circuits, the Circuit Plenaries in specialized matters of the same Circuit or the Collegiate Tribunals of one same circuit with different specialization, sustain contradictory opinions to resolve the contradictions or the matters of their competence, as it corresponds, the Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, those of the Circuit Plenaries, as well as the organs to which the prior paragraph refers, may denounce the contradiction before the Supreme Court of Justice, with the objective that the respective Plenary of Chamber, decides on the opinion that must prevail. When the Chambers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation sustain contradictory opinions in the actions of amparo of which they are competent to take cognizance, the ministers, the Collegiate Circuit Tribunals and their members, the District Judges, the Procurator General of the Republic or the parties in the matters that motivated them, may denounce the contradiction before the Plenary of the Supreme Court, in accordance with the regulatory law, so that it resolves the contradiction. The resolutions that the Plenary or the Chambers of the Supreme Court of Justice as well as the Circuit Plenaries issue in accordance with the previous paragraphs, will only have the effect of establishing jurisprudence and will not affect the specific juridical situation deriving from the judgments issued in the trials in which the contradiction has occurred; XIV. [Abrogated] XV. The Procurator General of the Republic or the Agent of the Federal Public Ministry designated to [this] effect will be a party in all actions of amparo, but they can abstain from intervening in such cases, when the cases concerned lack [carezca], in their opinion, public interest. XVI. If the authority did not comply with the decision that concedes the amparo, but this non-compliance is justified, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, in agreement with the procedure provided for by the regulatory law, shall grant a reasonable time for its compliance to proceed, a time that can be extended on the request of the authority. When it is unjustified or the time has elapsed without there having been compliance, it shall proceed to remove from office [cargo] the titular member of the authority responsible and consign him to the District Judge. The same orders [providencias] will take place respecting the superior hierarchy of the authority responsible if it should have incurred responsibility, as well as those titular persons who, having occupied the office previously in the authority responsible, have not complied with the execution. If the amparo is conceded, [and] the challenged act is repeated, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, in accordance with the procedures established in the regulatory law, shall proceed to remove from office [cargo] the titular member of the authority responsible, and bring it to the attention of the Federal Public Ministry, except when there has not been deceitful activity and the repeated act was done [deje] without effects before the resolution of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is issued. The substitute compliance with the decision of amparo may be solicited by the complainant to the jurisdictional organ, or decreed of office by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, when the execution of the sentence affects society in greater proportion than the benefit that the complainant may obtain, or when, by the circumstances of the case, is impossible or gravely disproportionate to restore the situation that governed before the violation. The incidental issue [incidente] has for its effect that the execution is made for compliance by way of payment of damages and prejudices to the complainant. No action of amparo whatever may be filed, unless the decision that concedes the constitutional protection has been complied with; XVII. The authority responsible that disobeys an order [auto] of suspension or that, before such measure, accepts through bad faith or negligence, security [fianza] or countersecurity [contrafianza] that is illusory or insufficient, will be criminally sanctioned; XVIII. [Abrogated] TITLE FOUR Of the Responsibilities of the Public and Patrimonial Servants of the State Article 108 For the effects of the responsibilities to which this Title refers, the representatives of popular election, the members of the Federal Judicial Power and of the Judicial Power of the Federal District, the functionaries and employees and, in general, any person that performs a job [empleo], office [cargo] or commission of any nature in the Congress of the Union, in the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District or in the Federal Public Administration or in the Federal District, as well as the public servants of the organs to which this Constitution grants autonomy, will be reputed [to be] public servants who will be responsible for the acts or omissions in which they incur in the performance of their respective functions. The President of the Republic, during the time of his responsibilities [encargo], may only be impeached [acusado] for treason against the country and for grave crimes of the common order. The Governors of the States, the Deputies of the Local Legislatures, the Magistrates of the Local Superior Tribunals of Justice and, as the case may be, the members of the Councils of the Local Judicatures will be responsible for violations of this Constitution and of the federal laws, as well as for improper management of federal funds and resources. The Constitutions of the States of the Republic shall make precise [precisarán], in the same terms of the first paragraph of this Article and for the effects of their responsibilities, the character of public servants of those performing a job, office or commission in the States and in the Municipalities. Article 109 The Congress of the Union and Legislature of the States, within the domains [ámbitos] of their respective competences, shall adopt [expedirán] the laws of responsibilities of the public servants, and the other norms conducive to sanction those who, having this character, incur in responsibility, in accordance with the following safeguards [prevenciones]: I. The sanctions indicated in Article 110 will be imposed through a political trial [juicio politico], on the public servants specified in the same precept, when in the exercise of their functions they incur in acts or omissions that are prejudicial to [redunden en perjuicio] the fundamental public interests or to their good management [despacho]. The political trial does not proceed for the mere expression of ideas. II. The commission of crimes on the part of any public servant will be prosecuted and sanctioned in the terms of the criminal legislation; and III. Administrative sanctions will be applied to the public servants for the acts or omissions that affect the legality, honesty, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency that they must observe in performance their jobs [empleos], offices [cargos] or commissions. The procedures for the application of the sanctions mentioned will be developed autonomously. Sanctions of the same nature may not be imposed two times for a single act [conducta]. The laws shall determine the cases and the circumstances in which the public servants must be criminally sanctioned for cause of illicit enrichment that during their time in their responsibilities [encargo], or by reasons [motivos] of it, by themselves or by a third person [interpósita], they substantially augment their patrimony, acquire assets or conduct themselves as owners concerning them, of which the licit origin [procedencia] could not be justified. The criminal laws will sanction with seizure and with privation of the ownership of these assets, as well as the other penalties that correspond. Any citizen, under the most strict responsibility and through the presentation of elements of proof, may formulate an accusation [denuncia] before the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union with respect to the conduct to which this Article refers. Article 110 The senators and deputies of the Congress of the Union, the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the Councilors of the Federal Judicature, the Secretaries of the Cabinet, the deputies of the Assembly of the Federal District, the Head of Government of the Federal District, the Procurator General of the Republic, the Procurator General of Justice of the Federal District, the Circuit Magistrates and the District Judges, the magistrates and judges of Common Law [Fuero Común] of the Federal District, the Councilors of the Judicature of the Federal District, the Councilor President, the electoral councilors, and the executive secretary of the Federal Electoral Institute, the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal, the directors general and their equivalents of the decentralized organs [organismos], enterprises with majority state participation, companies and associations incorporated to them and public trusts [fideicomisos públicos], may be the subject of political trial. The governors of the States, Local Deputies, Magistrates of the Local Superior Tribunals of Justice and, as the case may be, the members of the Councils of the Local Judicatures, may only be subject to political trial in the terms of this Title for grave violations of this Constitution and the federal laws that emanate from it, as well as for the improper management of federal funds and resources, but in this case the resolution will be declarative only [únicamente] and it will be communicated to the Local Legislatures so that, in exercise of their attributions, they may proceed correspondingly. The sanction will consist of the dismissal of the public servant and in their disqualification for performing the functions, jobs [empleos], offices or commissions of any nature in the public service. For the application of sanctions to which this precept refers, the Chamber of Deputies will proceed with the respective accusation, before the Chamber of Senators, with prior declaration of the absolute majority of the number of the members present in session of that Chamber, once having substantiated the respective procedure and on hearing [audiencia] the accused [inculpada]. Having taken cognizance of the accusation, the Chamber of Senators, constituted [erigida] as a grand jury [Jurado de sentencia], will apply the corresponding sanction through a resolution of the two-thirds part of its members present in session, once the corresponding diligences have been practiced and on hearing the accused. The declarations and resolutions of the Chambers of Deputies and Senators are unchallengeable [inatacables]. Article 111 To proceed criminally against the deputies and senators of the Congress of the Union, the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the magistrates of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal, the councilors to the Federal Judicature, the Secretaries of the Cabinet, the deputies of the Assembly of the Federal District, the Head of Government of the Federal District, the Procurator General of the Republic and the Procurator General of Justice of the Federal District, as well as the Councilor President and the electoral councilors of the General Council of the Federal Electoral Institute, for the commission of crimes during the time of their responsibilities [encargo], the Chamber of Deputies will declare by absolute majority of its members present in session, if there are or are not grounds [lugar] to proceed against the accused. If the resolution of the Chamber should be negative, any further [ulterior] procedure will be suspended, but this will not be an obstacle for the imputation for the commission of the crime to continue its course when the accused has concluded the exercise of their responsibility [encargo], since it does not prejudice the bases of the accusation. If the Chamber declares there are grounds to proceed, the accused [sujeto] shall be brought to the disposition of the competent authorities so that they may act in accordance with the law. Regarding the President of the Republic, there are only grounds to accuse him before the Chamber of Senators in the terms of Article 110. Under this postulate [supuesto], the Chamber of Senators will resolve it on the basis of the criminal legislation applicable. For power to proceed criminally for federal crimes against the Governors of the States, Local Deputies, Magistrates of the Superior Tribunals of Justice and, as the case may be, the members of the Councils of the Local Judicatures, the same procedure established in this Article will be followed, but under this postulate [supuesto], the declaration to proceed will be for the effect of communicating it to the Local Legislatures, so that in the exercise of their attributions they may proceed correspondingly. The declaration and resolutions of the Chambers of Deputies and Senators are unchallengeable. The effect of the declaration that is grounds to proceed against the accused will be to suspend them [separarlo] from their responsibility [encargo] while they are subject to the criminal procedure. If this culminates in an absolutory decision [sentencia], the accused may resume their function. If the findings should be condemnatory and it concerns a crime committed during the exercise of their responsibility [encargo], the granting of pardon may not be conceded to the condemned [reo]. Claims [demandas] of civil order, that are initiated [entablen] against any public servant, will not require the declaration to proceed. The criminal sanctions will be applied in accordance with that provided for in the criminal legislation, and concerning crimes by commission of which the authority obtained an economic benefit or caused damages or patrimonial prejudices, [these] must be graduated in accordance with the wealth [lucro] obtained and with the necessity to satisfy the damages and prejudices caused by their illicit conduct. The economic sanctions may not exceed three times the benefit obtained or of the damages or prejudices caused. Article 112 The declaration to proceed will not be required of the Chamber of Deputies when any of the public servants to whom the first paragraph of Article 111 makes reference commits a crime during the time in which they are suspended [se encuentre separado] from their responsibility [encargo]. If the public servant has returned [vuelto] to perform their own functions or has been appointed or elected to perform a different office [cargo], but one of those enumerated by Article 111, it will proceed in accordance with that provided for in that precept. Article 113 The laws concerning administrative responsibilities of the public servants, shall determine their obligations with the objective of safeguarding the legality, honesty, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency in the performance of their functions, jobs, offices or commissions, the sanctions applicable for acts or omissions in which they incur, as well as the procedures and the authorities to apply them. These sanctions, in addition to those that the laws specify, will consist of suspension, dismissal and disqualification, as well as in economic sanctions, and they must be established in accordance with the economic benefits obtained by the responsible [person] and with the patrimonial damages and prejudices caused by their acts or omissions to which fraction III of Article 109 refers, but they may not exceed three times the benefits obtained or of the damages and prejudices caused. The responsibility of the State for the damages that, by reason [motivo] of its irregular administrative activity, [are] caused to the assets or rights of individuals [particulares], will be objective and direct. The individual will have right to an indemnity in accordance with the bases, limits and procedures that the laws establish. Article 114 The procedure of political trial may only be initiated during the time [período] in which the public servant performs their office [cargo] and in one year following. The corresponding sanctions will be applied in a time no greater than one year from the initiation of the procedure. The responsibility for crimes committed during the time of responsibility [encargo] of any public servant, will be enforceable [exigible] in accordance with the times [plazos] of prescription specified in the Criminal Law, which will never be inferior to three years. The times of prescription are interrupted as long as the public servant performs any of the responsibilities [encargos] to which Article 111 makes reference. The law will specify the cases of prescription of the administrative responsibility taking into account the nature and consequence of the acts or omissions to which fraction III of Article 109 makes reference. When these acts or omissions should be grave the times [plazos] of prescription will not be inferior to three years. TITLE FIVE Of the States of the Federation and of the Federal District Article 115 The States will adopt, for their interior regime, the republican, representative, popular form of government, having the Free Municipality [Municipio Libre] as the basis of their territorial division and of their political and administrative organization, in accordance with the following bases: I. Each municipality will be governed by an Ayuntamiento [Local or Town Council] of direct popular election, composed of a Municipal President [Presidente Municipal] and the number of regidores [aldermen] and síndicos [trustees] that the law determines. The competence that this Constitution grants to municipal government will be exercised by the Ayuntamiento in exclusive manner and there shall be no intermediate authority whatever between that and the government of the State. The municipal presidents, regidores, and síndicos of the Ayuntamientos, elected popularly by direct election, may not be reelected for the term [periodo] immediately following. The persons who, by indirect election, or by appointment or designation of any authority, perform the same [propias] functions of those offices [cargos], whatever the denomination may be that they are given given, may not be elected for the term immediately following. All the functionaries mentioned above, when holding the status of proprietary members, may not be elected for the term immediately following as substitutes, but those who have the status of substitutes may be elected for the term immediately following as proprietary members, unless they have been exercising it [estado en ejercicio]. The local legislatures, by agreement of the two-thirds part of their members, may suspend ayuntamientos, declare that these are non-existent [desaparecido] and suspend or revoke the mandate of any of their members, for the grave causes that the local law provides, as long as and when their members have had sufficient opportunity to render evidence and to make the arguments [alegatos] that in their opinion apply. If any of the members leave the performance of their office [cargo], they will be substituted by their substitute, or it shall proceed as the law provides. In case a ayuntamiento is declared non-existent or is so by resignation or absolute absence [falta] of the majority of its members, or if the substitutes do not proceed to enter into [their] functions, or if new elections are not held in accordance with the law, the legislatures of the States shall designate, from among the residents, the Municipal Councils that will conclude the respective terms; these Councils shall be composed of the number of members that the law determines, who must meet the requirements of eligibility established for the regidores; II. The municipalities will be invested with juridical personality and will manage their patrimony in accordance with the law. The ayuntamientos will have faculties to approve, in accordance with the laws in municipal matters that the Legislatures must adopt [expedir], the police and government orders [bandos], the regulations, circulars, and administrative provisions of general compliance [observancia] within their respective jurisdictions, that organize the municipal public administration, regulate the public matters, procedures, functions and services of their competence and assure citizen and resident participation. The objective of the laws to which the previous paragraph refers will be to establish: a) The general bases of the municipal public administration and of the administrative procedure, including the means of challenge [impugnación] and the organs to settle disputes between this administration and individuals, subject to the principles of equality, public participation [publicidad], hearing [audiencia] and legality; b) The cases in which the agreement of the two-thirds part of the members of the ayuntamientos are required to issue [dictar] resolutions that affect the municipal real patrimony or to conclude acts or agreements that commit [comprometan] the Municipality for a time [plazo] longer than the term [periodo] of the Ayuntamiento; c) The norms of general application to conclude the agreements to which both fractions III and IV of this Article refer, as well as the second paragraph of fraction VII of Article 116 of this Constitution; d) The procedure and conditions for the state government to assume a municipal function or service when, in the absence of the corresponding agreement, the state legislature considers that the municipality concerned is unable to exercise them or to provide them; in which case, the prior solicitation of the respective ayuntamiento will be necessary, adopted by at least the twothirds part of its members; and e) The provisions applicable in those municipalities that do not account [cuenten] with the corresponding orders or regulations. The state legislatures will issue [emitir] the norms that establish the procedures by which they resolve the conflicts that arise between the municipalities and the government of the State, or between them, by reason of the acts deriving from paragraphs c) and d) above; III. The Municipalities will have as their responsibility [cargo] the following public functions and services: a) Potable water, drainage, sewage [alcantarillado], and treatment and handling of sewage [aguas residuales]; b) Public lighting. c) Removal, collection, transfer, treatment and final disposal of wastes; d) Markets and centers of supply. e) Cemeteries. f) Slaughterhouses. g) Streets, parks and gardens and their equipping; h) Public security, in the terms of Article 21 of this Constitution, municipal and transit preventative policing; and i) The others that the local Legislatures determine according to the territorial and socio-economic conditions of the Municipalities, as well as their administrative and financial capacity. Without prejudice to their constitutional competence, in the performance of the functions or the provision of services of their responsibility, the municipalities will observe that provided by the federal and state laws. The municipalities, with prior agreement between their ayuntamientos, may coordinate and associate for more effective provision of the public services or the better exercise of the functions that correspond to them. In this case and concerning the association of municipalities of two or more States, it must meet [contar] with the approval of the legislatures of the respective States. Also, when in the opinion of the respective ayuntamiento it is necessary, it may conclude agreements [convenios] with the State for it, in direct manner or through the corresponding organ [organismo], to have responsibility [cargo] in temporary form of any of them, or so that the are provided or exercised in coordination by the State and the municipality itself. The indigenous communities, within the municipal domain [ámbito], may coordinate and associate in the terms and for the effects that the law provides [prevenga]. IV. The municipalities will administer their finances [hacienda] freely, which will be composed of the revenues [rendimientos] of the assets that pertain to them, as well as the taxes and other revenues that the legislatures establish in their favor, and in any case: a) They shall collect taxes, including additional rates [tasas], that the States establish concerning real property, its subdivision [fraccionamiento], division [división], consolidation, transference [translación] and improvement as well as those that have as a basis the change of value [cambio de valor] of the real properties. The municipalities may conclude agreements with the State so that it takes responsibility for any of the functions related to the administration of these taxes [contribuciones]. b) The Federal participations, which will be covered by the Federation for the Municipalities in accordance with the bases, amounts and times [plazos] that, annually, the legislatures of the States determine. c) The revenues derived from the provision of public services of their responsibility [cargo]. The federal laws will not limit the faculty of the States to establish the taxes [contribuciones] to which paragraphs a) and c) refer, nor concede exemptions in relation to them. The state laws may not establish exemptions or subsidies in favor of any person or institution in respect of those taxes. Only the assets of public domain of the Federation, of the States or the Municipalities will be exempt, except where such assets are used by para-statal entities or by individuals, under any title, for administrative objectives or purposes separate from [distintas] those of their public objective. The ayuntamientos in the domain [ámbito] of their competence, will propose to the state legislatures the quotas [cuotas] and tariffs [tarifas] and charges applicable to imposts [impuestos], rights, taxes [contribuciones] for improvements and tables of unitary values of land [suelo] and construction [construcción] that serve as a basis for the collection of taxes concerning real property. The legislatures of the States will approve the laws of revenues of the municipalities, and shall review and shall supervise their public accounts. The budgets of expenditures will be approved by ayuntamientos based on their disposable revenues, and must include in them, the itemized tabulations of the remunerations that are provided to the municipal public servants, which are subject to that provided in Article 127 of this Constitution. The resources that compose the municipal treasury [hacienda] will be exercised directly by the ayuntamientos, or otherwise, by whoever they authorize, in accordance with the law; V. The municipalities, in the terms of the federal and state laws concerning the matter, will have the faculty to: a) Develop, approve and administer the zoning and plans of municipal urban development; b) Participate in the creation and administration of its territorial reserves; c) Participate in the formulation of plans of regional development, which must be in concordance with the general plans concerning the matter. When the Federation or the States prepare projects of regional development they must assure the participation of the municipalities; d) To authorize, control and monitor [vigilar] the utilization of land, in the domain [ámbito] of their competence, in their territorial jurisdictions; e) Intervene in the regularization of the tenancy of urban land; f) Grant licenses and permits for construction; g) Participate in the creation and administration of zones of ecological reserves and in the preparation [elaboración] and application of programs of organization [programas de ordenamiento] in this matter; h) To intervene in the formulation and application of programs of public transport of passengers when these affect its territorial domain [ámbito]; and i) To conclude agreements for the administration and custodianship [custodia] of the federal zones. In that conducive to and in accordance with the objectives specified in the third paragraph of Article 27 of this Constitution, the regulations and administrative provisions that should be necessary shall be issued [expedirán]; VI. When two or more urban centers situated in municipal territories of two or more federative entities form or tend to form a demographic continuity, the Federation, the federative entities and the respective municipalities, in the domain [ámbito] of their competences, shall plan and shall regulate in a joint and coordinated manner the development of those centers in accordance with the federal law on the matter. VII. The preventive policing will be [under] the command of the municipal president in the terms of the Law of Public Security of the State. They will carry out the orders that the Governor of the State transmits to them in those cases that he judges as of force majeure or grave alteration of the public order. The Federal Executive will have command of the public force in the places where it habitually or temporarily resides; VIII. The laws of the States shall introduce the principle of proportional representation in the election of the ayuntamientos of all the municipalities. The labor relations between the municipalities and their workers, will be governed by the laws adopted [expidan] by the legislatures of the States with basis in that provided for in Article 123 of this Constitution, and its regulatory provisions. IX. [Abrogated] X. [Abrogated] Article 116 The public power of the States will be divided, for its exercise, in Executive, Legislative and Judicial Powers, and one sole person or corporation may not reunite two or more of these powers, nor deposit the legislative power in one sole individual. The powers of the States will be organized in accordance with the Constitution of each one of them, subject to the following norms: I. The governors of the States may not remain in their responsibility [encargo] more than six years. The election of governors of the States and of the Local Legislatures will be direct and in the terms that the respective electoral laws provide. The governors of the States, whose origin is by popular election, ordinary or extraordinary, in no case and or for no reason, may return to occupy that office [cargo], not even with the character of interims, provisionals, or substitutes or be given the responsibility [encargados] of the office. The following may never be elected for the term [período] immediately following: a) The substitute constitutional governor, or the person designated to conclude the term in case of the absolute absence [falta] of the constitutional governor, even when he holds a different denomination; b) The interim governor, the provisional [governor] or the citizen who under any denomination, substitutes for the temporary absences [faltas] of the governor, provided he performed the office [in] the last two years of the term. A Mexican citizen by birth and native of it, or with effective residence of no less than five years immediately prior to the day of the elections [comicios], and being 30 years old on the day of the election [elección], or less, if the Political Constitution of the Federative Entity so establishes, may alone be constitutional governor of a State. II. The number of representatives in the legislatures of the States will be proportional to the inhabitants of each one; but in any case, there may not be less than seven deputies in the States having [a] population not reaching [llegue] 400 thousand inhabitants; nine, in those in which the population exceeds that number but not reaching 800 thousand; and 11 in the States having a population superior to this last number [cifra]. The deputies to the legislatures of the States may not be re-elected for the term immediately following. The substitute deputies may be elected for the term immediately following with the character of proprietary [member], provided that they have not exercised it [estado en ejercicio], but the proprietary deputies may not be elected in the term immediately [following] with the character of substitutes. The legislatures of the States will be composed of deputies elected according to the principles of relative majority and of proportional representation, in the terms that their laws specify; The annual adoption [aprobación] of the budget of corresponding expenditures corresponds to the legislatures of the States. The specification of the remunerations of the public servants must be subject to the bases provided for in Article 127 of this Constitution. The state Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers, as well as the organs [organismos] with autonomy recognized in their local constitutions, must include within their Bills of budgets, the itemized [desglosados] tabulations of the remunerations that are proposed pertaining to their public servants. These proposals must observe the procedures that, for the adoption of the budgets of expenditures of the States, the applicable constitutional and legal provisions establish. The legislatures of the states will have [contarán] state entities of supervision [fiscalización], which will be organs with technical autonomy and autonomy of management in the exercise of their attributions and autonomy to decide concerning their internal organization, functioning and resolutions, in the terms that their laws provide. The function of supervision will be conducted in accordance with the principles of subsequent action, annual [action], legality, impartiality and reliability. The titular [member] of the entity of supervision of the federative entities will be elected by the two-thirds part of the members present in the local legislatures, for terms [períodos] of not less than seven years and must have five years experience in matters of control, financial auditing and matters of responsibilities. III. The Judicial Power of the States will be exercised by the tribunals that the respective Constitutions establish. The independence of the magistrates and judges in the exercise of their functions must be guaranteed by the Constitutions and the Organic Laws of the States, which shall establish the conditions for the entrance, training and tenure [permanencia] of those who serve the Judicial Powers of the States. The Magistrates composing the Local Judicial Powers, must meet the requirements specified by fractions I to V of Article 95 of this Constitution. The persons who have occupied the office [cargo] of Secretary or its equivalent, Procurator of Justice or Local Deputy, in their respective States, during the year prior to day of appointment, may not be Magistrates. The appointments of the magistrates and judges composing the Local Judicial Powers will be made preferentially among those persons who have provided their services with efficiency and probity in the administration of justice, or who merit it by their honorability, competence and prior record [antecedentes] in other branches of the juridical profession. The magistrates will remain in the exercise of their responsibility [encargo] for the time specified in the Local Constitutions, [they] may be re-elected, and if they are, they may only be deprived of their posts [puestos] in the terms that the Constitution and the Laws of Responsibilities of the Public Servants of the States determine. The magistrates and the judges shall receive an adequate and non-renounceable remuneration, which may not be diminished during their responsibility [encargo]; IV. The Constitutions and the laws of the States in electoral matters will guarantee that: a) The election of the Governors, of the members of the local legislatures and of the members of the ayuntamientos are realized through universal, free, secret and direct suffrage; and the electoral day [jornada comicial] takes place the first Sunday of July of the year that corresponds. The States, whose electoral days are celebrated in the year of the federal elections and [which] do not coincide on the same date as the federal day, will not be obligated by this provision; b) In the exercise of the electoral function, as the charge [cargo] of the electoral authorities, certainty, impartiality, independence, legality and objectivity are directive principles; c) The authorities that have been given the charge [cargo] of the organization of the elections and the jurisdictions [jurisdiccionales] that resolve disputes [controversias] in the matter, enjoy autonomy in their functioning and independence in their decisions; d) The competent electoral authorities of administrative character may agree [convenir] with the Federal Electoral Institute that it take responsibility [cargo] for the organization of the local electoral processes; e) The political parties may only be constituted by citizens without intervention of union organizations, or organizations of different social objectives and without having corporate affiliation. Similarly, [they] have recognized to them the exclusive right to solicit the registration of candidates to offices [cargos] of popular election, with the exception of that provided in Article 2, part A, fractions III and VII, of this Constitution; f) Only the electoral authorities may intervene in the internal affairs of the parties in the terms that are expressly specified; g) The political parties receive, in equitative form, public financing for their permanent ordinary activities and those aimed at the obtaining of the vote during the electoral processes. In the same mode they establish the procedure for the liquidation of the parties that lose their registration and the allocation of their assets and balances [remanentes]; h) The criteria are established [fijen] to establish [establecer] the limits to the expenses of political parties in their pre-campaigns and electoral campaigns, as well as the maximum amounts of contributions of their sympathizers, which sum total may not exceed ten percent of the ceiling [tope] of expenditure that is determined for the election of governor; the procedures are established for the control and supervision of the origin and use of all the resources the political parties may have; and to establish the sanctions for the noncompliance with the provisions that are adopted [expidan] in these matters; i) The political parties have access to radio and television, in accordance with the norms established in part B of basis III of Article 41 of this Constitution; j) The rules [reglas] are established for pre-campaigns and electoral campaigns of the political parties, as well as the sanctions for those who infringe them. In any case, the duration of the campaigns must not exceed ninety days for the election of governor, or sixty days when only deputies or ayuntamientos are elected; the pre-campaigns may not last more than the two-thirds part of the respective electoral campaigns; k) Obligatory bases are instituted for the coordination between the Federal Electoral Institute and the local electoral authorities in matters of the supervision [fiscalización] of the finances of the political parties, in the terms established in the last two paragraphs of basis V of Article 41 of this Constitution; l) A system of means of challenge [impugnación] is established so that all the electoral acts and resolutions are invariably subject to the principle of legality. Equally, that the postulates [supuestos] and rules for the realization, in the administrative and jurisdictional domains [ámbitos], of total or partial recounts of the vote [votación], are specified; m) The grounds for annulment of the elections for governor, local deputies and ayuntamientos, are established, as well as the appropriate times [plazos] for the relief [desahogo] of all instances of challenge, taking into account the principle of definitiveness of the stages of the electoral process, and n) The crimes are typified and the faults [faltas] are determined in electoral matters, as well as the sanctions that must be imposed for them. V. The Constitutions and laws of the States may institute Contentious-Administrative Tribunals endowed with full autonomy to issue [dictar] their judgments [fallas], which are given the charge [cargo] to settle the disputes that arise between the State Public Administration and individuals, establishing the norms for their organization, their functioning, the procedure and the recourses against their resolutions; VI. Labor relations between the States and their workers, shall be regulated by the laws adopted [expida] by the legislatures of the States on the basis of that provided for in Article 123 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and its regulatory provisions; and VII. The Federation and the States, in the terms of law, may agree to the assumption on the part of them of the exercise of its functions, the execution and operations of works [obras] and the provision of public services, when the economical and social development make it necessary. The States will be enabled to conclude [celebrar] such agreements with their Municipalities, to the effect that these assure the provision of services or the attention to those functions to which the previous paragraph refers. Article 117 The States may not, in any case: I. Celebrate alliance, treaty or coalition with another State, or with foreign Powers. II. [Abrogated] III. Coin money, issue paper money, stamps, or stamped paper. IV. Levy duty [gravar] on the transit of persons or goods [cosas] that pass through their territory. V. Prohibit or levy duty directly or indirectly, [on] the entry into their territory, or of exit from it, of any national or foreign goods [mercancia]. VI. Levy duty [gravar] on circulation or consumption of national or foreign goods [efectos], by imposts or rights, of which collection [exención] is made by local customhouses, requiring inspection or registration of packages [bultos] or requiring documentation that accompanies the goods [mercancia]. VII. Adopt [expedir] or maintain in force fiscal laws or provisions that involve [importen] differences in imposts or requirements by reason of the origin [procedencia] of national or foreign goods, whether this difference is established in respect of similar [similar] production of the locality, or is between similar [semejantes] productions of different origin. VIII. Contract obligations or debts [empréstitos] directly or indirectly with governments of other nations, with foreign corporations or individuals, or when these must be paid in foreign currency or outside of the national territory. The States and the Municipalities may not contract obligations or debts except when they are allocated to productive public investments, inclusive of those that decentralized organs [organismos] and public enterprises contract, in accordance with the bases that the legislatures establish in a law and under the headings [conceptos] and up to the amounts that they establish annually in their respective budgets. The executives will report on their exercise when rendering the public account. IX. Levy duty on the production, the storage, or the sale of leaf tobacco, in distinct form from or with quotas greater than those that the Congress of the Union authorizes. The Congress of the Union and the legislatures of the State shall adopt [dictar], of course [desde luego], laws designed to combat alcoholism. Article 118 Neither may they, without the consent of the Congress of the Union: I. Establish rights on tonnage, or any other concerning ports, or impose taxes or rights concerning imports or exports. II. Have, at any time, permanent troops or ships of war. III. Make war by themselves on any foreign power [potencia], excepting those cases of invasion and of danger so imminent, that it does not admit delay. In these cases, immediate report will be made to the President of the Republic. Article 119 The Powers of the Union have the duty to protect the States against all invasion or external violence. In each case of an internal uprising or upheaval, they shall give equal protection, provided that it is initiated [excitados] by the Legislature of the State or by its Executive, if it should not be in session. Each State and the Federal District will be obligated to surrender [entregar] without delay those accused, processed or sentenced, as well as to accomplish the securing and surrender of objects, instruments or products of the crime, attending to the authority of any other federative entity that requires them. These diligences will be accomplished, with the intervention of the respective general offices of procurators of justice [procuradurías generales de justicia], in the terms of the agreements of cooperation that, to this effect, the federative entities conclude [celebren]. With the same objective, the States and the Federal District may conclude agreements of cooperation with the Federal Government, which will operate through the Office of the Procurator General of the Republic. The extraditions at the request of [a] foreign State will be undertaken [tramitadas] by the Federal Executive, with the intervention of the judicial authority in the terms of this Constitution, the International Treaties that are subscribed to in this respect and the regulatory laws. In these cases, the order [auto] of the judge that commands compliance with the requisition [requisatoria] will be sufficient to cause [motivar] detention for up to sixty natural days. Article 120 The Governors of the States will be obligated to publish and to have Federal laws complied with. Article 121 In each State of the Federation full [entera] faith and credit will be given to the public acts, registers, and judicial proceedings of all the others. The Congress of the Union, by means of general laws, will prescribe the manner of establishing [probar] such acts, registers and proceedings, and the effect of them, subjecting them to the following bases: I. The laws of a State will only have effect in its own territory and, consequently, may not be obligatory outside of it. II. Movable and real assets will be governed by the law of the place of their location. III. The decisions [sentencias] pronounced by the tribunals of one State concerning real rights or real assets located in another State, will only have executory force in it when its own law so provides. The decisions concerning personal rights may only be executed in another State, when the condemned person has submitted[,] expressly or by reason of domicile, to the justice [justicia] that pronounced it, and provided that they have been personally summoned [citada] to appear at the proceeding [juicio]. IV. The acts of civil status adjusted to [ajustados] the laws of one State, will have validity in the others. V. The professional titles [titulos] issued by the authorities of one State, subject to its laws, will be respected in the others. Article 122 As defined by Article 44 of this ordering [ordenamiento] concerning the juridical nature of the Federal District, its government will be the responsibility [cargo] of the Federal Powers and of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Organs of local character, in the terms this Article. The Legislative Assembly, the Head of Government of the Federal District and the Superior Tribunal of Justice are local authorities of the Federal District. The Legislative Assembly of the Federal District will be composed of the number of deputies elected according to the principles of relative majority and of proportional representation, by means of the system of voting lists in one pluri-nomial circumscription, in the terms that this Constitution and the Statute of Government specify. The Head of Government of the Federal District will have as his responsibility the Executive and the public administration in the entity and it will devolve [recaerá] on one sole person, elected by universal, free, direct and secret voting [votación]. The Superior Tribunal of Justice and the Council of the Judicature, with the other organs that the Statute of Government establishes, will exercise the judicial function of common law [fuero común] in the Federal District. The distribution of competences between the Powers of the Union and the local authorities of the Federal District will be subject to the following provisions: A. It corresponds to the Congress of the Union: I. To legislate concerning the Federal District, with the exception of the matters expressly conferred on the Legislative Assembly; II. To adopt [expedir] the Statute of Government of the Federal District; III. To legislate on matters of public debt of the Federal District; IV. To adopt [dictar] the general provisions that assure the proper, opportune and efficient functioning of the Powers of the Union; and V. The other attributions that this Constitution specifies. B. It corresponds to the President of the United Mexican States: I. To initiate laws before the Congress of the Union concerning the Federal District; II. To propose to the Senate who must substitute, in case of removal, the Head of Government of the Federal District; III. To send annually to the Congress of the Union, the proposal of the amounts of indebtedness necessary for the financing of the budget of expenditures of the Federal District. To this effect, the Head of Government of the Federal District will submit to the consideration of the President of the Republic the corresponding proposal, in the terms that the Law provides; IV. To provide [proveer] in the administrative sphere [esfera], for the exact observance of the laws that the Congress of the Union adopts [expedir] concerning the Federal District; and V. The other attributions that this Constitution, the Statute of Government and the laws specify. C. The Statute of Government of the Federal District will be subject to the following bases: FIRST BASIS. - Concerning the Legislative Assembly: I. The Deputies of the Legislative Assembly will be elected every three years by a universal, free, direct and secret vote [voto] in the terms that by Law provides, which must take into account, for the organization of the elections, the issuing of certifications [constancias] and the means of challenge [impugnación] in the matter, as provided in Articles 41, 60 and 99 of this Constitution; II. The requirements to be deputy of the Assembly may not be less than that required to be federal deputy. The provisions contained in Articles 51, 59, 61, 62, 64 and 77, fraction IV of this Constitution, will be applicable to the Legislative Assembly and to its members in that which is compatible; III. To the political party that obtains for itself the largest number of certifications of majority [constancias de mayoria] and with at least thirty percent of the vote in the Federal District, will be assigned the number of Deputies by proportional representation sufficient to reach the absolute majority of the Assembly; IV. It shall establish the dates for the holding [celebración] of two periods of ordinary sessions a year, and the composition and the attributions of the internal organ of government that will act during the recesses. The convocation to extraordinary sessions will be a faculty of this internal organ on petition of the majority of its members or of the Head of Government of the Federal District; V. The Legislative Assembly, in the terms of the Statute of Government, will have the following faculties: a) To adopt [expedir] its organic law, which will be sent to the Head of Government of the Federal District for the sole effect of ordering its publication; b) To examine, to debate and to approve annually the budget of expenditures and the law of revenues of the Federal District, approving first the taxes necessary to cover the budget. To specify the remunerations of the public servants which must be subject to the bases provided in Article 127 of this Constitution. The organs of the Federal District, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, as well as the organs with autonomy recognized in its Statute of Government, must include within their bills of budgets, their itemized tabulations of the remunerations that the public servants are proposed to receive. These budgets must observe the procedure for the adoption of the budget of expenditures of the Federal District, that the provisions of the Statute of Government and the applicable legal provisions specify. Within the law of revenues, amounts of indebtedness greater than those authorized previously by the Congress of the Union to the financing of the budget of expenditures of the Federal District, may not be incorporated. The faculty of initiative concerning the law of revenues and the budget of expenditures corresponds exclusively to the Head of Government of the Federal District. The time [plazo] for its presentation concludes on 30 November, with the exception of the years in which the ordinary election of the Head of Government of the Federal District occurs, in which case the deadline [fecha limite] will be 20 December. The Legislative Assembly will formulate annually its bill of [the] budget and will send it opportunely to the Head of Government of the Federal District so that it is included in his initiative. The provisions contained in the second paragraph of paragraph c) of fraction IV of Article 115 of this Constitution, will be applicable to the to public treasury [hacienda pública] of the Federal District, in that which is not incompatible with its nature and its organic regime of government; c) To review the public account of the previous year, by conduct of the entity of supervision [fiscalización] of the Federal District, in accordance with the criteria established in fraction IV of Article 74, in that which is applicable. The public account of the previous year must be sent to the Legislative Assembly within the first ten days of the month of June. This time [plazo], as well as those established for the presentation of initiatives of the law of revenues and of the bill of the budget of expenditures, may only be extended when, a request that the Executive of the Federal District formulates is sufficiently justified in the judgment of the Legislative Assembly; The titular member of the entity of the supervision of the Federal District will be elected by the two-thirds part of the members present of the Legislative Assembly for terms [periodos] of not less than seven years and must have five years experience in matters of control, financial auditing and matters of responsibility. d) To appoint who must substitute, for the Head of Government of the Federal District, in case of absolute absence [falta]; e) To adopt [expedir] the legal provisions to organize the public finance [hacienda], the budget, the accountability and the public expenditures [gastos] of the Federal District, and the entity of supervision, endowing it with technical autonomy and autonomy of management in the exercise of its attributions, and to decide concerning its internal organization, functioning and resolutions. The function of supervision will be exercised in accordance with the principles of subsequent action, annual action, legality, impartiality and reliability. f) To adopt [expedir] the provisions that guarantee in the Federal District, free and authentic elections, through universal, free, secret and direct suffrage; subject to the bases that the Statute of Government establishes, which shall take into account the principles and rules [reglas] established in paragraphs b) to n) of fraction IV of Article 116 of this Constitution, by which the references that paragraphs j) and m) make to governor, local deputies and ayuntamientos will be assumed to be, respectively, for Head of Government, deputies of the Legislative Assembly and Delegational Heads [Jefes Delegacionales]; g) To legislate in matters of local Public Administration, its internal regime and of administrative procedures; h) To legislate in matters, civil and criminal; establish norms [normar] for the organ [organismo] of protection of human rights, citizen participation; office of public defenders [defensoría de oficio], notaries and public register of property and of commerce; i) To establish norms for civil protection; civic justice concerning faults [faltas] of the police and good government; the services of security provided by private enterprises; deterrence [prevención] and social re-adaptation; health and social assistance; and social planning [previsión]; j) To legislate in matters of planning [planación] of development; in urban development, particularly in the use of land [suelo]; preservation of the environment and ecological protection; housing; construction and building [edificaciones]; public roads, tansit [tránsito] and parking; acquisitions and public works; and concerning exploitation, use [uso] and utilization [aprovechamiento] of the assets of the patrimony of the Federal District; k) To regulate the provision and the concession of public services; to legislate concerning the services of urban transport, of cleaning [limpia], tourism and services of lodging, markets, slaughterhouses and supply [abasto], and cemeteries; l) To adopt [expedir] norms concerning economic promotion and protection of employment; agricultural and livestock [agropecuario] development, mercantile establishments; protection of animals; public events [espactáculos]; civic-cultural and sports promotion; and [the] educative-social function, in the terms of fraction VIII, of Article 3 of this Constitution; m) To adopt [expedir] the Organic Law of the tribunals given the responsibility [encargados] of the judicial function of common law [fuero común] in the Federal District, which includes that relative to the responsibilities of the public servants of these organs; n) To adopt [expedir] the Organic Law of the Contentious-Administrative [Contenciosos Administrativo] Tribunal for the Federal District; ñ) To present initiatives of laws or decrees in matters concerning the Federal District, before the Congress of the Union; and o) The others that in this Constitution are expressly conferred on it. SECOND BASIS. - Concerning the Head of Government of the Federal District: I. He will exercise his responsibility [encargo], which will last six years, from the 5th day of December of the year of the election, which will arise [llevará a cabo] in accordance with what the electoral legislation establishes. To be Head of Government of the Federal District [one] must meet the requirements that the Statute of Government establishes, among which must be: to be a Mexican citizen by birth in full enjoyment of their rights with an effective residence of three years immediately prior to the day of the election if of origin in the Federal District or of five uninterrupted years for those born in another entity; to be at least thirty years of age on the day of the election, and not to have previously performed the office [cargo] of Head of Government of the Federal District in any character. Residence is not interrupted by the performance of public offices [cargos] of the Federation in another territorial domain [ámbito]. In the case of removal of the Head of Government of the Federal District, the Senate will appoint, at the proposal of the President of the Republic, a substitute who will conclude [concluya] the mandate. In case of temporary absence [falta], the public servant that the Statute of Government provides for will be entrusted with [encargada] the office [despacho]. In case of absolute absence, by resignation or any other cause, the Legislative Assembly will designate a substitute to conclude [termine] the responsibility [encargo]. The resignation of the Head of Government of the Federal District will only be accepted for grave causes. The leaves [licencias] from the office [cargo] will be regulated in the Statute itself. II. The Head of Government of the Federal District will have the following faculties and obligations: a) To comply with and to execute the laws concerning the Federal District that the Congress of the Union adopts [expeda], in the sphere [esfera] of competence of the executive organ in his office [cargo] or of its dependencies; b) To promulgate, to publish and to execute the laws that the Legislative Assembly adopts [expedir], providing in the administrative sphere for their exact observance, through the enactment [expedición] of regulations, decrees and agreements. Likewise, he may make observations on the laws that the Legislative Assembly sends to him for promulgation, in a time [plazo] of no more than ten working days. If the bill [with] observations should be confirmed by an qualified majority of two-thirds of the deputies present, it must be promulgated by the Head of Government of the Federal District; c) To present initiatives of laws or decrees before the Legislative Assembly; d) To appoint and to remove freely the public servants [who are] dependents of the local executive organ, whose designation or dismissal is not provided for [previstas] in a specific manner by this Constitution or the corresponding laws; e) To exercise the functions of supervision [dirección] of the services of public security in accordance with the Statute of Government; and f) The others that this Constitution, the Statute of Government and the laws confer on him. THIRD BASIS.- Concerning the organization of the local Public Administration in the Federal District: I. To determine the general guidelines for the distribution of attributions between the central, devolved [desconcentrados] and decentralized organs; II. To establish the political-administrative organs in each one of the territorial demarcations in which the Federal District is divided. Likewise, to establish the criteria to effect the territorial division of the Federal District, the competence of the corresponding political-administrative organs, the form of integrating them, their functioning, as well as the relations of these organs with the Head of Government of the Federal District. The titular [members] of the political-administrative organs of the territorial demarcations will be elected in universal, free, secret and direct form, according to what the law determines. FOURTH BASIS.- Concerning the Superior Tribunal of Justice and the other judicial organs of common law [fuero común]: I. To be a magistrate of the Superior Tribunal [one] must meet the same requirements that this Constitution requires for the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice; in addition, it will be required to have been distinguished in professional practice [ejercicio] or in the judicial branch, preferably in the Federal District. The Superior Tribunal of Justice will be composed of the number of magistrates that the respective organic law specifies. To cover the vacancy of magistrates of the Superior Tribunal of Justice, the Head of Government of the Federal District will submit the respective proposal to the decision of the Legislative Assembly. The Magistrates will exercise their office [cargo] for six years and may be ratified by the Legislative Assembly, and, if this should be so, may only be removed [privados] from their posts [puestos] in the terms of Title Four of this Constitution. II. The administration, supervision and discipline of the Superior Tribunal of Justice, of the courts [juzgados] and other judicial organs, will be the charge [cargo] of the Council of the Judicature of the Federal District. The Council of the Judicature will have seven members, one of whom will be the president of the Superior Tribunal of Justice, who will also be so of the Council. The remaining members will be: a Magistrate and two judges elected by majority of votes of the two-thirds part of the Plenary of Magistrates; one designated by the Head of Government of the Federal District and [the] other two appointed by the Legislative Assembly. All of the Councilors must meet the requirements required to be a Magistrate and will be persons that have been distinguished by their professional and administrative capacity, honesty and honorability in the exercise of their activities, and in the case of those elected by the Plenary of Magistrates, must enjoy, as well, recognition for their professional merits in the judicial domain [ámbito]. They will remain five years in their office [cargo]; they will be replaced [sustituidos] in phased [escolonada] manner and may not be appointed for a new term [periodo]. The Council will designate the judges of the Federal District, in the terms that the provisions provide in matters of [the] judicial career. It will determine as well the number and specialization by matter of the Chambers of the tribunal and courts [juzgados] that compose the Judicial Power of the Federal District, in accordance with what the Council itself determines. III. The attributions and the norms of functioning of the Council of the Judicature will be determined, taking into account that provided by Article 100 of this Constitution; IV. The criteria that in accordance with which the organic law will establish the norms for the training [formación] and continuing education [actualización] of functionaries, as well as the development of the judicial career, will be established; V. The impediments and sanctions provided for in Article 101 of this Constitution will be applicable to the members of the Council of the Judicature, as well as to the magistrates and judges; VI. The Council of the Judicature will prepare [elaborará] the budget of the tribunals of justice in the entity and will remit it to the Head of Government of the Federal District for its inclusion in the bill of the budget of expenditures that is presented to the approval of the Legislative Assembly. FIFTH BASIS.- A Contentious-Administrative Tribunal [Tribunal de lo Contencioso Administrativo] will exist, that will have full autonomy to settle the disputes [controversias] between individuals and the authorities of the local Public Administration of the Federal District. The norms for its composition and attributions will be determined and these will be developed by its organic law. D. The Public Ministry in the Federal District will be presided over by a Procurator General of Justice [Procurador General de Justicia], who will be appointed in the terms that the Statute of Government specifies; this ordering [ordanamiento] and the respective organic law will determine its organization, competence and norms of functioning. E. That provided in fraction VII of Article 115 of this Constitution will be applicable to the Federal District concerning the President of the United Mexican States. The designation and removal of the public servant who has been given the charge [cargo] of the direct command of the public force will be made in the terms that the Statute of Government specifies. F. The Chamber of Senators of the Congress of the Union, or in its recesses, the Permanent Commission, may remove the Head of Government of the Federal District for grave causes that affect the relations with the Powers of the Union or the public order in the Federal District. The solicitation of removal must be presented by half of the members of the Chamber of Senators or, by the Permanent Commission, as the case may be. G. For the efficient coordination of the separate [distintas] local and municipal jurisdictions, between them, and of these with the Federation and the Federal District, in the planning and execution of actions in the surrounding urban zones [zonas conurbadas limítrofes] with the Federal District, in accordance with Article 115, fraction VI, of this Constitution, in matters of human settlements; protection of the environment; preservation and restoration of the ecological equilibrium; transport; potable water and drainage; collection, treatment and disposal of solid waste and public security, their respective governments may conclude [subscribir] agreements for the creation of metropolitan commissions in which they shall concur and participate in accordance with [con apego] their laws. The commissions will be constituted by joint agreement of the participants. In the instrument of their creation, the form of integration, structure and functions, will be determined. By way of the commissions [the following] shall be established: a) The bases for the conclusion [celebración] of agreements within [en el seno] the commissions, in accordance with which the geographic domains [ámbitos] and functions concerning the execution and operation of works, provision of public services or realization of actions in the matters indicated in the first paragraph of this part, are agreed to; b) The bases to establish, coordinated by the parts composing the commissions, the specific functions in the matters referred to them, as well as for the common support of the material, human and financial resources necessary for their operation; and c) Other rules for the joint and coordinated regulation of the development of the surrounding urban zones, provision of services and realization of actions, that the members [integrantes] of the commissions agree to. H. The prohibitions and limitations that this Constitution establishes for the States will be applicable to the authorities of the Federal District. TITLE SIX Of Work [Trabajo] and of Social Welfare [Previsión] Article 123 Every person has the right to dignified and socially useful work. To this effect, the creation of jobs [empleos] and the social organization of work shall be promoted, in accordance with the law. The Congress of the Union, without contravening the following bases, must adopt laws concerning work, which will govern: A. Among the workers, day laborers, domestic servants, artisans and in a general manner any contract of labor: I. The maximum duration of the workday will be eight hours. II. The maximum workday for night work will be seven hours. The following are prohibited: unhealthful or hazardous work, industrial night work, and any other work after ten [o'clock] at night, for those less than sixteen years old; III. The utilization of labor of those less than fourteen years [old] is prohibited. Those greater than this age and less than sixteen will have a maximum workday of six hours. IV. For each six days of work the worker [operario] must enjoy one day of rest, at the least. V. Women during pregnancy shall not perform [realizará] work that requires considerable effort and [which] signifies a danger to their health in relation to gestation; they will necessarily [forsozamente] enjoy a leave of absence [descanso] of six weeks prior to the approximate date established for the delivery and of six weeks subsequent to it, and they must receive their complete salary and retain [conservar] their job [empleo] and the rights that have been acquired by the work agreement [relación de trabajo]. In the time of nursing [lactancia] they will have two extra ordinary rest periods [descansos] per day, of half an hour each one, for the nursing of their children; VI. The minimum wage that the workers must receive will be general or professional [profesionales]. The first will govern in the geographic areas that are determined; the second will be applied in specified [determinadas] branches of economic activity or in special professions, occupations [oficios], or labors [trabajos]. The general minimum wages [salarios] must be sufficient to satisfy the normal necessities of the head of a family of the material, social and cultural order, and to provide for the obligatory education of his children. The minimum professional wages will be established considering, as well, the conditions of the specific [distintas] economic activities. The minimum wages shall be established by a national commission composed of representatives of the workers, of the employers [patrones], and of the government, which may be assisted [auxiliarse] by the special commissions of consultative character that are considered indispensable for the best performance of its functions. VII. For equal work equal wages must correspond, without taking sex or nationality into account. VIII. The minimum wage will be excepted from attachment [embargo], compensation [compensación], or deduction [descuento]. IX. Workers will have a right to a participation in the profits [utilidades] of enterprises, regulated in accordance with the following norms: a) A National Commission, composed of representatives of the workers, of the employers, and of the government, shall establish the percentage of profits that must be distributed among the workers; b) The National Commission shall undertake investigations and make the necessary and appropriate studies to take cognizance of the general conditions of the national economy. It shall also take into consideration the necessity to promote the industrial development of the Country, the reasonable interest that the capital must obtain, and the necessary reinvestment of capital; c) The same Commission may revise the percentage established when new studies and investigations justify it. d) The Law may except from the obligation of sharing profits for a specific and limited number of years, newly created enterprises, works of exploration and other activities when their nature or specific [particulares] conditions justify it; e) To determine the amount of the profits of each enterprise, the taxable income in accordance with the provisions of the Law of the Budget concerning Income [Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta] will be taken as a basis. The workers may present [formular] to the corresponding Office of the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit the objections that they may judge pertinent, adjusting them to the procedure that the law determines; f) The right of the workers to participate in the profits does not imply the faculty to intervene in the management [dirección] or administration of the enterprises. X. Wages must be paid precisely in money of legal tender [and] it will not be permitted to effectively make them in goods, or with promissory notes [vales], tokens [fichas] or any other representative signs that are intended to substitute for money. XI. When, by extraordinary circumstances the workday hours must be increased, 100% more than that established for the normal hours will be paid as wages for the exceeding time. In no case may overtime [trabajo extraordinaria] exceed three hours a day, or three consecutive times. Those less than sixteen years of age will not be admitted in this class of work. XII. Any agricultural, industrial, [or] mining enterprise or in any other class of work, will be obligated, according to what the regulatory laws determine, to furnish the workers comfortable and hygienic housing [habitación]. This obligation will be complied with through contributions that the enterprises make to a national fund for housing [vivienda] with the objective of constituting deposits in favor of their workers and to establish a system of financing that permits to be granted to them low-cost [barato] and sufficient credit so that they may acquire such housing in ownership. The enactment [expedición] of a law for the creation of an organ [organismo] composed of representatives of the Federal Government, of the workers, and of the employers that administers the resources of the national fund for housing, is considered of social utility. This law shall regulate the forms and procedures in accordance to which the workers may acquire in ownership the housing [habitaciones] previously mentioned. The enterprises [negociaciones] to which the first paragraph of this fraction refers, situated outside of the population centers [poblaciones] will be obligated to establish schools, infirmaries, and other services necessary to the community. Also, in these same work centers, when the population exceeds two hundred inhabitants, a space of land must be reserved, that will not be less than five thousand square meters, for the establishment of public markets, the construction of buildings [edificios] allocated to municipal services and recreation centers. The establishment of bars [expendios de bebidas embriagantes] and gambling parlors [casas de juego de azar] are prohibited in all work centers. XIII. The enterprises, whatever their activity may be, will be obligated to provide to their workers, training or instruction for the work. The regulatory law shall determine the systems, methods and procedures in accordance with which the employers must comply with this obligation. XIV. Employers [empresarios] will be responsible for accidents at work and for occupational [profesionales] infirmities of the workers, contracted because of, or in the exercise of, the profession or work that they do [ejecuten]; therefore, the employers [patronos] must pay the corresponding indemnity, accordingly as it results as a consequence in the death or simply the temporary or permanent incapacity of the worker, in accordance with what the laws determine. This responsibility will exist [subsistará] even in the case where the employer contracts for the work through an intermediary. XV. The employer [patrón] will be obligated to observe, in accordance with the nature of their enterprise, the legal precepts concerning hygiene and safety in the installations of their establishments, and to adopt the measures adequate to prevent accidents in the use of machines, instruments, and materials of work, as well as to organize these in such manner, that the greater guarantee for the health and life of the workers results, and of the unborn [producto de la concepción], when it concerns pregnant women. The laws will provide [contendrán], to this effect, the sanctions that proceed in each case; XVI. Both the workers [obreros] and the employers [empresarios] will have right of organization [coaligarse] in defense of their respective interests, forming unions, professional associations, etc. XVII. The laws will recognize strikes and lockouts, as a right of the workers and of the employers [patronos]. XVIII. The strikes will be licit when they have as [their] objective to obtain equilibrium between the various factors of production, harmonizing the rights of labor with those of capital. In the public services it will be obligatory for the workers to give notice [aviso], ten days in advance, to the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration [Junta de Conciliación y Arbitraje] of the date specified for the suspension of work. The strikes will be considered illicit only when the majority of the strikers engage in [ejerciera] violent acts against persons or properties, or in the case of war, when the these belong to the establishments or services that are dependent of the government. XIX. The lockouts will be licit only when surplus [exceso] of production makes it necessary to suspend the work to maintain prices at a limit in relation to costs [costeable], with prior approval of the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration. XX. The differences or the disputes [conflictos] between capital and labor [trabajo], will be subject to the decisions of a Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, composed [formada] of an equal number of representatives of the workers [obreros] and of the employers [patronos], and one of the Government. XXI. If the employer [patrono] refuses to submit their differences to arbitration or to accept the decision [laudo] issued by the Board, the labor contract will be considered as terminated and they shall be obligated to indemnify the worker [obrero] with the amount of three months of wages, as well as any responsibility that results from the dispute. This provision will not be applicable in the cases of the actions provided for [consignadas] in the following fraction. If the refusal is made by the workers [trabajadores], the labor contract will be considered terminated. XXII. The employer [patrono] who dismisses a worker [obrero] without justified cause or because he has entered into an association or union, or for having taken part in a licit strike, will be obligated, by choice [elección] of the worker [trabajador], to fulfill the contract or to indemnify him to the amount of three months of wages. The law will determine those cases in which the employer may be exempted from the obligation to fulfill the contract, by the payment of an indemnity. He shall equally have the obligation to indemnify the worker to the amount of three months of wages when the worker leaves [retire] service for lack of honesty of the employer or because of ill treatment received from him, either to his own person or to that of his wife, parents, children, or brothers or sisters. The employer may not exempt himself [eximirse] of this responsibility, when the ill treatments are attributable to his dependents [dependientes] or family members that act [obren] with his consent or with tolerance by him. XXIII. The credits in favor of workers [trabajadores] for wages or salary earned in the last year, and for indemnities, will have preference over any others in the cases of receivership [concurso] or of bankruptcy [quiebra]. XXIV. Concerning the debts contracted by the workers [trabajadores] in favor of their employers [patronos], of their associates, family members, or dependents, the same worker alone will be responsible and in no case and for no motive may it be required from the members of his family, nor will these debts be demandable [exigibles] for an amount [cantidad] exceeding the wage of the worker of one month. XXV. The services of job placement [colocación] for workers [trabajadores] will be gratuitous for them, whether it is effected by municipal offices, labor exchanges [bolsas de trabajo], or any other official or private [particular] institution. For provision of this service, the demand for work will be taken into account and, conditions being equal, those representing the sole source of income for their family will have priority. XXVI. Every labor contract celebrated between a Mexican and a foreign employer [empresario], must be notarized [legalizado] by the competent municipal authority and countersigned by the consul of the Nation to which the worker intends to travel [ir], considering that, in addition to the ordinary clauses, it will clearly specify that the expenses of repatriation will be the responsibility [cargo] of the contracting employer. XXVII. [The following] will be null and non-obligatory conditions for the contracting parties, even if expressed in the contract: a) Those that stipulate an inhuman workday by [being] obviously excessive, considering the kind [indole] of the work. b) Those that establish wages that are not remunerative in the judgment of the Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration. c) Those that stipulate a time [plazo] greater than one week for the payment of the daily wage [jornal]. d) Those that specify a place of recreation, an inn, café, tavern, bar, or store, to effect the payment of wages, when it does not concern the employees of such establishments. e) Those that involve the direct or indirect obligation to acquire consumer goods in specified stores or places. f) Those permitting the retention of wages considered as a fine [multo]. g) Those that constitute a renunciation [renumncia] made by the worker [obrero] of the indemnifications to which they have right for work accidents, and or occupational infirmities, or damages occasioned by the non-fulfillment of the contract or by being discharged from the work [despedirsele de la obra]. h) All the other stipulations that imply the renunciation of any right consecrated to the favor of the worker [obrero] in the laws of protection and assistance for the workers. XVIII. The laws shall determine the assets that constitute the patrimony of the family, the assets that will be inalienable, [that] may not be subject to encumbrances [gravámenes reales] or attachments [embargos], and that will be transferable by titles of inheritance with simplification of the formalities of the proceedings of succession [juicios sucesorios]. XXIX. The Law of Social Security [Ley del Seguro Social] is of public utility, and it will include insurance [seguros] for disability, old age, life, involuntary unemployment, illness and accidents, childcare and any other aimed at the protection and well being of the workers [trabajadores], peasants [campesinos], non-salaried and other social sectors, and their families. XXX. Cooperative societies for the construction of low-cost and hygienic houses, allocated to be acquired in ownership, by the workers in specific times [plazos], will likewise be considered of social utility. XXXI. The application of the labor laws corresponds to the authorities of the States, in their respective jurisdictions, but it is of the exclusive competence of the federal authorities in the matters concerning: a) The following industrial branches [ramas] and services: 1. Textile; 2. Electrical; 3. Cinematographic; 4. Rubber; 5. Sugar; 6. Mining; 7. Metallurgical and steel [siderúrgica], including the exploitation of basic minerals, the processing and the smelting of them, as well as the obtaining [obtención] of iron and steel [acero] in all their forms and alloys and the laminated products of them; 8. Hydrocarbons; 9. Petrochemical; 10. Cement; 11. Lime; 12. Automotive, including mechanical and electrical auto parts; 13. Chemical, including pharmaceutical chemistry and medicines; 14. Cellulose and paper; 15. Vegetable oils and fats; 16. Food production, concerning [abarcando] exclusively the fabrication of those that are packed, canned or bottled, or that are allocated to this; 17. Production [elaboradora] of beverages that are bottled or canned or allocated to this; 18. Railroads; 19. Basic timber, that includes sawmill production and the fabrication of plywood or wood by-products [aglutinados]; 20. Glass, exclusively concerning the fabrication of flat, smooth or carved glass, or of glass containers; and 21. Tobacco, that includes the extraction [beneficio] or fabrication of tobacco products; 22. Banking and credit services. b) The following enterprises: 1. Those that are administered in direct or in decentralized form by the Federal Government; 2. Those that act [actúen] by virtue of a Federal contract or concession, and the industries that are connected to them; and 3. Those that execute works in federal zones or that are under federal jurisdiction, in territorial waters or those included in the exclusive economic zone of the Nation. The following will also be of the exclusive competence of the federal authorities: the application of the provisions of labor in the matters concerning conflicts that affect two or more Federative Entities; collective contracts that have been declared obligatory in more than one Federative Entity, employer obligations in matters of education, in the terms of Law; and respecting the obligations of the employers [patrones] in matters of instruction [capacitación] and of training [adiestramiento] of their workers [trabajadores] as well as safety and health in the work centers, for which, the federal authorities will have the assistance of the state [authorities], when it concerns the branches or activities of local jurisdiction, in the terms of the corresponding regulatory law. B. Between the Powers of the Union, the Government of the Federal District and their workers: I. The maximum work day [jornada diaria] of day and night work will be of eight and seven hours respectively. Those that exceed it will be overtime [extraordinarias] and will be paid at one hundred percent greater than the remuneration established for ordinary service. In no case may overtime exceed three hours a day or three consecutive times [veces]; II. For each six days of work, a worker will enjoy [disfrutará] one day of rest, at the least, with enjoyment [goce] of full wages; III. The workers will enjoy vacations that will not be less than twenty days a year; IV. The wages will be established in the respective budgets without their amount being diminished during the effectiveness [vigencia] of them, subject to that provided in Article 127 of this Constitution and in the law. In no case may the wages be less than the minimum for workers in general in the Federal District and in the Entities of the Republic. V. For equal work equal wages must correspond, without taking sex into account; VI. Withholdings [retenciones], discounts, deductions, or attachments from wages, may be made only in those cases provided for in the laws; VII. The appointment of personnel shall be made through systems which permit appreciation of the knowledge [conocimientos] and aptitudes of applicants. The State shall organize schools of Public Administration; VIII. The workers will enjoy the rights of a classification ladder [escalafón] with the objective that promotions are granted as a function of knowledge, aptitudes, and seniority. Conditions being equal, those representing the sole source of income in their family will have priority; IX. The workers may only be suspended or discharged for justified cause, in the terms that the law establishes. In case of unjustifiable discharge they have the right to opt for reinstatement in their work or to the corresponding indemnity, with prior legal proceedings. In the case of elimination [supresión] of positions [plazas], the workers affected will have right to be granted another equivalent to the [one] eliminated or to the indemnity of law; X. The workers will have the right to associate for the protection of their common interests. They may, also, make use of the right to strike with prior compliance with the requirements that the law determines, concerning different [varias] dependencies of the Public Powers, when the rights that this Article consecrates are violated in a general and systematic manner; XI. Social security [seguridad social] shall be organized in accordance with the following minimum bases: a) It shall cover occupational [profesionales] accidents and infirmities; the non-occupational infirmities and maternity; and retirement, disability, old age, and death. b) In case of accident or infirmity, the right to work will be retained [conservará] for the time [tiempo] that the law determines. c) Women during pregnancy shall not perform [realizará] work that requires considerable effort and that signifies a danger to their health in relation to gestation; they will necessarily [forsozamente] enjoy a leave of absence [descanso] of six weeks prior to the approximate date established for the delivery and of six weeks subsequent to it, and they must receive their complete salary and retain [conservar] their job [empleo] and the rights that have been acquired by the work agreement [relación de trabajo]. In the time of nursing [lactancia] they will have two extra ordinary rest periods [descansos] per day, of half an hour each one, for the nursing of their children In addition, they will enjoy medical and obstetrical assistance, medicines, aids during lactation, and infant care services. d) The families of the workers [trabajadores] will have the right to medical assistance and medicines, in those cases and in the proportion that the law determines. e) Centers for vacations and recuperation, as well as economical stores for [tiendas] the benefit of the workers [trabajadores] and their families, shall be established. f) Low-cost housing shall be allotted to the workers [trabajadores], for rent or sale, in accordance with the programs previously approved. Additionally, the State, through the contributions it makes, shall establish a national fund for housing with the objective of constituting deposits in favor of those workers [trabajadores] and to establish a system of financing that permits the granting to them of low-cost and sufficient credit [crédito] by which they may acquire in ownership comfortable and hygienic homes, or else to construct them, repair them, improve them or to pay debts [pasivos] acquired through such measures [conceptos]. The contributions that are made to this fund will be paid [enteradas] to the organ [organismo] given the charge of social security, regulating in its Law and in those which correspond, the form and the procedure according to which the cited fund will be administered and the respective loans [créditos] will be granted and will be awarded [adjudicarán]; XII. Individual, collective, and inter-union disputes will be submitted to a Federal Tribunal of Conciliation and Arbitration composed according to that provided for in the regulatory law. The disputes between the Judicial Power of the Federation and its employees [servidores] will be resolved by the Council of the Federal Judicature; those that arise between the Supreme Court of Justice and its employees [empleados] will be resolved by it [esta última]. XIII. The military [personnel], naval [personnel], personnel of the foreign service, agents of the Public Ministry, experts and members of the police institutions, will be governed by their own laws. The agents of the Public Ministry, the experts and the members of the police institutions of the Federation, of the Federal District, the States and the Municipalities, may be dismissed from their offices [cargos] if they do not comply with the requirements that the laws in force at the moment of the act specify for [job] security [permanecer] in these institutions, or be removed for incurring responsibility in the performance of their functions. If the judicial authority decides [resolviere] that the dismissal [separación], removal [remoción], discharge [baja], cessation [cese] or any other form of termination is unjustified, the State will only be obligated to pay the indemnity and other benefits [prestaciones] to which they have right; without, and in no case, proceeding to their return [reincorporación] to service, whatever the result may be of the trial or means of defense that has been promoted. The authorities of the federal [order], state [order], [order] of the Federal District and municipal order, with the objective to support [propiciar] the strengthening of the system of social security of the personnel of the Public Ministry, of the police bodies [corporaciones] and of the expert services, of their families and dependents, shall orchestrate [instrumentarán] complementary systems of social security. The State shall allocate to the members of the Army, Air Force and Navy in active service, the loans to which paragraph f) of fraction IX of this Part refers, in similar terms and by way of the organ [organismo] given the charge of social security of those components of these institutions. XIII bis. The central bank and the entities of the Federal Public Administration that form part of the Mexican banking system shall govern labor relations with their employees [trabajadores] by that provided in this Part. XIV. The law shall determine those offices [cargos] that will be considered of confidence [de confianza]. The persons who perform them will enjoy the measures of protection of wages and enjoy the benefits of social security. TITLE SEVEN General Provisions [Prevenciones] Article 124 The faculties that are not expressly conceded by this Constitution to the federal functionaries are understood as reserved to the States. Article 125 No individual may perform at the same time two federal offices [cargos] of popular election, or one of the Federation and another of a State that is also of election; but the appointee [nombrado] may elect [from] between both that which they will perform. Article 126 No payment whatever may be made that is not included in the Budget or determined by a subsequent law. Article 127 The public servants of the Federation, of the States, of the Federal District and of the municipalities, of their entities and dependencies, as well as of their parastatal and para-municipal administrations, public trusts [fideicomisios], autonomous institutions and organs [organismos], and any other public entity [ente], will receive an adequate and non-renounceable remuneration for the performance of their function, employment [empleo], office [cargo] or commission, that must be proportional to their responsibilities. This remuneration will be determined annually and equitably in the corresponding budgets of expenditures, under the following bases: I. Any payment [percepción] in money [effectivo] or in kind, including per diem [dictas], annual bonuses [aguinaldos], gratuities [gratificaciones], rewards [premios], awards [recompensas], bonds [bonos], incentives [estimulos], commissions, compensations [compensaciones] and any other, with the exception of the funds [apoyos] and the expenses [gastos] subject to verification [comprobación] that are appropriate to the carry out [desarollo] the work and the travel expenses in official activities, will be considered remuneration or compensation [retribución]. II. No public servant may receive remuneration, in terms of the previous fraction, by the performance of their function, employment, office or commission, greater than that established for the President of the Republic in the corresponding budget. III. No public servant may have a remuneration equal to or greater than that of their hierarchic superior; except that the excess is consequential to their performance of different [varios] public employments [empleos], [and] their remuneration is a product of the general conditions of work, derived from a qualified technical work [trabajo] or for specialization in their function; the sum of these compensations may not exceed half the remuneration established for the President of the Republic in the corresponding budget. IV. Retirement [income], pension or retirement assets [haberes de retiro], payments [liquidaciones] for services rendered, as well as any loans or credits, except those that have been assigned by the law, legislative decrees, collective contract or general conditions of work, will not be conceded nor will be covered. The services of security that the public servant requires by reason of the office [cargo] performed, are excluded. V. The remunerations and tabulations of them will be public, and must specify and differentiate the total of the fixed and variable elements whether in money or in kind. VI. The Congress of the Union, the Legislatures of the States and the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, in the domain [ámbito] of their competences, will adopt [expedirán] the laws to make effective the contents of this Article and the relative constitutional provisions, and to criminally and administratively sanction the conduct that implies the non-compliance with, or the avoidance [elusió] by fabrication of[,] that established in this Article. Article 128 Every public functionary, without any exception, before taking possession of their responsibility [encargo], will take an oath to guard the Constitution and the laws that emanate from it. Article 129 In time of peace, no military authority may exercise more functions than those that have exact connection with the military discipline. There shall only be fixed and permanent Military Commands in the bases [castillos], forts, and warehouses that are immediately dependent on the Government of the Union; or in the encampments, barracks or arsenals, outside of population centers, that are established for the stationing of troops. Article 130 The historical principle of the separation of the State and the churches orients the norms contained in this Article. The churches and other religious groups will be subject to the law. It corresponds exclusively to the Congress of the Union to legislate in matters of public beliefs [culto] and of churches and religious groups. The respective regulatory law, which will be of public order, shall develop and specify [concretará] the following provisions: a) The churches and religious groups will have juridical personality as religious associations once they obtain their corresponding registration. The law shall regulate these associations and shall determine the conditions and requirements for the constitutive registration of them. b) The authorities shall not intervene in the internal life of the religious associations; c) Mexicans may exercise the ministry of any belief. Mexicans as well as foreigners must, for this, satisfy the requirements that the law specifies; d) In the terms of the regulatory law, the ministers of beliefs may not perform public offices [cargos]. As citizens, they have the right to vote, but not to be voted for. Those who have left [dejado] their ministries of beliefs in advance and in the form that the law establishes, may be voted for. e) The ministers may not associate for political purposes or to proselytize in favor of or against any candidate, political party or association whatever. Nor may they in public meeting, in acts of worship or of religious propaganda, or in publications of religious character, oppose the laws of the country or its institutions, or offend, in any form[,] the patriotic symbols. The formation of any type of political groupings is strictly prohibited, whose title contains any word or indication whatever that relates to any religious confession. Meetings of political character may not be held in churches [templos]. The simple oath [promesa] to tell the truth and to fulfill the obligations that one contracts, subjects the [person] making them, in case of failure [falta] to do so, to the penalties [that] the law establishes for that reason. The ministers of beliefs, their ascendants, descendants, siblings and spouses, as well as the religious associations to which they belong, shall be incapable to inherit by testament, from those persons to whom their own ministries have directed themselves or helped spiritually and [who] have kinship [parentesco] within the fourth degree. Acts of civil status of persons are of the exclusive competence of the administrative authorities in the terms that the laws establish, and have the force and validity these attribute to them. The federal authorities, of the states and of the municipalities will have in this matter the faculties and responsibilities that the law determines. Article 131 To levy duties [gravar] on goods [mercancias] that are imported or exported, or that pass in transit through the national territory, is an exclusive [privativa] faculty of the Federation, as well as to regulate at all times and even to prohibit, for motives of security or of policing, the circulation in the interior of the Republic of all classes of goods [efectos], whatever their origin [procedencia]; but without the Federation itself being able to establish, or to adopt [dictar], in the Federal District, those taxes [impuestos] and laws that fractions VI and VII of Article 117 specify [expresan]. The Executive may be enabled [facultado] by the Congress of the Union to augment, to diminish, or to abolish rates [cuotas] of tariffs on importation and exportation, adopted [expedidas] by the Congress itself, and to create others; likewise to restrict and to prohibit the importation, the exportation, and the transit of products, articles, and goods [efectos], when it deems it urgent, for the objective of regulating foreign commerce, the economy of the country, the stability of national production, or to realize any other purpose [propósito] for benefit of the country. The Executive itself[,] when sending to the Congress the Fiscal Budget each year, shall submit to its approval the use that has been made of this conceded faculty. Article 132 The forts, the barracks, the storage warehouses, and other real assets allocated by the Government of the Union to the public service or to the common use, will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Powers in the terms that the law establishes that shall be adopted [expedirá] by the Congress of the Union; but, so that those that are successively acquired within the territory of any State may equally be so, the consent of the respective legislature will be necessary. Article 133 This Constitution, the laws of the Congress of the Union that emanate from it, and all the Treaties that are in accord with them, celebrated and that are celebrated by the President of the Republic, with the approval of the Senate, will be the Supreme Law of all of the Union. The judges of each State shall be bound to the said Constitution, laws, and treaties, regardless of provisions to the contrary that may be [haber] in the constitutions or laws of the States. Article 134 The economic resources at the disposal of the Federal Government, the states, the municipalities, the Federal District and the political-administrative organs of their territorial demarcations, shall be administered with efficiency, efficacy, economy, transparency and honesty to satisfy the objectives to which they were allocated. The results of the exercise of such resources will be evaluated by technical instances that, respectively, the Federation, the States and the Federal District establish, with the objective to favor that the economic resources are allocated in the respective budgets in the terms of the previous paragraph. The previous is, without diminishment of that provided in Articles 74, fraction VI, and 79. The acquisitions, leases and alienations of any type of assets, rendering of services of any nature and the contracting for realization of work, shall be awarded or arise [llevarán] by way of public bidding [licitaciones] through public offering [convocatoria], so that reliable [solventes] proposals under seal are presented freely, which will be opened publicly, with the objective to assure to the State the best conditions possible [disponibles] in terms of price, quality, financing, opportunity and other pertinent circumstances. When the bidding mentioned in the preceding paragraph is not suitable [idóneas] to assure these conditions, the laws shall establish the bases, procedures, rules, requirements and other elements to accredit economy, efficacy, efficiency, impartiality and honesty that assure the best conditions for the State. The management of federal economic resources by the States, the Municipalities, the Federal District and the political-administrative organs of their territorial demarcations, will be subject to the bases of this Article, and to the regulatory laws. The evaluation concerning the exercise of such resources will be made by the technical instances of the federative entities to which the second paragraph of this Article refers. The public servants will be responsible for compliance with these bases in the terms of Title Four of this Constitution. The public servants of the Federation, the States and the Municipalities, as well as the Federal District and their delegations, at all times have the obligation to apply with impartiality the public resources that are under their responsibility [responsibilidad], without influencing the equity of the competence between those political divisions [partidos]. Propaganda, under any modality of social communication, disseminated [difundan] as such, by the public powers, the autonomous organs, the dependencies and entities of the public administration and any other entity of the three orders [órdenes] of government, must have institutional character and informational, educational or social orientation objectives. In no case may this propaganda include names, images, voices or symbols that imply personalized promotion of any public servant. The laws, in their respective domains [ámbitos] of application, will guarantee the strict compliance with that provided in the preceding two paragraphs, including the regime of sanctions which has application [haya lugar]. TITLE EIGHT Of the Reforms of the Constitution Article 135 This Constitution may be added to or reformed. In order that the additions or reforms will become a part of it, it is required that the Congress of the Union, by the vote of the two-thirds part of the individuals present, agree to the reforms or additions, and that these are approved by the majority of the legislatures of the States. The Congress of the Union or the Permanent Commission as the case may be, will make the count of the votes of the Legislatures and the declaration of those additions or reforms that have been adopted. TITLE NINE Of the Inviolability of the Constitution Article 136 The Constitution will not lose its force and effect, even when its observance is interrupted by any rebellion. In case that by any public disorder [tastorno], a government contrary to the principles that it sanctions is established, as soon as the people recover their liberty, its observance will be reestablished, and in accordance with it and the laws that have been adopted [expedido] by virtue of it, those who have figured in the government emanating from the rebellion, as well as those who have cooperated with it, will be tried [juzgados]. TRANSITORY ARTICLES Article First This Constitution will be published at once and to guard it and have it guarded throughout the Republic will be sworn with the greatest solemnity; but with the exception of the provisions concerning the elections of the Supreme Federal Powers and Powers of the States, which enter into force at once, it will not commence to govern until the 1st day of May of 1917, on which date the Constitutional Congress must be solemnly installed and the citizen elected as a result in the next elections will take the oath of law to exercise the office [cargo] of President of the Republic. In the elections that must be convoked, in accordance with the following Article, fraction V of Article 82 will not govern, nor will it be an impediment to become a Deputy or Senator to be in active service in the Army, provided that a person does not hold command of forces in the respective electoral district; neither will the Secretaries and Under-Secretaries of State be impeded from being elected to the next Congress of the Union, provided that they are definitely separated from their posts [puestos] on the day that the respective convocation is adopted [expedida]. Article Second Immediately [on] this Constitution is published, the [person] given the charge [encargado] of the Executive Power of the Nation, will convoke elections of the Federal Powers, acting that this is effected in such manner that the Congress may be constituted in opportune time, with the objective that, the count [computo] of the votes emitted in the presidential elections having been made, the person who is designated as President of the Republic may be declared, to the effect that the provisions [lo dispuesto] in the previous Article may be complied with. Article Third The next constitutional term [período] will commence to run, for the Deputies and Senators, from the 1st September last past, and for the President of the Republic, from the 1st of December, 1916. Article Fourth The Senators that in the next elections bear [llevaren] an even number, will only remain two years on the exercise of their responsibility [encargo], so that the Chamber of Senators may be renewed in successive ones, by half every two years. Article Fifth The Congress of the Union will elect the Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, in the next month of May so that that this high Body [Cuerpo] may be solemnly installed on the 1st of June. In these elections Article 96 will not govern in that concerning the proposals of candidates by the local Legislatures; but those appointed will only be so for the first term [período] of two years that Article 94 establishes. Article Sixth The Congress of the Union will have an extraordinary period [período] of sessions that will commence the 15th of April of 1917, to constitute itself [erigirse] in Electoral College, to make the count of votes and to qualify the elections of President of the Republic, and make the respective declaration; and additionally, to adopt [expedir] the Organic Law of the Circuit Tribunals and District Tribunals, and the Organic Law of the Tribunals of the Federal District and Territories, with the objective that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation immediately makes the appointments of Circuit Magistrates and District Judges, and that this Congress of the Union [makes] the elections of magistrates, and Judges of First Instance of the Federal District and Territories; it will also adopt [expedirá] all laws that the Executive Power of the Nation advices [consultare]. The Circuit Magistrates and District Judges, and the Magistrates and Judges of the Federal District and Territories, must take possession of their office [cargo] before the 1st of July of 1917, those persons who had been appointed by the Encargado of the Executive Power of the Nation [Person entrusted with the Executive Power of the Nation] then ceasing. Article Seventh For this time [vez], the count of the votes for Senators will be made by the Counting Board [Junta Computadora] of the First Electoral District in each State or the Federal District, that will be formed for the counting of the votes of deputies, the corresponding credentials being issued [expidiéndose] by this board to the senators elected. Article Eighth The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, will resolve the amparos that may be pending, subject to the laws actually in force. Article Ninth The C. First Head [Jefe] of the Constitutionalist Army, Encargado of the Executive Power of the Union, is empowered to enact [expedir] the electoral law, in accordance with which, this time, the elections to compose the Powers of the Union, must be celebrated. Article Tenth Those persons who have figured in the government emanating from the rebellion, against the legitimate one of the Republic, or who cooperated with it, fighting subsequently with arms in hand, or serving employments or offices of the factions that have attacked the Constitutionalist Government, will be tried by the laws in force, unless they have been pardoned [indultados] by it. Article Eleventh Until the Congress of the Union and those of the States legislate concerning the agrarian and labor [obrero] problems, the bases established by this Constitution for these laws, will be put into force in all of the Republic. Article Twelfth The Mexicans who have fought [militado] in the Constitutionalist Army, the children and widows of them, and the other persons who have rendered services to the cause of the Revolution or to the Public Instruction, will have preference for the acquisition of parcels [fracciones] of land to which Article 27 refers and right to the discounts that the law specifies. Article Thirteenth. The debts that by reason of labor the workers [trabajadores] have contracted, up to the date of this Constitution, with the employers [patronos], their families or intermediaries, are extinguished of plain right. Article Fourteenth The Secretariat of Justice is abolished. Article Fifteenth The C. Encargado of the Executive Power of the Union is empowered to enact [expedir] the law of civil responsibility applicable to the authors, accomplices, and accessories [encubridores] of the crimes committed against the constitutional order in the month of February of 1913 and against the Constitutionalist Government. Article Sixteenth The Constitutionalist Congress in the ordinary period of its sessions, that will commence on the 1st of September of this year, shall adopt [expedirá] all organic laws of the Constitution that have not already been adopted in the extraordinary period to which the 6th Transitory Article refers, and will give preference to the laws concerning Individual Guarantees, and [to] Articles 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 107 and the final part of Article 111 of this Constitution. Article Seventeenth The Temples and other assets that, in accordance with fraction II of Article 27 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States that is reformed by this Decree, are the property of the Nation, and will maintain their current juridical situation.