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(4.) Not to alienate to a foreign Power any portion of their territory, nor to ask its protection. The States will not establish or cultivate political relations with other nations.

(5.) Not to join themselves to nor to ally themselves with any other nation, nor to separate themselves from Venezuela to the diminution of the national existence or territory of the latter.

(6.) To cede to the nation, for the Federal district, unpopulated land not exceeding 100 square kilom. in extent, upon which will be built the capital city of the Union. For the present the said district shall be the city of Carácas, with its parishes of El Recreo, El Valle, La Vega, Antimano, Macarao, and Macuto.

(7.) To cede to the Government of the nation the territory necessary for the erection of fortresses, magazines, workshops, and other buildings indispensable to the general administration, which shall exercise ownership over the ceded territory subject to the restrictions imposed by Article 131 of this Constitution.

(8.) To relinquish to the Government of the Union the free administration of the Colon and Amazonas territories. The Delta and Goagira territories shall be reincorporated with the States to which they belonged prior to their being erected into territories.

(9.) To reserve to the General Power all jurisdiction, legislative and executive, in all that relates to maritime, coasting, and river navigation, as well as the national roads. By the latter shall be understood those which cross the frontiers of a State and lead into another State or into the Federal district.

(10.) Not to restrict by taxation the navigation of the rivers and other navigable waters which have not required artificial canalization.

(11.) Not to subject to taxation, before being offered for cosumption, the products or articles that have already been taxed for national purposes or that have been exempted from such taxation by

law.

(12.) Not to impose contributions upon cattle, goods, or any kind of merchandize in transit for another State.

(13.) Not to prohibit the consumption of cattle, goods, and other produce of other States, nor to burden such consumption with taxes greater or less than those paid by local produce.

(14.) Not to establish custom-houses, for the collection of taxes upon imports, other than those possessed by the nation.

(15.) To reserve to each State the right to dispose of its natural products.

(16.) To cede to the Government of the Union the administra tion of mines, salt works, and waste lands in order that the first two may be regulated by a uniform and beneficial system of working, and that the last shall be applied, preferentially, to the development of national industries.

(17.) To respect the property, arsenals, and fortresses of the nation.

(18.) To execute and cause to be executed and enforced the Constitution and Laws of the Union and the Decrees and Orders issued by the National Powers in the exercise of their lawful attributes and faculties.

(19.) To fully attest and cause to be carried into effect the public acts and judicial proceedings of other States.

(20.) To organize their Tribunals and Courts of Law for the complete administration of justice, and to maintain for all a similar substantive, civil, commercial, and penal code, and similar laws regulating civil and criminal procedure.

(21.) To send to Congress, through the Legislative Assembly, the nomination of principal and deputy members of the High Federal Court, and to elect members for the Court of Cassation.

(22.) To submit to the decisious of the Court of Cassation as the Supreme Tribunal of the States.

(23.) To include extradition as a political principle in their respective Constitutions.

(24.) To establish in popular elections direct and secret suffrage. (25.) To establish free and compulsory primary education, and free instruction in the arts and sciences.

(26.) To reserve to the powers of the Union the right to dictate the Code of National Public Instruction.

(27.) To provide the unarmed contingent, in the proper proportions, for the formation of the national public force in time of peace, in accordance with the annual Decree of the National Congress.

(28.) Not to permit in the States the enlistment or levy of forces which have or may have for their object an attack upon the liberty or independence, or a disturbance of public order of the nation, of other States, or of other countries.

(29.) Not to declare or make war in any case, one State against another, and to preserve strict neutrality in all conflicts which may arise between other States.

(30.) To refer and submit to the decision of the High Federal Court all differences which may arise between two or more States when they are unable by themselves, and by peaceful means, to arrive at an understanding. If, for any reason, in a case for settlement by arbitration they should not appoint an Arbitrator to whose decision they agree to defer, the decision shall rest with the High Federal Court.

(31.) To recognize the competency of the Court of Cassation for the trial of persons exercising superior executive authority in the States who may be accused of treason or violation of the Constitution and the laws of the Union. This principle shall

be included in the Constitutions of the States.

The procedure in these cases shall be in conformity with that established by the general laws, and shall be decided in accordance with the same.

(32.) To receive as the revenue of the States:—

(a.) The total produced by the transit tax levied in the customhouses of the Republic;

(b.) The total produce of the mines, unoccupied lands, and salt works administered by the Federal Power.

(33.) To distribute their income periodically among all the States of the Federation in proportion to the population of each

(34.) If any of the taxes, to which Article 32 refers, should be abolished or reduced by law, it shall be the duty of the Congress to establish the means by which such deficit shall be made good to the States.

(35.) To keep at a distance from the frontiers such persons as. for political motives, have sought asylum in one State, whenever the interested State shall so request.

(36.) Not to coin money or issue paper currency, nor to legalize anything for the payment of debts except money of gold or silver.

TITLE IV.-The Rights of Venezuelans.

14. The nation guarantees to Venezuelans the following effective rights :

(1.) Inviolability of life, capital punishment being abolished. whatever law may have established the same.

(2.) Property, with all its powers, rights, and privileges. It will be subject only to the imports established by the Legislative authority, and may be seized only for works of public utility and after compensation has been judicially awarded.

(3.) Inviolability of correspondence and other private papers which may not be interfered with except under the order of the competent judicial authority and the formalities established by law domestic and private secrecy shall, however, be always guarded.

(4.) Inviolability of domicile, which may not be entered except to prevent the perpetration of an offence, and even then must be carried out in conformity with the law.

(5.) Personal liberty, and therefore:

(i.) Forced recruiting for military service is abolished ;

(i.) Slavery is proscribed for ever;

(iii.) Slaves who set foot on Venezuelan territory are free; (iv.) All have the right to do or execute anything not to the detriment of another;

(v.) No one is obliged to do that which is not ordered by law,

nor hindered from doing that which is not forbidden by the

same.

(6.) The free expression of thought by word or through the press. In cases of slander or injury, the aggrieved person may take the necessary proceedings before the competent Courts of Justice in accordance with the common law, but the defendant may not be detained or confined in any case except after conviction and sentence by a competent Tribunal.

(7.) Freedom to travel without a passport, of changing domicile, legal formalities being duly observed, and of absenting oneself from and returning to the Republic, taking away and bringing back one's property and effects.

(8.) Freedom of industry, and, therefore, proprietorship in inventions and discoveries. Owners of such shall by law be granted temporary privileges, and shall be compensated in the event of their agreeing to make public their inventions.

(9.) Liberty of meeting and association in public or private without arms: the authorities shall not exercise any act of inspection or interference.

(10.) Right of petition and the power of obtaining redress. The matter may be brought before any official, authority, or corporation. Should the petition be made by more than one individual, the first five shall be answerable for the authenticity of the signatures, and all shall be responsible for the truth of the facts.

(11.) Freedom of suffrage without any other restriction than being below the age of 21 years, or the interdiction declared by Executive sentence by the competent Courts.

(12.) Liberty of instruction, which shall be protected to its fullest extent. The public authority shall be obliged to establish free education, both primary and in the arts and sciences.

(13.) Religious liberty.

(14.) Individual security, and by that

(i.) No Venezuelan may be imprisoned or forcibly arrested for debts which do not result from fraud or crime;

(i.) Nor may be compelled to receive in his house troops, whether billeted or quartered;

(iii.) Nor shall he be tried by special Tribunals or Commissions, but by the usual Judges and by virtue of laws enacted previous to the commission of the offence or action to be tried;

(iv.) Nor shall he be imprisoned or arrested except after a summary inquiry showing that he has committed a punishable offence, and upon a written warrant of the official ordering the arrest, the motive for the same being stated; exception shall, however, be made when the individual is taken in the act, but even in that case he shall not be put in prison except by order of the

judicial authorities, nor shall those arrested by the police be detained more than three days without being either set at liberty or carried before the competent Judge;

(v.) He shall not be cut off from communicating with his fellowcitizens for any reason or pretext;

(vi.) He shall not be compelled to make oath nor to submit to cross-examination in a criminal case implicating either himself, his relations within the fourth degree of consanguinity or the second of affinity, or his wife;

(vii.) Nor shall he be condemned to suffer any penalty in a criminal matter except after having been legally heard;

(viii.) Nor shall he be kept in prison if the causes for the same have been removed;

(ix.) Nor sentenced to penal servitude for more than ten years;

(x.) Nor to be deprived of his liberty for political reasons except upon previous summary investigation, the result of which shall prove that he has been implicated in public disturbances, and show that he is inimical to the restoration of order. In such cases he shall not be immured in the same prison as criminals confined for common offences, nor shall he be detained once order has been re-established;

(xi.) He shall not be tried a second time for the same offence, nor condemned to suffer any kind of torture;

(xii.) All infamous punishments remain abolished by whatever law they may have been established.

(15.) Equality, in virtue of which

(i.) All shall be tried by the same laws, and shall be subject to equal duties, obligations, and contributions;

(ii.) There shall not be granted titles of nobility, honours, or hereditary distinctious, or employments or offices the salary or emoluments of which are in excess of the period of service;

(iii.) Officials and Magistrates shall not be addressed in any other style than "Ciudadano" and "Usted."

15. The preceding enumeration does not restrict the States from exercising the faculty of granting other rights to their nhabitants.

16. Those persons who shall issue, sign, execute, or order to be executed, Decrees, Orders, or Resolutions which violate any of the rights guaranteed to Venezuelans are held to be guilty, and shall be punished in conformity with the laws. Any citizen is free to make an accusation against such persons, and the right to proceed against them shall endure for five years.

17. The rights acknowledged and laid down in the preceding Articles shall neither be diminished nor altered by the laws

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