(b). Persons operating through local agencies which pay the license fee or other imposts to which their business is subject. (c). Travelers who are exclusively buyers. ARTICLE IX Any concession affecting any of the provisions of the present treaty that may hereafter be granted by either high contracting party, either by law or by treaty or convention, shall immediately be extended to the other party. ARTICLE X The present convention shall remain in force until the end of six months after either of the high contracting parties shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the same, each of them reserving to itself the right of giving such notice to the other at any time. And it is hereby agreed between the parties that on the expiration of six months after such notice shall have been received by either of them from the other party as above mentioned, this convention shall altogether cease and terminate. This Convention shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exchanged in Washington or Caracas within the briefest possible period. In testimony whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed these articles and have thereunto affixed their seals. Done in duplicate, in English and Spanish, at Caracas, this 3rd. day of July, 1919. EXTRADITION Treaty signed at Caracas January 19, 1922; additional article signed at Caracas January 21, 1922 Senate advice and consent to ratification January 5, 1923 Ratified by Venezuela February 15, 1923 Ratified by the President of the United States February 21, 1923 Entered into force April 14, 1923 Proclaimed by the President of the United States January 2, 1924 TREATY 43 Stat. 1698; Treaty Series 675 The United States of America and the United States of Venezuela, desiring to strengthen their reciprocal relations, to facilitate the course of punitive justice and to limit the crimes which may be committed in their respective territories; to prevent the impunity which would result from the escape of guilty persons and of their asylum in the territory of one or the other nation, have resolved to conclude a Treaty for the extradition of the accused as well as of those who have been sentenced, and have appointed for that purpose the following Plenipotentiaries: The President of the United States of America, John Campbell White, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the United States of America to Venezuela, and The Provisional President of the United States of Venezuela, Doctor Pedro Itriago Chacín, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United States of Venezuela; Who, after having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles; ARTICLE I The Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United States of Venezuela agree to deliver up to justice, by means of requisition duly made as herein provided, any person who may be charged with or may have been convicted of any of the crimes committed within the jurisdiction of one of the Contracting Parties and specified in Article II of this Convention, while said person was actually within such jurisdiction when the crime was committed, and who shall seek an asylum or who shall be found within the territories of the other. Such surrender shall take place only upon such evidence of guilt as, according to the laws of the country in which the fugitive or accused shall be found, would justify his detention and commitment for trial if the crime or offense had been committed there. ARTICLE II In accordance with the provisions of this Convention, the persons shall be delivered who shall have been charged with or convicted of any of the following crimes: 1. Murder, comprehending the crimes designated by the terms of parricide, assassination, manslaughter, when voluntary; poisoning or infanticide. 2. The attempt to commit murder. 3. Rape, abortion, carnal knowledge of children under the age of twelve years. 4. Bigamy. 5. Arson. 6. Willful and unlawful destruction or obstruction of railroads, which endangers human life. 7. Crimes committed at sea: (a). Piracy, as commonly known and defined by the law of nations or by statute; (b). Wrongfully sinking or destroying a vessel at sea or attempting to do so; (c). Mutiny or conspiracy by two or more members of the crew or other persons on board of a vessel on the high seas, for the purpose of rebelling against the authority of the captain or commander of such vessel or by fraud or violence taking possession of such vessel; (d). Assault on board ships upon the high seas with intent to do bodily harm. 8. Burglary, defined to be the act of breaking into and entering the house of another in the night time with intent to commit a felony therein. 9. The act of breaking into and entering into the offices of the Government and public authorities, or the offices of banks, banking houses, saving banks, trust companies, insurance companies, or other buildings not dwellings with intent to commit a felony therein. 10. Robbery, defined to be the act of feloniously and forcibly taking from the person of another, goods or money by violence or by putting him in fear. 11. Forgery or the utterance of forged papers, or illegal sale of documents belonging to the national archives. 12. The forgery or falsification of the official acts of the Government or public authority, including courts of justice, or the uttering or fraudulent use of the same. 13. The fabrication of counterfeit money, whether coin or paper, counterfeit titles or coupons of public debt, created by national, state, provincial, territorial, local or municipal governments, banknotes or other instruments of public credit, counterfeit seals, stamps, dies and marks of state or public administrations, and the utterance, circulation, or fraudulent use of the above mentioned objects. 14. Embezzlement or criminal malversation committed within the jurisdiction of one of the parties by public officers or depositaries, where the amount embezzled exceeds 200 dollars in the United States of America or B. 1.000 in the United States of Venezuela. 15. Embezzlement by any person or persons hired, salaried or employed, to the detriment of their employers or principals, when the crime or offense is punishable by imprisonment or other corporal punishment by the laws of both countries, and where the amount embezzled exceeds 200 dollars in the United States of America or B. 1.000 in the United States of Venezuela. 16. Kidnapping of minors or adults, defined to be the abduction or detention of a person or persons, in order to exact money from them or their families, or for any other unlawful end. 17. Larceny, defined to be the theft of effects, personal property, or money of the value of 50 dollars or B. 250 or more, accordingly. 18. Obtaining money, valuable securities or other property by false pretenses or receiving any money, valuable securities or other property knowing the same to have been unlawfully obtained, where the amount of money or the value of the property so obtained or received exceeds 200 dollars in the United States of America or B. 1.000 in the United States of Venezuela. 19. Perjury or subornation of perjury. 20. Fraud or breach of trust by a bailee, banker, agent, factor, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, director, or officer of any company or corporation, or by any one in any fiduciary position, where the amount of money or the value of the property misappropriated exceeds 200 dollars in the United States of America or B. 1.000 in the United States of Venezuela. 21. The extradition is also to take place for participation in any of the aforesaid crimes as an accessory before or after the fact, provided such participation be punishable by imprisonment by the laws of both Contracting Parties. ARTICLE III The provisions of this Convention shall not import claim of extradition for any crime or offense of a political character, nor for acts connected with such crimes or offenses; and no person surrendered by or to either of the Contracting Parties in virtue of this Convention shall be tried or punished for a political crime or offense. When the offense charged comprises the act either of murder or assassination or of poisoning, either consummated or attempted, the fact that the offense was committed or attempted against the life of the sovereign or head of a foreign state or against the life of any member of his family, shall not be deemed sufficient to sustain that such a crime or offense was of a political character, or was an act connected with crimes or offenses of a political character. ARTICLE IV In view of the abolition of capital punishment and of imprisonment for life by Constitutional provision in Venezuela, the Contracting Parties reserve the right to decline to grant extradition for crimes punishable by death and life imprisonment. Nevertheless, the Executive Authority of each of the Contracting Parties shall have the power to grant extradition for such crimes upon the receipt of satisfactory assurances that in case of conviction the death penalty or imprisonment for life will not be inflicted. ARTICLE V A fugitive criminal shall not be surrendered under the provisions hereof, when, from lapse of time or other lawful cause, according to the laws of the country within the jurisdiction of which the crime was committed, the criminal is exempt from prosecution or punishment for the offense for which the surrender is asked. ARTICLE VI If a fugitive criminal whose surrender may be claimed pursuant to the stipulations hereof shall be at the time of the request for the extradition under prosecution, either at liberty, out on bail or in custody, for any crime or offense committed in the country where he has sought asylum, or shall have been convicted thereof, his extradition may be deferred until such proceedings be determined, and until he shall have been set at liberty in due course of law. ARTICLE VII If a fugitive criminal claimed by one of the parties hereto shall be also claimed by one or more powers pursuant to treaty provisions, on account of crimes committed within their jurisdiction, such criminal shall be delivered to that state whose demand is first received. ARTICLE VIII Under the stipulations of this Convention, neither of the Contracting Parties shall be bound to deliver up its own citizens. |