Mr. Bowen to Mr. Hay.
Caracas, Venezuela, May 14, 1904.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that on the 27th of April last, the ninety-third year of the independence and the forty-sixth of the federation of Venezuela, a new constitution was adopted for the Republic.
It reduces the number of States to thirteen—Aragua, Bermudez, Bolivar, Carabobo, Falcon, Guarico, Lara, Merida, Miranda, Tachira, Trujillo, Zamora, and Zulia—and provides for five Territories—Amazonas, Cristobal Colon, Colon, Delta-Amacuro, and Yururari—and the Federal District, which is composed of the departments Libertador, Varagas, Guaicaipuro, and Sucre, and the island of Margarita.
The States enjoy equality and autonomy, having all rights not delegated to the central Government. The Territories are administered by the President.
The Government is divided into three branches—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.
The legislative branch is called the Congress, and is composed of two bodies—the Senate and the House of Deputies. One deputy will be elected by every 40,000 inhabitants, and all deputies, as well as senators (two from every State) and the President, will serve for six years. Deputies must be 21 years of age, senators 30, and the President over 30. No extraordinary powers are given to the Congress, except that 14 of its members shall be chosen by itself to elect every sixth year a President, a first and a second vice-president, and to elect a successor to the second vice-president.
The President, besides being charged with the usual executive duties, is authorized to declare war, arrest, imprison, or expel natives or aliens who are opposed to the reestablishment of peace, to issue letters of marque and reprisal, to permit aliens to enter the public service, to prohibit the immigration into the Republic of objectionable religious teachers, and to establish rules for the postal, telegraph, and telephone services.
The judicial power is vested in the Corte Federal y de Casacion (seven judges elected by the Congress) and the lower courts (appointed by the State governments).
All Venezuelans over 21 years of age may vote, and aliens can obtain that right by getting naturalized. No length of time is prescribed for an alien to live in the Republic before he can become naturalized.
Article 15 of the constitution denies the right of natives or aliens to present claims to the nation or States for damages caused by revolutionists.
Article 17 abolishes the death penalty.
And article 120 provides that all of Venezuela’s international treaties shall hereafter contain the clause, “All differences between the contracting parties shall be decided by arbitration, without going to war.”
[Page 874]In conclusion, the constitution provides that the next constitutional terms shall begin May 23, 1905. Up to that date General Castro will be Provisional President. He took his oath of office as such on the 5th instant, and on the same day Juan Vicente Gómez was made first vice-president and José Antonio Velutini second vice-president.
As Provisional President, General Castro has been authorized to name the presidents of the States, to organize the Federal Territories, to fix the estimates for the public expenses, and, in short, to exercise the fullest powers. * * *
I am, etc.,