No. 287.
Mr. Walker
to Mr. Bayard.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Bogotá, June 21, 1888.
(Received July 21.)
No. 122.]
Sir: I transmit you the inclosed translation of a
law passed a few days ago by the national legislative council.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure in No.
122.—Translation.]
Law 61 of 1888, May 25, clothing the President
of the Republic with extraordinary powers.
The national legislative council decrees as follows:
- Art. 1. The President is hereby
authorized—
- (1)
- To prevent and repress, administratively, all offenses
and crimes against the state which affect public order,
and may impose, according [to] the gravity of the case,
the penalty of imprisonment, expulsion from the country,
or deprivation of political rights, for such period as
he may deem necessary.
- (2)
- To repress or prevent, by similar penalties,
conspiracies against public order and attempts against
public or private property, which may, in his judgment,
involve a menace to public order, or a design to create
terror in the public mind.
- (3)
- To strike from the list of the army the names of such
officers who, by their conduct, are, in the opinion of
the chief magistrate, for the time being, unworthy of
the confidence of the Government.
- Art. 2. The President of the
Republic shall have the right of supervision over and inspection
of all scientific associations and institutions of learning, and
is authorized to suspend for such period as he may deem
expedient any society or establishment which, under the mask of
learning, may be the focus of revolutionary propaganda or
subversive teaching.
- Art. 3. The measures taken by the
President of the Republic shall be carried definitively into
effect, in accord with a council of ministers.
- Art. 4. The imposition of penalties
under this law shall not exempt guilty parties from such
judicial punishments as may be imposed under the penal code by
the judicial authorities.
- Art. 5. This law shall cease to be
effective whenever the Congress of the Republic shall enact a
law relating to high national police.
Executive Government,
Bogotá, May 25, 1888.
Publish and execute.
