Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1921, Volume I

813.00/1050

The Costa Rican Minister (Beeche) to the Secretary of State

[Translation]

Washington, February 1, 1921.

Mr. Secretary: It affords me great pleasure to send you herewith a copy of the covenant of the Central American Union signed at San José, Costa Rica, on the 19th of January, 1921, by the Republics of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Salvador.

Although the said covenant is barely a project at this date, since it has not yet been approved by the Congresses in the respective countries, I have considered it to be my duty to communicate it at once in compliance with special instructions of my Government to the Government of the United States of America through your worthy medium, as a mark of most deserved consideration and as the very natural consequence of the friendly confidence that has always ruled the international relations of our two countries.

I avail myself [etc.]

Octavio Beeche

[Enclosure—Translation²⁹]

Pact of Union of the Central American Republics, Signed at San José, Costa Rica, January 19, 1921

The Governments of the Republics of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica, regarding it as a high patriotic duty to bring about as far as possible the reconstruction of the Federal Republic of Central America upon bases of justice and equality that will guarantee peace, maintain harmony among the States, insure the benefits of liberty, and promote the general progress and welfare, have seen fit to conclude a treaty of union achieving that end, and to that effect have appointed as plenipotentiary delegates, as follows:

• The Government of Guatemala the Most Excellent Licentiates Don Salvador Falla and Don Carlos Salazar;
• The Government of Salvador the Most Excellent Doctors Don Reyes Arrieta Rossi and Don Miguel T. Molina;
• The Government of Honduras the Most Excellent Doctors Don Alberto Uclés and Don Mariano Vasquez;
• And the Government of Costa Rica the Most Excellent Licentiates Don Alejandro Alvarado Quirós and Don Cleto González Víquez;

Who, after communicating to one another their respective full powers, which they found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following stipulations:

Article I

The Republics of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica join in a perpetual and indissoluble union, and shall henceforth constitute a sovereign and independent nation, the name of which shall be Federation of Central America.

It shall be the right and duty of the federal power to maintain the union, and, in accordance with the Federal Constitution, to preserve internal order in the States.

Article II

The four States shall convene through Deputies in a Constituent National Assembly, and they accept henceforth as the supreme law the Constitution that may be framed by the said Assembly in accordance with the stipulations of this treaty.

Article III

In so far as it may be consistent with the Federal Constitution, each State shall preserve its autonomy and independence in the handling and direction of its domestic affairs, and shall also retain all the powers that are not vested in the Federation by the Federal Constitution.

The Constitutions of the States shall remain in force in so far as they do not conflict with the provisions of the Federal Constitution.

Article IV

So long as the Federal Government, through diplomatic action, shall not have obtained the modification, derogation, or substitution of the treaties in force between the States of the Federation and foreign nations, each State shall respect and continue faithfully to observe the treaties that bind it to any foreign nation or foreign nations to the full extent implied in the existing agreements.

Article V

The Constituent National Assembly, in framing the Federal Constitution, shall respect the following bases:

(a) There shall be a Federal District under the direct rule of the Federal Government. The Assembly shall designate and mark out the territory that is to constitute this District, and within that area shall designate the town or place that is to be the political capital of the Federation. The State or States from which territory is taken to constitute the Federal District here and now convey it gratuitously to the Federation.

(b) The Government of the Federation shall be republican, popular, representative, and responsible. Sovereignty shall reside in the Nation. The public powers shall be limited and must be exercised in accordance with the Constitution. There shall be three powers: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.

(c) The executive power shall be exercised by a Federal Council composed of delegates elected by the people. Each State shall elect a principal and an alternate, of 40 years of age or more and native citizens of the State which may elect them. The term of the Council shall be 5 years.

The delegates and their alternates shall reside in the federal capital. The alternates shall attend the meetings of the Council without a vote; they shall cast a vote, however, whenever the meeting is not attended by their principals.

In order to impart validity to the action of the Council, it is necessary that all the States be represented therein. The decisions shall be arrived at by a plurality vote, except in cases where the Constitution may call for a greater majority. In case of a tie, the President shall cast two votes.

The Council shall elect from among the delegates a President and a Vice President, whose term of office shall be one year. The President of the Council may not be reelected for the year immediately following.

The President of the Council shall be regarded as President of the Federation, but he shall always act in the name, and by a resolution or direction, of the Federal Council.

The Council shall apportion among its members in the manner it may deem most appropriate the handling of public affairs, and it may put any one or more of the alternates in charge of a department or more, as it may deem expedient. The Constitution shall determine the form in which foreign relations are to be conducted, and shall complete the organization of the executive power.

(d) The legislative power shall be vested in two houses: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate shall consist of three Senators from each State, elected by the Congress thereof. The Senators shall be 40 years of age or more and citizens of any one of the States. Their term shall be 6 years, and they shall be renewed every other year in thirds. The Chamber of Deputies shall consist of Representatives elected by the people, one Deputy for every 100,000 inhabitants or fraction of more than 50,000. The Constituent Assembly shall determine the number of deputies to be elected by each State until the general census of the Federation is taken.

Senators and Deputies may be reelected indefinitely. In each house three-fourths of the whole number of members shall form the quorum.

No law shall be valid unless it has been approved in the separate houses, by a plurality of votes in the Chamber of Deputies and by two-thirds of the votes of the Senators, and unless it has been sanctioned by the executive as the Federal Constitution may provide.

(e) The judicial power shall be exercised by a Supreme Court of Justice and by the lower courts that may be established by law. The Senate, from a list of 21 names submitted by the federal executive, shall elect seven incumbent magistrates, who shall constitute the court, and three alternates to fill the temporary absence of the incumbents. Vacancies shall be filled by new elections of incumbents or alternates. The magistrates shall not be removed from office unless the removal be authorized by a judicial sentence.

The Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction in disputes to which the Federation is a party; the legal controversies that may arise between two or more States; the conflicts that may occur between the powers of any one State or of the Federation as to the constitutionality of their acts; and of all other matters which may be referred to it by the Federal Constitution or the organic law.

The States having pending questions among themselves as to boundaries or the validity or execution of judgments or awards made before the date of this treaty, shall be at liberty to refer them to arbitration. The Federal Court may take cognizance of such questions in the capacity of arbitrator, if the States concerned should refer them to its decision.

(f) The Federation guarantees to every inhabitant freedom of thought and conscience. There shall be no legislation on religious subjects. In all the States toleration of cults that are not against morals or public policy shall be an obligatory principle.

(g) The Federation recognizes the principle that human life is inviolable as to political and like offenses, and guarantees all men equality before the law and the protection that the States must grant to destitute classes, as also to the proletariat.

(h) The Federation guarantees the freedom of teaching. Primary instruction shall be compulsory, and that which is given in public schools shall be free, under the direction and at the expense of the States.

Colleges of secondary instruction may be founded and supported by the Federation, the States, municipal governments, and private persons.

The Federation shall create as soon as possible a national university, and shall give preference, with regard to their early establishment, to the sections of agriculture, industry, commerce, and mathematical sciences.

(i) The Federation likewise guarantees in every State the respect of individual rights, as also the freedom of suffrage and the rotation in power.

(j) The Army is an institution intended for national defense and the maintenance of peace and public order; it is essentially a passive body and may not engage in debates.

Soldiers on active duty shall have no right to vote.

The Army shall be exclusively under the orders of the Federal Council. The States shall not maintain any force other than that of police for the maintenance of public order.

The garrisons which may be kept permanently or temporarily by the Federation in any State shall be under the command of national chiefs that the Council shall freely appoint and remove; but if in any State there should occur a subversive movement, or serious grounds may exist to apprehend a grave disturbance, those forces shall place themselves at the command of the Government of the State. If those forces should be insufficient to suppress the rebellion, the Government of the State shall ask for, and the Council shall supply, adequate reenforcements.

Military service, garrison duty, and military instruction shall be regulated by law so as to be governed by fixed rules.

The Council shall have the free disposal of the armament and war material that may now exist in the States, after those States shall have been supplied with the amount needed for the police force.

The States acknowledge it to be necessary and expedient that the Federation should reduce armaments and armies to the strictly necessary so as to return labor to farming and manufacturing and to devote to the general good the excessive sums spent for military purposes.

(l) [sic] The Federal Government shall administer the national public finances, which shall be separate from those of the States.

The law shall create federal revenues and taxes.

(m) The States shall continue the service of their present domestic and foreign debts. It shall be the duty of the Federal Government to see that the service is faithfully performed and that the revenues pledged for that purpose are applied thereto.

Henceforward none of the States shall contract for or issue foreign loans without being authorized by a law of the State ratified by a federal law, nor shall it enter into contracts that may in any way compromise its sovereignty or independence or the integrity of its territory.

(n) The Federation shall not contract for or issue foreign loans without being authorized to do so by law approved by two-thirds of the votes in the Chamber of Deputies and three-fourths of the votes in the Senate.

(o) The Constitution may set a term after which the ability to read and write may be set up as an essential requisite for the exercise of the right of suffrage in the elections of federal authorities.

(p) The Constitution shall lay down the course through which amendments of its dispositions may be ordered. However, if the reform should make any change in any one of the bases set forth in this article, it shall be absolutely necessary, in addition to the other general requirements of the Constitution, that the legislatures of all the States shall give their consent.

(q) The Constitution shall determine and specify the subjects that shall be exclusive matter for federal legislation.

The Constituent National Assembly, in framing the Constitution, shall complete the plan and purpose of the said Constitution, developing the foregoing bases, but in no case conflicting with them.

Immediately after the enactment of the Constitution, the Assembly shall pass the complementary laws concerning the freedom of the press, habeas corpus, and state of siege, which shall be held as part of the Federal Constitution.

Article VI

The Constituent National Assembly referred to in article II of this treaty shall consist of 15 Deputies for each State, who shall be elected by their respective Congresses. In order to be a Deputy one must be 25 years old or more and a citizen of any one of the five States of Central America.

The Deputies shall enjoy immunity for their persons and property from the moment when they are declared elected by the Congress of a State until one month after the sessions of the Assembly are closed.

Article VII

Three-fifths of the total number of Deputies shall form a quorum of the Assembly. The vote shall be cast by States. If one or more Deputies of one State should be absent, the Deputy or Deputies present shall assume the complete representation of the State.

If the Deputies of one State should disagree, the vote of the majority of the Deputies shall be regarded as the vote of the State, and in case of a tie, it shall be regarded as concurring in the majority vote of the other States; or, if there should be a tie among those States themselves, that which agrees with the majority of the personal votes of the Deputies shall prevail. The decisions of the Assembly shall be taken on a majority vote of the States.

Article VIII

For the performance of these stipulations, there is instituted here and now a Provisional Federal Council consisting of a delegate from each State. The said Council shall take charge of the duty of ordering all the measures preliminary to the organization of the Federation and its initial government and especially that of calling the Constituent National Assembly; of promulgating the Constitution, constituent laws, and other resolutions passed by the Assembly; of issuing appropriate orders to have the States elect in good time their delegates to the Council, Senate, and Chamber of Deputies; and finally of giving place to the Federal Council, whereupon its functions shall terminate.

Article IX

Delegates to the Provisional Council must be 40 years old or more and citizens of the State by which they are elected. They will enjoy immunity for their persons and property from the moment when they are elected until one month after they retire from their office. They shall in addition enjoy in the State where they perform their duties all the privileges and immunities which by law or usage are granted to the heads of diplomatic missions.

Article X

The Congress of each State, immediately upon approving this treaty, shall elect the delegate that belongs to it in the Provisional Council, and through the proper channel give notice of that election to the Central American International Office. That Office in turn will communicate to the Governments and also to the elected delegates the fact of its having received the ratification of three States, to the end that within the time stated hereafter the delegates may meet and begin their labors.

Article XI

The Provisional Federal Council shall meet in the city of Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras, not later than 30 days after the third ratification of this covenant shall have been deposited in the Central American International Office.

Article XII

In order to impart validity to the acts of the Provisional Council, the presence of not less than three delegates shall be required.

Article XIII

The Provisional Council shall elect a President and a Secretary, who shall sign all the papers needed. The correspondence shall be conducted by the Secretary.

Article XIV

When the fourth ratification takes place, the Central American International Office, or the Provisional Federal Council, if still in session, shall call upon the delegate concerned to join the Provisional Council.

Article XV

The Congress of each State, at the same time it elects its delegate to the Provisional Council, in accordance with the provision in article X of this treaty, shall elect the Deputies to the Constituent Assembly that belong to the State.

Article XVI

After the Deputies to the Constituent Assembly shall have been elected, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State concerned shall so notify the Central American International Office, and issue the proper credentials to the Deputies that have been elected.

Article XVII

After the Central American International Office shall have informed the Provisional Federal Council of the election of the Deputies by three States at least, the Provisional Federal Council shall call the Constituent National Assembly so that it may organize in the city of Tegucigalpa on the date set by the decree calling the Assembly, which shall be made known by telegraph to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of each State and to each Deputy individually not less than 30 days in advance. The Provisional Council shall see that the Constituent Assembly shall organize not later than the 15th of September, 1921, which is the centennial of the political emancipation of Central America.

Article XVIII

It will be sufficient that three of the contracting States ratify this treaty to have it considered as final and binding among them and to have it carried into effect. The State that should not approve the covenant may, however, join the Federation at any time it applies therefor, and the Federation shall admit it without any other formality than the presenting of a law approving this treaty, the Federal Constitution, and the constituent laws. In that event, the Federal Council and the two legislative houses shall be enlarged in the proper degree.

Article XIX

The contracting States sincerely regret that the sister Republic of Nicaragua does not desire to join the Federation of Central America. If the said Republic should later decide to join the union, the Federation will extend the greatest facilities for its joining, in the treaty that may be made for that purpose.

In any event, the Federation will continue to consider and treat her as a part of the Central American family just as it will any State that for some reason or other should not ratify this covenant.

Article XX

Each State shall deliver to the Provisional Council the moneys that may be named by it to defray the expenses incurred in the discharge of its mission, and shall determine and pay their salaries to the several constituent Deputies.

Article XXI

The present treaty shall be submitted in each State as soon as possible to the legislative approval that its Constitution may require, and the ratification shall be immediately notified to the Central American International Office, to which a copy shall be sent in the customary form. On receipt of the copy of that ratification, the aforesaid Office shall so advise the other States, and the notice shall be held and shall have the same value as an exchange.

Done at San José, Costa Rica, in quadruplicate, on the 19th day of January, 1921.

29. File translation revised.