815.00/3191
The Pact of Amapala, Signed May 3, 19249
In the city of Amapala, Republic of Honduras, at eleven o’clock of the third day of May one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four. Taking into consideration the proposals of the Honorable Messrs. Sumner Welles, Personal Representative of His Excellency the President of the United States of America, Attorney Mariano Cruz, Delegate for the Republic of Guatemala, Dr. Francisco Martinez Suarez, Delegate for the Republic of Salvador, Engineer J. Andres Urtecho, Delegate for the Republic of Nicaragua, and Attorney Pedro Perez Zeledon, Delegate for the Republic of Costa Rica, whose powers were examined and found to be in due form, for the purpose of reestablishing and permanently consolidating peace in the Republic of Honduras, the undersigned Delegates of the Council of Ministers, Messrs. Attorneys Alberto Rodriguez and Roque J. Lopez, of the Chiefs of the Revolution, Messrs. Attorneys Salvador Aguirre and Francisco Lopez Padilla, with full powers and after due deliberation, have agreed to celebrate the following definitive pact.
- Art. 1. General Vicente Tosta C. is declared elected Provisional President of the Republic. The Provisional President will immediately take possession of his office and will continue in the exercise of its functions until the date fixed by the National Constituent Assembly for the inauguration of the Constitutional President elected. The person who exercises the Provisional Presidency may in no case be a candidate for the Constitutional Presidency of the Republic for the next term.
- Art. 2. In case of absolute or temporary absence of the Provisional President, the Council of Ministers will exercise the Executive power until the National Constituent Assembly meets. The decisions of the Council will be taken by majority of votes.
- Art. 3. The Provisional President is obligated to convoke elections for a National Constituent Assembly 30 days after having taken possession of the Presidency. The Decree of Convocation for the election of Deputies to the Constituent [Assembly] shall fix a period not to exceed 30 days, in which they are to be held, and the Constituent Assembly shall meet thirty days after the election.
- Art. 4. The Ministers or the Cabinet of the Provisional Government shall be freely chosen by the Provisional President. Each Minister shall have under his control the appointment of the employees of the corresponding department, subject solely to the approval of the Provisional President. In the designation of the members of the Cabinet and in the appointments made in each department of the Public Administration, just representation shall be granted to all political parties of the Republic, the integrity and aptitudes of the persons to be appointed being always taken as the essential basis. In case of the resignation of a member of the Cabinet of the Provisional Government, the Provisional President must fill the vacancy with a person who belongs to the same political party to which his predecessor belonged.
- Art. 5. The Provisional President is empowered to appoint the Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice. The duration of office of the Magistrates appointed by the Provisional President shall be for the time that the latter exercises his functions, at which time the officials appointed in the Provisional Court shall likewise cease their functions.
- Art. 6. The Provisional President and other officials of the Public Administration, as well as the Judicial power, shall exercise their functions in conformity with the laws in force in the Republic.
- Art. 7. The election of the Constitutional President shall in any case be effected by popular vote. The Provisional President shall guarantee to all citizens, without distinction of political affiliation, the most absolute freedom in the popular elections of the Constitutional President of the Republic for the next term, which shall be held in conformity with the new Constitution to be issued.
- Art. 8. The Provisional President, as soon as he takes possession of the Presidency of the Republic, shall issue a Decree of Amnesty for all political and military offenses and for all civil crimes connected with political offenses committed up to this date.
- Art. 9. The Provisional Government accepts the responsibility for the acts of the revolution, of the dictatorship, and of the Council of Ministers, provided that these are not injurious to the vital interests of the country, which character shall be declared by the corresponding Legislative Assembly.
- Art. 10. The Provisional President shall organize departmental commissions to take cognizance of losses, in order that those prejudiced by the revolution may make due claims in conformity with the corresponding law.
- Art. 11. The Provisional President shall effectively guarantee the personal security and property of the military chiefs, officers, and troops that remained in the service of the dictatorship and of the Council of Ministers, as well as for those of the revolution.
- Art. 12. Immediately after the Provisional President enters upon the exercise of his functions, he shall assume the command of the armies of the dictatorship and of the revolution. The President shall likewise determine the form in which the army is to be disbanded, which procedure must be carried out in the shortest period possible. The military forces of both parties which remain in Tegucigalpa or in other places shall continue under the command of their respective chiefs until they are entirely disbanded.
- Art. 13. The present definitive agreement shall be signed by the Honorable Personal Representative of His Excellency the President of the United States and by all the Honorable Delegates of the Central American Republics, whose signatures shall be considered by both parties as a moral guarantee for its fulfilment.
Witnessed by:
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Honduras as an enclosure to his despatch no. 609, May 30, 1924; received June 20, 1924.↩
- File translation revised after comparison with authoritative copy of the original Spanish text supplied by the Honduran Government and transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Honduras as an enclosure to his despatch no. 108, Nov. 30, 1937 (file no. 026 Foreign Relations /1286).↩