ART. 25. Every person may freely, without censorship, express his thoughts either by word of mouth or in writing, through the press, or in any other manner whatsoever, subject to the responsibilites specified by law, whenever thereby attacks are made upon the honor of individuals, upon social order, and upon public peace.

ART. 26. The profession of all religious beliefs, as well as the practice of all forms of worship, are free, without further restriction than that demanded by the respect for Christian morality and public order. The church shall be separated from the state, which shall in no case subsidize any religion.

ART. 27. All persons shall have the right to address petitions to the authorities, to have them duly acted upon, and to be informed of the action taken thereon.

ART. 28. All inhabitants of the Republic have the right to assemble peacefully unarmed, and to associate for all lawful pursuits of life.

ART. 29. All persons shall have the right to enter into and depart from the territory of the Republic, to travel within its boundaries, and to change their residence without requiring any safeguard, passport, or any other similar requisite, except as may be required by the laws governing immigration, and by the authorities, in cases of criminal responsibility, by virtue of the powers vested in them.

ART. 30. No Cuban shall be banished from the territory of the Republic or be prohibited from entering therein.

ART. 31. Primary education is compulsory and shall be gratuitous, as also that of arts and trades. The expenses thereof shall be defrayed by the State during such time as the municipalities and provinces, respectively, may lack sufficient means therefor. Secondary and advanced education will be controlled by the State. However, all persons may, without restriction, study or teach any science, art, or profession, and found and maintain establishments of education and instruction; but it pertains to the State to determine what professions shall require special titles, the conditions necessary for their practice, the necessary requirements to obtain the titles, and the issuing of the same as may be established by law.

ART. 32. No person shall be deprived of his property, except by competent authority for the justified reason of public benefit, and after being duly indemnified for the same. Should the latter requirement not have been complied with, the judges and courts shall give due protection; and in such case they shall restore possession of the property to the person who may have been deprived thereof.

ART. 33. In no case shall the penalty of confiscation of property be imposed.

ART. 34. No person is obliged to pay any tax or impost not legally established and the collection thereof is not carried out in the manner prescribed by the laws.

ART. 35. Every author or inventor shall enjoy the exclusive ownership of his work or invention for the time and in the manner determined by law.

ART. 36. The enumeration of the rights expressly guaranteed by this Constitution does not exclude others that may be based upon the principle of the sovereignty of the people and upon the republican form of Government.

ART. 37. The laws regulating the exercise of the rights which this Constitution guarantees shall become null and void if they diminish, restrict, or change the said rights.

SECTION SECOND.-Right of suffrage.

ART. 38. All male Cubans over twenty-one years of age have the right of suffrage, with the following exceptions:

First. Inmates of asylums.

Second. Persons mentally incapacitated after having been judicially so declared.

Third. Persons judicially deprived of civil rights on account of crime.

Fourth. Persons in active service belonging to the land or naval forces.

ART. 39. The laws shall establish rules and procedures to guarantee the intervention of the minority in the preparation of the Electoral Census, and in other electoral matters, and their representation in the House of Representatives and in provincial and municipal councils.

SECTION THIRD.-Suspension of constitutional guarantees.

ART. 40. The guarantees established in articles 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23, 24, and 27 of the first section of this title shall not be suspended throughout the entire Republic, or in any part thereof, except temporarily and when the safety of the state may require it, in cases of invasion of the territory or of serious disturbances that may threaten public peace.

ART. 41. The territory within which the guarantees determined in the preceding article may have been suspended shall be governed during the period of suspension by the Law of Public Order previously enacted, but neither in the said law, or in any other, shall the suspension be ordered of any other guarantees than those already mentioned. Nor shall there be made, during the period of suspension, any declaration of new crimes, nor shall there be imposed other penalties than those established by the law in force at the time the suspension was ordered.

The Executive power is prohibited from banishing or exiling citizens to a greater distance than one hundred and twenty kilometers from their domicile, and from holding them under arrest for more than ten days without turning them over to the judicial authorities, and from rearresting them during the period of the suspension of guarantees. Persons arrested shall not be detained except in special departments of public establishments used for the detention of persons indicted for ordinary offenses.

ART. 42. The suspension of the guarantees specified in article 40 shall only be ordered by means of a law, or, when Congress is not in session, by a decree of the President of the Republic; but the latter shall not order the suspension more than once during the period comprised between two legislatures, nor for an indefinite period of time, nor for more than thirty days, without convening Congress in the same order of suspension. In every case the President shall report to Congress for such action as Congress may deem proper.

TITLE V.

SOVEREIGNTY AND PUBLIC POWERS.

ART. 43. Sovereignty is vested in the people of Cuba and all public powers are derived therefrom.

TITLE VI.

LEGISLATIVE POWERS.

SECTION FIRST.-The legislative bodies.

ART. 44. The legislative power is exercised by two elective bodies, which shall be known as the House of Representatives and the Senate, and which conjointly will be called Congress.

SECTION SECOND.-The Senate; its organization and attributes.

ART. 45. The Senate shall be composed of four Senators from each Province, elected therefrom for a period of eight years by the provincial councilmen and by a double number of electors, who, together with the provincial councilmen, shall constitute an Electoral Board.

One-half of the electors must be persons who pay the highest amount of taxes and the remainder shall possess the qualifications that may be determined by law. All of the electors must also be of age and residents of municipal districts of the Province.

The electors shall be chosen by the voters of the Province one hundred days prior to the election of Senators.

One-half of the members of the Senate shall be elected every four years.

ART. 46. To become a Senator it is necessary

First. To be a native-born Cuban.

Second. To have attained to the age of 35 years.

Third. To be in full possession of all civil and political rights.
ART. 47. The inherent attributes of the Senate are-

First. To try, sitting as a court of justice, the President of the Republic whenever he be accused by the House of Representatives of crimes against the external security of the State, against the free exercise of legislative or judicial powers, or of violation of the Constitution.

Second. To try, sitting as a court of justice, Cabinet ministers whenever they be accused by the House of Representatives of crimes against the external security of the State, against the free exercise of legislative or judicial powers, or of violation of the Constitution, or of any other offense of a political nature specified by law.

Third. To try, sitting as a court of justice, governors of Provinces, whenever they be accused by the provinciales councils or by the President of the Republic of any of the offenses specified in the preceding paragraph. Whenever the Senate sits as a court of justice it shall be presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and it shall not impose upon the accused any other penalty than that of removal from office, or removal from office and disqualification to hold any public office, without detriment to any other penalty which the accused may have incurred which may be imposed by the courts declared to be competent by law.

Fourth. To confirm the appointments made by the President of the Republic of Chief Justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court of Justice; of diplomatic representatives and consular agents of the nation, and of all other public officers whose appointment may require the approval of the Senate in accordance with the law.

Fifth. To authorize Cuban citizens to accept employment or honors from another government or to serve in the army thereof.

Sixth. To ratify the treaties entered into by the President of the Republic with other nations.

SECTION THIRD.—The House of Representatives; its organization and attributes.

ART. 48. The House of Representatives shall be composed of one Representative for each twenty-five thousand inhabitants or fraction thereof over twelve thousand five hundred, elected for the period of four years by direct vote and in the manner provided for by law.

One-half of the members of the House of Representatives shall be elected every two years.

ART. 49. The following qualifications are necessary to be a Representative:

First. To be a native-born or naturalized Cuban citizen who has resided for eight years in the Republic from and after the date of his naturalization.

Second. To have attained to the age of twenty-five years.

Third. To be in full possession of all civil and political rights.

ART. 50. It shall be the duty of the House of Representatives to impeach in the Senate the President of the Republic, and the Cabinet ministers in all cases prescribed in paragraphs first and second of article 47, whenever two-thirds of the total number of Representatives shall so resolve in secret session.

SECTION FOURTH.-Provisions common to both colegislative bodies.

ART. 51. The positions of Senator and Representative are incompatible with the holding of any paid position of government appointment, with the exception of that of a professorship in a government institution, obtained by competitive examination prior to election to the first-named positions.

ART. 52. Senators and Representatives shall receive from the State a pecuniary remuneration, alike for both positions, the amount of which may be changed at any time; but the change shall not take effect until after the future election of one-half of the members of the colegislative bodies.

ART. 53. Senators and Representatives shall not be held liable for the votes and opinions given and expressed in the discharge of their duties. Senators and Representatives shall only be arrested or indicted by authority of the body of which they form part, should Congress be in session at the time, except in case of being actually discovered in flagrante delicto. In this case, and in case of their being arrested or indicted at the time when Congress is not in session, report shall be made as soon as practicable to the body to which they belong for proper action.

ART. 54. Both Houses of Congress shall open and close their sessions on the same day; they shall be established at the same place, and neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives shall remove to any other place nor adjourn for more than three days, except by joint resolution of both Houses.

Neither shall they open their sessions without two-thirds of the total number of their members being present, nor shall they continue their sessions without an absolute majority of members being present.

ART. 55. Each House shall decide as to the validity of the election of its respective members and as to the resignations presented by them. No Senator or Representative shall be expelled from the House to which he belongs, except by virtue of a case previously decided against him, and by resolution of at least two-thirds of the total number of its members.

ART. 56. Each House shall frame its respective rules and regulations, and elect from among its members its President, vice-presidents, and secretaries. However, the President of the Senate will only discharge the duties of office when the Vice-President of the Republic is absent or is fulfilling the duties of President of the same.

SECTION FIFTH.-Congress and its powers.

ART. 57. Congress shall meet by virtue of the inherent rights thereof twice in each each year, and shall remain in session during a period of at least forty legal working days during each term.

The first session shall begin on the first Monday in April and the other on the first Monday in November. It will meet in extra sessions in such cases and in such manner as provided for by the rules and regulations of the colegislative bodies and whenever convened by the President of the Republic in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

In such cases it shall only consider the express object or objects for which it meets.

ART. 58. Congress shall meet as a joint body to proclaim, after counting and rectifying the electoral vote, the President and VicePresident of the Republic.

In this case the duties of the President of Congress shall be performed by the President of the Senate, and in his absence by the President of the House of Representatives as vice-president of said Congress.

If upon counting the votes for President it should appear that none of the candidates has an absolute majority of votes, or if there should be a tie, Congress, by a majority of votes, shall elect as President one of the two candidates having obtained the greatest number of votes.

Should two or more candidates be in the same condition, by two or more of them having obtained a like number of votes, Congress shall elect one of their number.

Should the vote of Congress also result in a tie, the vote shall be again taken; and if the result of the second vote be the same, the President will cast the deciding vote.

The method established in the preceding paragraph shall be employed in the election of Vice-President of the Republic.

The counting of the electoral vote shall take place prior to the expiration of the Presidential term.