The Constitution of Venezuela (1819), also known as the Constitution of Angostura (and official name: Political Constitution of the State of Venezuela; Spanish: Constitución Política del Estado de Venezuela) was written by El Libertador of Venezuela, Simón Bolívar, and is the first constitution destined to the region of Venezuela within the Gran Colombia. It contains 12 Titles, a decree and an appendix related to moral power. It specified to the Venezuelans their rights, their duties, the sovereignty of the people, and the distribution of powers in the region as well as the division of society into Active Citizen (with the right to vote) and Passive Citizen (without the right to vote); however, both classes enjoyed the same rights.
Rights and Duties of Venezuelans
Rights
The right to expression and free thought, as well as the freedom to make them public using any means (taking responsibility for their words and applying penalties if it violates the "public tranquility, good customs, life, honor, esteem and individual property"). It makes no direct reference to slavery, nor to its abolition, but expresses that "in no case can man be alienable property". Freedom to engage in industry. To freely dispose of and enjoy his property, the fruits of his labor, and no one may deprive him of them. The right to work for everyone who is "able to contract". Every house is inviolable asylum of every citizen (unless there is a case of flood, fire or other tragedy that arises, and needs the help of the inhabitant; likewise, when some legal procedure needs investigation, this, under the laws and all responsibility will fall on the authorities that so decree). Visits and constructions inside the property/home can only be made during daylight hours. No citizen should be deprived of liberty for claiming their rights, as long as it is individually, it is considered an attempt against public safety, if acts of protest are carried out with a single purpose, of a citizen inciting such protest; if it is a common purpose of several citizens, a written letter must be presented. Every citizen is innocent until proven guilty, cannot be tried, sentenced, or punished for crimes they have not committed, and without first being heard or legally summoned. Any lawful act, done by an authority towards any individual, outside the cases and forms of the law, is a crime, and the same must be punished, according to what is established by law. All harvest shall belong to the citizen who harvests it.
Duties
It stipulates that every citizen must comply with the laws and enforce them on other citizens.
Citizens
Loses active citizenship rights
Anyone who is absent from the territory of the Republic for four continuous years, not being on commission, or in the service of the Republic, or with a license from the Government; Whoever has suffered an afflictive or infamous penalty, until rehabilitation; Whoever has been convicted and condemned in a trial for having sold his suffrage, or bought that of another for himself or for a third party, whether in the primary assemblies, in the electoral assemblies, or in others.
The exercise of active citizenship is suspended
In the insane, furious, or demented; In failed debtors and vagrants, declared as such; In those who have an open criminal case until they are declared acquitted, or sentenced to a penalty that is neither afflictive nor infamous; The debtors to public funds with a term served; And those who, being married, do not live with their wives without legal reason.
Legislative Power
Preceded by the General Congress of Venezuela, composed of an equal number of Senators and Representatives:
The President of the Republic and the President of the House of Representatives, shall take the oath in the presence of the Senate in the hands of its president, and the latter shall in turn take the oath in the presence of the same Senate in the hands of the President of the Republic. The Senators and Representatives shall do so before their respective Presidents.
Senators
They are chosen during the first constituent process; Bishops may also be senators, in which case, honorary.
Requirements
Active citizen
Thirty years of age; Ten years of residence in the territory of the Republic, immediately prior to the election, unless his absence has been on commission, or in the service of it. Until the year 1825, it will suffice to have undertaken the campaign of 1816, and to have continued his services until the day of the election; A property of eight thousand pesos in real estate, or the income corresponding to this capital;