TITLE SEVEN. General Considerations
Article 124
The powers not expressly granted by this Constitution to federal officials, shall be understood to be reserved to the States.
Article 125
No person may hold two federal elective offices at the same time, nor one federal and one state elective office; but an elected candidate may choose which of the two he desires to hold.
Article 126
No payment may be made if it is not included in the budget or provided for by a subsequent law.
Article 127
Employees of the Federal Government, the State governments, the Federal District Government and the Municipal Councils, as well as the employees of any governmental agency, semipublic companies, public trusts, autonomous bodies, and of any other public entity, shall receive an adequate remuneration for their work or commission and it shall be proportional to their responsibilities.
This remuneration shall be non-negotiable and shall be fixed annually in the expenditure budgets of each organ in accord with the following bases:
- Remuneration is any payment made in cash or in kind, including expenses, bonus, rewards, incentives, commissions, compensations and any other payment, except for expenses allowance that must be supported by receipts and invoices and for labor costs for traveling in official activities.
- No public servant can receive remuneration higher than the remuneration established to the President of the Republic in the corresponding annual budget.
- No public servant can have a salary equal or higher than his/her superior’s salary, except when the exceeding part is due to the performance of several public duties or to the characteristics of the job, like a specialized technical job or a very specialized function. The addition of such remunerations shall not exceed a half of the President of the Republic’s remuneration.
- Only pensions, payments, loans and credits established by law, a decree, a labor contract or labor covenant shall be granted. Such benefits are not part of the remuneration. Social security services are excluded.
- Public servants’ remunerations and detailed salaries per position shall be public information. Such information shall specify every fixed and variable element, including payments in cash and in kind.
- The Congress of the Union, the State Legislatures and the Federal District’s Assembly of Representatives, within the scope of their powers, shall enact the laws necessary to enforce the provisions included in this article and all related constitutional provisions. They shall also establish criminal and administrative penalties to be applicable to public servants that circumvent this article.
Article 128
Every public official, without exception, before taking office, shall swear allegiance to the Constitution and to the laws emanating thereof.
Article 129
No military authority may, during peacetime, perform any functions other than those directly related to military affairs. There shall be fixed and permanent military command headquarters only in the castles, forts and warehouses immediately subordinated to the Federal Government, or in the camps, barracks or dumps established for the troops outside towns.
Article 130
The historic principle of separation between the State and religion shall guide the provisions established in this article. Churches and any other religious groups shall observe the law.
Only the Congress of the Union can legislate on matters of public worship, churches and religious groups. The respective public statutory law shall develop and detail the following provisions:
- Churches and religious groups shall have a legal status as religious association after the registration procedures. The law shall regulate the religious associations and shall establish the requirements to get registration.
- The government shall not intervene in the internal affairs of the religious associations.
- Mexicans can become ministers of any religious denomination. For this purpose, Mexicans and foreigners must meet the requirements established by law.
- Religious ministers cannot hold public offices, according to the statutory law. As citizens, religious ministers have the right to vote, but they do not have the right to be elected. Those who have ceased being church ministers with the required anticipation and by the procedures established in the law may be elected.
- Church ministers cannot join together for political purposes nor proselytize in favor of certain candidate, party or political association or against them. Neither may they oppose the laws of the Nation or its institutions, nor insult patriotic symbols in any form, in public meetings, in worship or in religious literature.
The formation of any kind of political group with a name containing any word or other symbol related to any religion is strictly prohibited. No meeting of a political character may be held in churches or temples.
The simple promise of truthfulness and fulfillment, subjects the person to the penalties established by law in the event of failing to fulfill them.
Church ministers, their ascendancy, children, siblings and spouses, as well as their religious associations, cannot inherit by will from their followers, who do not have a family relationship of up to fourth grade.
Acts of marital status pertain only to the administrative authorities under the terms established by law. The law shall define the effect and validity for the marital status acts.
The law shall confer powers and duties on civil matters to the federal, state and municipal authorities.
Article 131
Only the Federal Government can tax imports and exports, and merchandises that pass in transit through the national territory, as well as to regulate at all times, and even to prohibit, for security reasons, the circulation of merchandises across the country, regardless of their origin. However, the Federal Government cannot establish or enact, in the Federal District, those taxes and laws mentioned in sections VI and VII of the Article 117.
The President of the Republic can be empowered by the Congress of the Union to: increase, decrease, or abolish tariff rates on imports and exports, that were imposed by the Congress; to establish new tariff rates; to restrict and to prohibit the importation, exportation or transit of products, articles and goods in order to regulate foreign trade, the economy of the country, the stability of domestic production, or for accomplishing any other purpose to the benefit of the country. The President of the Republic shall send to the Congress, together with the annual budget, a report about the way he has exercised this power.
Article 132
The forts, barracks, warehouses and other buildings used by the Federal Government to provide public services or for public use, shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the federal powers in accordance with the law enacted by the Congress of the Union. However, if the Federal Government acquires properties in the future within the territory of any state, in order to put such property under federal jurisdiction, the consent of the respective legislature shall be necessary.
Article 133
This Constitution, the laws derived from and enacted by the Congress of the Union, and all the treaties made and execute by the President of the Republic, with the approval of the Senate, shall be the supreme law of the country. The judges of each state shall observe the Constitution, the laws derived from it and the treaties, despite any contradictory provision that may appear in the constitutions or laws of the states.
Article 134
Economic resources available for the federal, state and municipal governments, for the Federal District, and for the political-administrative bodies belonging to it, shall be managed with efficiency, effectiveness, best use of resources, transparency and honesty in order to achieve the objectives for which they are intended.
The results of the use of such resources shall be assessed by the technical agencies created by the federal, states and the Federal District Governments in order to guarantee that such resources are distributed in the appropriate budgets observing the principles stated in the previous paragraph, without prejudice to that established in the article 74, section VI, and article 79.
All contracts made by the authorities and entities mentioned before on acquisitions, renting, transfers, provision of services and works shall be awarded by open tenders, where bidders submit their sealed bids. These sealed bids will be opened in public for scrutiny and to guarantee that the State get the best market conditions available in regard to price, quality, financing, opportunity and other appropriate conditions.
When tender is not appropriate to guarantee the conditions mentioned in the previous paragraph, the law shall establish the bases, procedures, regulations, requirements and other conditions necessary to prove the good price, effectiveness, efficiency, impartiality and honesty of the process for the benefit of the State.
Management of federal economic resources by state governments, municipal governments, the Federal District Government and its political-administrative bodies shall be carried out observing the basis established in this article and the applicable statutory laws. Revision of the use of such resources shall be made by the technical state agencies mentioned in the second paragraph of this article.
Public servants shall be accountable for any violation committed against the provisions established in this article, according to the terms stated in the Title Four of this Constitution.
The public servants working in the federal, state and local governments, as well as the Federal District public servants are always obliged to impartially invest the public resources under their management and not to affect the equity of the competition between political parties.
Propaganda disseminated through any media by the government, the autonomous bodies, the government agencies or any other entity belonging to any of the three levels of government, shall be institutional and shall bring information, education or guiding. Such propaganda cannot include names, images, voices or symbols that imply the personal promotion of a public servant.
The laws shall, within their field, guarantee enforcement of the two previous paragraphs and shall define penalties to be applied to offenders.
