Article 73 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States

The Congress has the power:

I.To admit new States into the Federal Union;

II.Repealed.

III.To form new States within the limits of the existing ones, it being necessary for that purpose:

1st. That the section or sections that seek to be erected into States have a population of one hundred twenty thousand inhabitants, at least.

2nd. That it be proven before the Congress that it has sufficient elements to provide for its political existence.

3rd. That the Legislatures of the states (federal entities) whose territory is concerned be heard on the convenience or inconvenience of the erection of the new State, remaining obliged to give their report within six months, counted from the day on which the respective communication is sent to them.

4th. That the Executive of the Federation likewise be heard, which shall send its report within seven days counted from the date on which it is requested.

5th. That the erection of the new State be voted by two thirds of the deputies and senators present in their respective Chambers.

6th. That the resolution of the Congress be ratified by the majority of the Legislatures of the states (federal entities), after examination of the copy of the record, provided that the Legislatures of the states (federal entities) whose territory is concerned have given their consent.

7th. If the Legislatures of the states (federal entities) whose territory is concerned have not given their consent, the ratification referred to in the preceding section must be made by two thirds of the total of Legislatures of the other states (federal entities).

IV.Repealed.

V.To change the residence of the Supreme Powers of the Federation.

VI.Repealed;

VII.To impose the contributions necessary to cover the Budget.

VIII.In matters of public debt, to:

1st. Give bases on which the Executive may conclude loans and grant guarantees on the credit of the Nation, to approve those same loans and to recognize and order the payment of the national debt. No loan may be concluded except for the execution of works that directly produce an increase in the public revenues or, in terms of the law on the matter, those carried out with purposes of monetary regulation, the refinancing operations or restructuring of debt that must be carried out under the best market conditions; as well as those contracted during an emergency declared by the President of the Republic in the terms of article 29.

2nd. Approve annually the amounts of indebtedness that must be included in the revenue law, which the Government of the Federal District and the entities of its public sector may require, in accordance with the bases of the corresponding law. The Federal Executive shall inform the Congress of the Union annually on the exercise of said debt, for which purpose the Head of Government shall send it the report that on the exercise of the corresponding resources it has made. The Head of Government shall likewise inform the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, when rendering the public account.

3rd. Establish in the laws the general bases, so that the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities may incur indebtedness; the limits and modalities under which said orders of government may affect their respective participations to cover the loans and payment obligations that they contract; the obligation of said orders of government to register and publish the totality of their loans and payment obligations in a single public registry, in a timely and transparent manner; a system of alerts on debt management; as well as the sanctions applicable to the public officials who do not comply with its provisions. Said laws must be discussed first in the Chamber of Deputies in accordance with the provisions of section H of article 72 of this Constitution.

4th. The Congress of the Union, through the competent bicameral legislative commission, shall analyze the adjustment strategy to strengthen the public finances of the States, raised in the agreements that they intend to conclude with the Federal Government to obtain guarantees and, where appropriate, shall issue the observations that it deems pertinent within a maximum period of fifteen business days, including during the recess periods of the Congress of the Union. The foregoing shall apply in the case of the States that have high levels of debt in the terms of the law. Likewise, immediately upon the signing of the corresponding agreement, it shall be informed of the adjustment strategy for the Municipalities that are in the same situation, as well as of the agreements that, where appropriate, the States that do not have a high level of debt conclude;

IX.To prevent restrictions from being established in commerce between states (federal entities).

X.To legislate throughout the Republic on hydrocarbons, mining, chemical substances, explosives, pyrotechnics, the cinematographic industry, commerce, games with bets and raffles, intermediation and financial services, electrical and nuclear energy and to issue the labor laws regulating article 123;

XI.To create and suppress public offices of the Federation and to designate, increase or decrease their emoluments.

XII.To declare war, in view of the data that the Executive presents to it.

XIII.To issue laws according to which sea and land prizes must be declared good or bad, and to issue laws relating to maritime law of peace and war.

XIV.To raise and sustain the armed institutions of the Union, namely: National Army, Navy and Air Force, and to regulate their organization and service.

XV.Repealed.

XVI.To issue laws on nationality, legal status of foreigners, citizenship, naturalization, colonization, emigration and immigration and general health of the Republic.

1st. The General Health Council shall depend directly on the President of the Republic, without intervention of any Ministry of State, and its general provisions shall be mandatory in the country.

2nd. In case of epidemics of a serious nature or danger of invasion of exotic diseases in the country, the Ministry of Health shall have the obligation to immediately issue the indispensable preventive measures, subject to being later sanctioned by the President of the Republic.

3rd. The health authority shall be executive and its provisions shall be obeyed by the administrative authorities of the Country.

4th. The measures that the Council has put into force in the Campaign against alcoholism and the sale of substances that poison the individual or degenerate the human species, as well as those adopted to prevent and combat environmental pollution, shall later be reviewed by the Congress of the Union in the cases that are within its competence.

XVII.To issue laws on general means of communication, information and communication technologies, broadcasting, telecommunications, including broadband and the Internet, post offices and mail, and on the use and exploitation of the waters of federal jurisdiction.

XVIII.To establish mints, fix the conditions that it must have, issue rules to determine the relative value of foreign currency and adopt a general system of weights and measures;

XIX.To fix the rules to which the occupation and alienation of vacant lands and the price of these must be subject.

XX.To issue the laws of organization of the Mexican Diplomatic Corps and Consular Corps.

XXI.To issue:

a)The general laws that establish as a minimum, the criminal types and their sanctions in the matters of femicide, kidnapping, enforced disappearance of persons, other forms of deprivation of liberty contrary to the law, extortion, trafficking in persons, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as electoral.

The general laws shall also contemplate the distribution of competences and the forms of coordination between the Federation, the states (federal entities) and the Municipalities;

b)The legislation that establishes the crimes and offenses against the Federation and the penalties and sanctions that must be imposed for them; as well as to legislate on matters of organized crime;

c)The single legislation on criminal procedural matters, on alternative mechanisms for the resolution of controversies in criminal matters, on execution of penalties and on criminal justice for adolescents, which shall govern in the Republic in the federal order and in the common jurisdiction.

The federal authorities may hear the crimes of the common jurisdiction, when these have a connection with federal crimes or crimes against journalists, persons or installations that affect, limit or undermine the right to information or the freedoms of expression or of the press. They may also hear the measures or protection orders that derive from gender violence against women or from crimes of the common jurisdiction related to gender violence against women, in terms of the corresponding laws.

In the concurrent matters provided in this Constitution, the federal laws shall establish the cases in which the authorities of the common jurisdiction may hear and resolve on federal crimes;

XXII.To grant amnesties for crimes whose knowledge belongs to the courts of the Federation.

XXIII.To issue laws that, with respect for human rights, establish the bases of coordination between the Federation, the states (federal entities) and the Municipalities; organize the National Guard and the other institutions of public security in federal matters, in accordance with the provisions of article 21 of this Constitution; as well as the National Law on the Use of Force, and the National Law of the Registry of Detentions;

XXIII Bis. To issue the general law on matters of private security, which establishes:

a)The rules and the authority empowered to authorize and regulate the providers of private security services in all the national territory;

b)The rules of coordination between the persons authorized to provide private security services and the corresponding authorities of the Federation, the states (federal entities) and the municipalities, for the adequate organization and operation as auxiliaries of public security;

c)The coordination of those providers with the institutions of public security in situations of emergency and disaster, and

d)The aspects linked to the coordination and supervision of the complementary police in the country;

XXIV.To issue the laws that regulate the organization and powers of the Superior Audit Office of the Federation and the others that govern the management, control and evaluation of the Powers of the Union and of the federal public entities; as well as to issue the general law that establishes the bases of coordination of the National Anti-Corruption System referred to in article 113 of this Constitution;

XXV.To establish the System for the Career of Women and Men Teachers, in terms of article 3 of this Constitution; to establish, organize and sustain in all the Republic rural, elementary, upper middle, higher, secondary and professional schools; of scientific research, of fine arts and of technical education, practical schools of agriculture and of mining, of arts and crafts, museums, libraries, observatories and other institutes concerning the general culture of the inhabitants of the nation and to legislate in all that refers to said institutions; to legislate on vestiges or fossil remains and on archaeological, artistic and historical monuments, whose conservation is of national interest; as well as to issue the laws aimed at conveniently distributing among the Federation, the states (federal entities) and the Municipalities the exercise of the educational function and the economic contributions corresponding to that public service, seeking to unify and coordinate education in all the Republic, and to ensure compliance with the purposes of education and its continuous improvement in a framework of inclusion and diversity. The Degrees issued by the establishments in question shall have their effects in all the Republic. To legislate on matters of copyright and other figures of intellectual property related to it;

XXVI.To grant leave to the President of the Republic and to constitute itself as an Electoral College and designate the citizen who must substitute the President of the Republic, whether with the character of interim or substitute, in the terms of articles 84 and 85 of this Constitution;

XXVII.To accept the resignation from the office of President of the Republic.

XXVIII.To issue laws on matters of governmental accounting that shall govern public accounting and the homogeneous presentation of financial, revenue and expenditure information, as well as patrimonial information, for the Federation, the states (federal entities), the Municipalities and the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, in order to guarantee their harmonization at the national level;

XXIX.To establish contributions:

1st. On foreign trade;

2nd. On the use and exploitation of the natural resources included in paragraphs 4 and 5 of article 27;

3rd. On credit institutions and insurance companies;

4th. On public services concessioned or directly exploited by the Federation; and

5th. Special ones on:

a)Electrical energy;

b)Production and consumption of manufactured tobacco;

c)Gasoline and other products derived from petroleum;

d)Matches and phosphorus;

e)Mead and products of its fermentation; and

f)Forestry exploitation.

g)Production and consumption of beer.

The states (federal entities) shall participate in the yield of these special contributions, in the proportion that the federal secondary law determines. The local legislatures shall fix the percentage corresponding to the Municipalities, in their revenues by concept of the tax on electrical energy.

XXIX-A. To issue the general law that establishes the principles and bases on matters of alternative mechanisms for the resolution of controversies, with the exception of criminal matters;

XXIX-B. To legislate on the characteristics and use of the National Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem.

XXIX-C. To issue the laws that establish the concurrence of the Federal Government, of the states (federal entities), of the Municipalities and, where appropriate, of the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, on matters of human settlements, in order to fulfill the purposes provided in the third paragraph of article 27 of this Constitution, as well as on matters of mobility and road safety;

XXIX-D. To issue laws on national planning of economic and social development, as well as on matters of statistical and geographic information of national interest;

XXIX-E. To issue laws for the programming, promotion, concertation and execution of actions of economic order, especially those referring to supply and others whose purpose is the sufficient and timely production of goods and services, socially and nationally necessary.

XXIX-F. To issue laws tending to the promotion of Mexican investment, the regulation of foreign investment, the transfer of technology and the generation, dissemination and application of scientific and technological knowledge that national development requires. Likewise, to legislate on matters of science, technology and innovation, establishing general bases of coordination between the Federation, the states (federal entities), the Municipalities and the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, as well as the participation of the social and private sectors, in order to consolidate the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation;

XXIX-G. To issue laws that establish the concurrence of the Federal Government, of the governments of the states (federal entities), of the Municipalities and, where appropriate, of the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, on matters of protection of the environment, preservation and restoration of the ecological equilibrium; and of protection and welfare of animals;

XXIX-H. To issue the law that institutes the Federal Court of Administrative Justice, endowed with full autonomy to issue its rulings, and that establishes its organization, its operation and the remedies to challenge its resolutions.

The Court shall have in its charge the settling of the controversies that arise between the federal public administration and private parties.

Likewise, it shall be the competent organ to impose the sanctions on the public officials for the administrative responsibilities that the law determines as serious and on the private parties that participate in acts linked to said responsibilities, as well as to charge the responsible parties the payment of the compensation (indemnity) and pecuniary sanctions that derive from the damages and injuries that affect the Federal Public Treasury or the patrimony of the federal public entities.

The Court shall function in Plenary or in Regional Chambers.

The Superior Chamber of the Court shall be composed of sixteen Magistrates and shall act in Plenary or in Sections, of which one shall correspond to the resolution of the procedures referred to in the third paragraph of this section.

The Magistrates of the Superior Chamber shall be designated by the President of the Republic and ratified by the vote of two thirds of the members present of the Senate of the Republic or, during its recesses, by the Permanent Commission. They shall last in their office fifteen non-extendable years.

The Magistrates of Regional Chamber shall be designated by the President of the Republic and ratified by majority of the members present of the Senate of the Republic or, during its recesses, by the Permanent Commission. They shall last in their office ten years and may be considered for new appointments.

The Magistrates may only be removed from their offices for the serious causes that the law indicates.

XXIX-I. To issue laws that establish the bases on which the Federation, the states (federal entities), the Municipalities and, where appropriate, the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, shall coordinate their actions on matters of civil protection;

XXIX-J. To legislate on matters of physical culture and sport in order to fulfill the provisions of article 4 of this Constitution, establishing the concurrence between the Federation, the states (federal entities), the Municipalities and, where appropriate, the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences; as well as the participation of the social and private sectors;

XXIX-K. To issue laws on matters of tourism, establishing the general bases of coordination of the concurrent powers between the Federation, the states (federal entities), the Municipalities and, where appropriate, the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, as well as the participation of the social and private sectors;

XXIX-L. To issue laws that establish the concurrence of the federal government, of the governments of the states (federal entities) and of the municipalities, within the scope of their respective competences, on matters of fishing and aquaculture, as well as the participation of the social and private sectors, and

XXIX-M. To issue laws on matters of national security, establishing the requirements and limits to the corresponding investigations.

XXIX-N. To issue laws on matters of constitution, organization, operation and extinction of cooperative societies. These laws shall establish the bases for the concurrence on matters of promotion and sustainable development of the cooperative activity of the Federation, states (federal entities), Municipalities and, where appropriate, territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences;

XXIX-Ñ. To issue laws that establish the bases on which the Federation, the states (federal entities), the Municipalities and, where appropriate, the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, shall coordinate their actions on matters of culture, except for the provisions of section XXV of this article. Likewise, they shall establish the mechanisms of participation of the social and private sectors, in order to fulfill the purposes provided in the twelfth paragraph of article 4 of this Constitution.

XXIX-O. To legislate on matters of protection of personal data in the possession of private parties.

XXIX-P. To issue laws that establish the concurrence of the Federation, the states (federal entities), the Municipalities and, where appropriate, the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, on matters of rights of girls, boys and adolescents, ensuring at all times the best interest of the same, as well as on matters of formation and integral development of youth, complying with the international treaties on the matter of which Mexico is a party;

XXIX-Q. To legislate on citizen initiative and popular consultations.

XXIX-R. To issue the general laws that harmonize and homologate the organization and the operation of the civil registries, the public real estate and of legal persons registries of the states (federal entities) and the municipal cadastres;

XXIX-S. To issue the general regulatory laws that develop the principles and bases on matters of governmental transparency, access to information and protection of personal data in the possession of the authorities, entities, organs and governmental organisms of all levels of government.

XXIX-T. To issue the general law that establishes the organization and homogeneous administration of the archives of the Federation, of the states (federal entities), of the Municipalities and of the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, and determines the bases of organization and operation of the National System of Archives.

XXIX-U. To issue the general laws that distribute competences between the Federation and the states (federal entities) on matters of political parties; electoral organisms, and electoral processes, in accordance with the bases provided in this Constitution.

XXIX-V. To issue the general law that distributes competences between the orders of government to establish the administrative responsibilities of the public officials, their obligations, the sanctions applicable for the acts or omissions in which they incur and those that correspond to the private parties linked to serious administrative offenses that it provides for, as well as the procedures for their application.

XXIX-W. To issue laws on matters of treasury responsibility whose object is the sustainable management of the public finances in the Federation, the States, Municipalities and the Federal District, based on the principle established in the second paragraph of article 25;

XXIX-X. To issue the general law that establishes the concurrence of the federation, the states (federal entities), the municipalities and, where appropriate, the territorial demarcations of Mexico City, within the scope of their respective competences, on matters of rights of the victims.

XXIX-Y. To issue the national law that establishes the principles and obligations to which the orders of government must be subject, on matters of administrative simplification and digitalization of procedures and services, good regulatory practices, development and strengthening of public technological capacities;

XXIX-Z. To issue the general law that establishes the principles and bases to which the orders of government must be subject, within the scope of their respective competence, on matters of civic and itinerant justice, and

XXX.To issue the single legislation on civil and family procedural matters, as well as on extinction of domain in the terms of article 22 of this Constitution;

XXXI.To issue laws that regulate and establish requirements and limits for the participation of the Army, Navy and Air Force on matters of interior security and in tasks of support to public security, and

XXXII.To issue all the laws that are necessary, in order to make effective the previous powers, and all the others granted by this Constitution to the Powers of the Union.