Constitutional history of Argentina

The manuscript of the Constitution of 1853.

The constitutionalism in Argentina was born with the first Regulation of 1811, which defined the powers between the Conservative Junta and the Triumvirate. It was not applied, because the Triumvirate replaced it by the Provisional Statute that same year. Subsequently, the Constituent General Assembly of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in its session on February 27, 1813 approved the Statute of the Supreme Executive Power, through which the Executive Power was organized and its faculties were established. In 1815 a provisional Statute was sanctioned and another in 1817, but its purpose was to organize the disorder of the moment.

The first Argentine constitution was sanctioned in 1819 by the Congress of Tucumán. It was of a centralist, conservative, pro-monarchical and aristocratic nature, which is why it was rejected by the provinces and was never put into practice. In particular, Brigadier General Estanislao López, caudillo of Santa Fe, who wanted the installation of a confederation, trying to impose his own constitution, in whose article 19, instituted for the first time in history, the direct vote of the people for the election of their representatives from a republican and federal organization. This is how Estanislao López came to power as governor of Santa Fe in 1819 through the popular vote. First democratic act carried out in all of Latin America and one of the first in the world (Busaniche, 1927).

About this Santa Fe Constitution, Busaniche himself (1927) says; «...it must be considered that it was the first province in which a republican constitution was issued; that there was no other republic in the world than the United States of North America and that submission to absolutism and an inclination to external pomp of command was so deeply rooted that only in 1815 did the custom of burning incense before the person in Buenos Aires come to an end. of the Supreme Director. This is how the courage of Estanislao López stands out, while Buenos Aires begged for the European courts, a monarch for the Río de la Plata until 1819.

After this first attempt, in 1824 a Constituent Congress was convened, which, in 1826, sanctioned a new constitution that failed like the first. It was also rejected by the provinces and failed to enter into force.

A convention held in Santa Fe to reform the constitution was ruined by the civil war of 1828-1831, which, however, led to the birth of the Federal Pact (1831), Argentina's virtual magna carta for years. This pact established that the government of the province of Buenos Aires (the largest and most populous, as well as the one with direct contact with Europe) was "in charge of the foreign relations of the Argentine Confederation."

The governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas (1829-1832 and 1835-1852), was reluctant to call a Constituent Congress that the Federal Pact demanded, so he had to wait for his dismissal by part of the Governor of Entre Ríos, Justo José de Urquiza, for its realization.

Draft Constitution of 1813

When the Second Triumvirate convened the Assembly of the Year XIII, one of its objectives was to draft a Constitution. While this point failed, several important issues could be resolved.

Constitution of 1819

She was sanctioned by the same Congress that three years before had declared Independence in Tucumán, moving to Buenos Aires to settle there and begin working on the drafting and elaboration of a Magna Carta. After carrying out an exhaustive study of the pre-existing Argentine legislation and of foreign constitutions such as that of the United States, France —especially that of 1791— and the liberal Spanish constitution of 1812, the commission that would be in charge of drafting and presenting the bill was appointed. Constitution project. Among its members were José Mariano Serrano, Diego Estanislao Zavaleta, Teodoro Sánchez de Bustamante, Juan José Paso and Antonio Sáenz.

The bill stipulated that executive power would be exercised by a Supreme Director elected by both houses of Congress, with his own State Council, who would serve for five years in office. power, being able to be re-elected only once. The legislative power would be made up of a Chamber of Senators, made up of a number of members equal to that of the provinces, three soldiers whose rank did not fall below Colonel Mayor, a bishop, three ecclesiastics, a representative from each university and the outgoing Supreme Director. The other Chamber would be made up of Deputies elected at the rate of one for every twenty-five thousand inhabitants and would have the initiative in tax matters and was in charge of promoting impeachment of high-ranking State officials. Judicial power would be exercised by a High Court of Justice made up of seven judges and two prosecutors appointed by the Director with the notice and consent of the Senate.

Approval

The draft Constitution was approved by Congress and entered into force on May 25, 1819, finding an enthusiastic reception from the people of Buenos Aires; on the contrary, it was immediately rejected by the interior provinces. The greatest criticism from the interior —Salta, San Juan, the Banda Oriental, Misiones, Entre Ríos, Corrientes and Santa Fe were not represented in Congress— was its net unitary character, when most of the provinces held a federal position..

Ultimately, the provinces rejected the document and the caudillos Santa Fe and Entre Ríos (Estanislao López and Francisco Ramírez respectively) decided to go to war against Buenos Aires. War in which the provinces rebelled against the Directory were victorious in the Battle of Cepeda on February 1, 1820, thereby causing the fall of the then Supreme Director, José Rondeau and beginning a period of crisis for the port city and its province, and autonomy for the interior provinces. After the Battle of Cepeda, the Congress was also dissolved, thus beginning the anarchy of the year 1820.

Constitution of 1826

In 1824 the province of Buenos Aires, governed by Gregorio de las Heras, invited the existing Río de la Plata provinces to a General Congress. Sixteen were the provinces that were part of the Congress: Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Oriental, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tarija and Tucumán. In the following years, Tarija and the Oriental province would cease to belong to the United Provinces -the first integrated Bolivia and the second Uruguay-, while Jujuy would declare its provincial autonomy in 1834, while Misiones would lose it until the middle of the 20th century..

On December 16 of that year, the General Representative Congress of the United Provinces of South America was installed, electing Manuel Antonio Castro as president. In its first meetings, the assembly began to discuss the possibility of drafting a national constitution and sanctioned on January 25, 1825 a provisional norm with the name of "Fundamental Law", composed of 8 articles, which established the order basic legal system of the country until the definitive sanction of the projected constitution. After two years of deliberations, Congress approved the Constitution on December 24, 1826, which did not come into force because it was not ratified by the provinces.

Features

In general terms, this Constitution was the same as that of 1819. Only now it was more complete and centralist. It established the division of powers:

• Executive branch: Exercised by the President of the Nation whose term of office would last five years, appointed in the second grade election, who among other powers appointed the provincial governors with the agreement of the Senate, who would not have autonomy and their budget should be approved by the National Congress.
• Legislative power: Bicameral, with Chamber of Deputies and Senators.
• Judiciary: A High Court of Justice - with 9 Judges and 2 Prosecutors - and the lower courts.

The most remarkable thing is that it listed a series of rights and guarantees that were included in the Constitution of 1853. It establishes the Catholic religion as the State religion; penalizes with the death penalty or banishment anyone who attempts or lends means to violate the Constitution; it prohibited the confiscation of property; the rights of citizenship were deprived of the defendant in a criminal case for which the death penalty could result. It also established the immobility of Judges and the non-diminution of salaries.

With the Unitarians skilfully owning the Congress and facing the struggles between Córdoba and Tucumán, Las Heras glimpsed that he could not continue exercising the Executive Power and on July 15, 1825 he decided to resign, which was rejected by the Assembly. It did not take long, and on February 6, 1826, Congress created the position of President of the Republic, and Bernardino Rivadavia was elected to fill the position, a figure deeply rejected by the interior, the true architect of the Constitution.

Once the Constitution was approved on December 24, 1826, the President appointed commissioners to convince the governors and provincial boards. Except for Tucumán, Catamarca and Salta, the provinces are in federal hands. And it is to these that the commissioners address themselves.

Rejection of the constitution

La Rioja, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Córdoba, Mendoza, Santiago del Estero, San Luis and Salta reject the Constitution but express the desire to continue the war with Brazil "without Congress or the president". The only province that accepts the Constitution is the Oriental, for obvious tactical reasons. Buenos Aires, which lacks authorities, does not speak.

Already at war with Brazil in 1827, Congress declared its own dissolution and that of the national Executive Power, leaving foreign relations and war in the hands of Buenos Aires. From this moment on, the country will be left without a national government and will enter into a fierce struggle between unitaries and federals, despite which the provinces with the same political tendency will unite through pacts, such as the Unitary League and the Federal Pact.

The lack of a national government would last until the Agreement of San Nicolás which gave rise to the Argentine Confederation and preceded the Argentine Constitution of 1853.

Constitution of 1853 and its reforms

The General Constituent Congress, held in 1853 in the city of Santa Fe, dictated the constitution of 1853, which is currently in force, with its reforms.

In 1860 the first reform to the constitution was carried out, due to the fact that the province of Buenos Aires, faced with the others (1852-1859), had no representatives in Congress.

The second reform (1866) was carried out only to eliminate from the text a couple of sentences that said “until 1866”.

The third reform (1898) changed the basis for the election of deputies and the article that refers to the ministers of the Executive Branch, raising them from five to eight.

In 1949, a broad reform to the constitution was carried out, carried out during the justicialist government of Juan Domingo Perón. This reform incorporated new political and social rights, established the equality of men and women, nationalized basic resources of the economy, declared private property as subordinate to social welfare, established universal, secret and direct voting, and allowed the indefinite re-election of the president., among other things. After the overthrow of Perón in 1955, the dictatorship that succeeded him repealed the Constitution and replaced the 1898 text. In 1957 a new reform convention met, excluding Peronism, which validated the repeal of the 1949 Constitution and compiled some labor rights. in the new article 14bis, before paralyzing its sessions due to lack of quorum.

The dictatorship that ruled the country in 1972 imposed by statute a series of reforms to the constitution as a condition for the 1973 elections. These included the election of president and deputies in a period of four years, in a double electoral round, among other. This reform was established for five years, during which time it had to be ratified by the National Congress, which did not happen as a result of the 1976 coup.

The last reform was carried out in 1994, and included the reduction of the presidential term to four years, its direct election and double round, the increase in the number of senators to three, with direct election, the creation of the Council of the Magistracy, the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers and several other figures. Incorporates international treaties

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