Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

The President of the Republic symbolizes the national unity and, on taking the oath of office to abide by the Constitution and the laws, he/she pledges to guarantee the rights and freedoms of all Colombians.

It is the responsibility of the President of the Republic, as the chief of state, head of the government, and supreme administrative authority to do the following:

Appoint and dismiss freely Cabinet ministers and directors of administrative departments.

Direct international relations; appoint the members of the diplomatic and consular corps; receive the corresponding foreign officials; and make international treaties or agreements with other states and international bodies to be submitted to the approval of Congress.

Direct the public force and its disposition as supreme commander of the armed forces of the Republic.

Conserve the public order throughout the territory and restore it where it has been disturbed.

Direct military operations when he/she deems it appropriate.

Provide for the external security of the Republic; defend the independence and honor of the nation and the inviolability of its territory; declare war with the approval of the Senate or without such authorization to repel foreign aggression; and agree to and ratify peace treaties, regarding all of which matters the President shall give an immediate account to Congress.

Authorize, during a recess of the Senate and with the prior opinion of the Council of State, the transit of foreign troops across the territory of the Republic.

Install and close the sessions of Congress in each legislative term.

Approve the statutes.

Promulgate the statutes, obey them, and oversee their strict execution.

Exercise the power to regulate through the issuing of decrees, resolutions, and orders necessary for the execution of the statutes.

Present a report to Congress at the beginning of each legislative term regarding the measures of the administration, regarding the execution of the plans and programs of economic and social development, and regarding the bills which the government proposes to move forward during the new legislative term.

Appoint the presidents, directors, or managers of national public institutions and individuals who must occupy national office, positions not to be filled through competitive examinations or which are not covered by other officials or bodies, according to the Constitution or the statute.

In any case, the Government retains the ability (tiene la facultad) to freely name and remove its agents.

Create, merge, or dissolve, according to an Act, positions required by the central administration, define their special functions, and determine their benefits and emoluments. The government may not create, at Treasury expense, obligations that exceed the total amount allocated for the respective service in the initial appropriations law.

Eliminate or merge national administrative entities or organs in accordance with the applicable statute.

Modify the structure of the ministries, administrative departments, and other national administrative entities or organs, according to the principles and general regulations defined by an Act.

Assign work according to its nature among ministries, administrative departments, and public institutions.

Grant permission to national public employees who may request it to accept, on a temporary basis, responsibilities or benefits from foreign governments.

Confer ranks to the members of the public force and submit for the approval of the Senate those that fall under Article 173.

Oversee the strict collection and administration of public revenues and credits and decree their investment in accordance with the relevant statutes.

Effect the inspection and oversight of education in accordance with the relevant statute.

Effect the inspection and oversight of the provision of public services.

Make contracts falling under his/her jurisdiction in accordance with the Constitution and statute.

Effect, in accordance with the relevant statute, the inspection, oversight, and control of individuals who undertake financial, stock market, insurance, and any other activities connected with the management, use, or investment of resources collected from the public. Similarly, those involving cooperative entities and commercial companies.

Organize the public credit; determine the national debt and arrange for its servicing; amend the customs duties, tariffs, and other provisions concerning customs; regulate foreign trade; and effect intervention in financial, stock exchange, insurance, and any other activities connected with the management, use, and investment of resources originating from the saving of third parties in accordance with the relevant statute.

Effect the inspection and oversight of institutions of public necessity so that their revenues may be protected and be properly applied and so that everything that is essential should be implemented according to the wishes of the founders.

Grant temporary patents to inventors of useful improvements in accordance with the applicable statute.

Issue naturalization certificates, in accordance with the relevant statute.

The President of the Republic shall be elected for a period of four years by one-half plus one of the ballots which, in secret and direct manner, the citizens shall cast on the date and following the procedures determined by an Act. If no candidate should secure the said majority, a runoff election shall be held three weeks later when only those two candidates who received the most votes in the first round of balloting shall participate. The candidate with the larger number of votes shall be declared President.

In the case of the death or permanent physical incapacity of either of the two candidates receiving the majority of votes, his/her party or political movement may enter a new candidate for the runoff election. If the party or movement fails to do so or if the vacancy stems from another reason, that candidate shall be replaced by whoever won third place in the first round and so on in successive and descending order.

Should the vacancy occur less than two weeks before the second round of balloting, the latter shall be postponed by 15 days.

In order to be President of the Republic, an individual must be Colombian by birth, a citizen in good standing, and over 30 years of age.

The President of the Republic shall assume his/her office before Congress and shall take the following oath: “I swear to God and promise to the people to faithfully execute the Constitution and the laws of Colombia.”

If, for any reason, the President should be unable to assume his/her office before Congress, he/she shall do so before the Supreme Court of Justice or, failing that, before two witnesses.

It is the responsibility of the Senate to grant its approval to the President of the Republic to be temporarily relieved of his/her duties.

On account of sickness, the President of the Republic may be relieved of his/her duties, for the necessary period, following the advice of the Senate or, if it is in recess, the Supreme Court of Justice.

A permanent vacancy in the office of the President of the Republic occurs at his/her death; his/her accepted resignation; his/her removal from office decreed as a judgment; and finally, permanent physical incapacity and relinquishment of duties, these last two being declared by the Senate. A temporary vacancy in the office occurs following permission for leave of absence and sickness, in accordance with the previous article, and suspension in the President’s exercise of responsibility decreed by the Senate or a prior public admission by the President of a charge in cases anticipated in numeral 1, Article 175.

The acting chief executive shall have the same privileges and the same powers as the President whom he/she replaces.

The President of the Republic, or whoever replaces him/her, may not move abroad during the exercises of his/her office without prior notification sent to the Senate or, if it is in recess, the Supreme Court of Justice.

A violation of this provision implies relinquishment of his/her office.

The President of the Republic, or whichever official has occupied the presidency, shall not be entitled to leave the country during the year following the date when he/she stopped exercising his/her functions without the prior permission of the Senate.

When the President of the Republic travels abroad as part of his/her duties, the appropriate minister, according to the order of legal precedence, shall exercise under his/her own responsibility the constitutional functions that the President should delegate to him/her, both those which pertain to the minister as well as those that he/she exercises in the capacity of head of government. The delegated minister shall belong to the same party or political movement as the President.

Any citizen, regardless of title, who has functioned as a President cannot be elected President of the Republic. This prohibition does not apply to the Vice President when taking office for less than three months, in a continuous or discontinuous manner during the four-year period. The prohibition against reelection can only be reformed or derogated through a referendum of popular initiative or constitutional assembly.

No citizen can be elected as President of the Republic or as a Vice President if that person has incurred in any of the acts of incompetence established in the numerals 1, 4, and 7 of the Article 179, nor the citizen that a year before the election has had the investiture of Vice President or exercised any of the following positions:

Minister, Director of an Administrative Department, Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, of the Constitutional Court, of the Council of State, of the National Commission of Judicial Discipline, Member of the Commission of Immunity or the National Election Commission, General Prosecutor of the Nation, Ombudsman, Controller General of the Republic, Attorney General of the Nation, National Registrar of the Civil Status, Commanders of the Armed Forces, Auditor General of the Republic, Director General of the Police, Departmental Governor, or Mayor.

The President of the Republic or whoever replaces him/her shall be responsible for his/her acts of commission or omission that violate the Constitution or the laws.

The President of the Republic, during the period for which he/she is elected or whoever is entrusted with the presidency, may not be prosecuted or tried for crimes except following an indictment by the House of Representatives and when the Senate shall have declared that there are grounds for a bill of particulars.

In its relations with Congress, the Government has the following duties:

Help draft the statutes, present bills through ministers, exercise the right of objecting to them, and approve them in accordance with the Constitution.

Convoke Congress to special sessions.

Present the national development and public investment plan, in accordance with the provisions in Article 150.

Send to the House of Representatives the budget bill of revenues and expenditures.

Provide the Houses reports that they solicited on issues that do not call for secrecy.

Lend effective support the Houses when the latter request it, placing at their disposal the public force if necessary.

It is the duty of the government to do the following in relation with the judiciary branch:

Lend to the judicial officials the necessary assistance to make their decisions effective, in accordance with the applicable statutes.

Grant pardons, reprieves, or amnesties for political crimes, in accordance with an Act, and inform Congress about the exercise of this power. In no case may these exonerations involve the responsibility which the grantees of the exonerations may have vis-à-vis private individuals.

The Vice President of the Republic shall be elected by popular vote on the same day and in the same manner as the President of the Republic.

The candidates for the runoff election, if there should be one, shall in each case be those who participated in the general election.

The Vice President shall hold office for the same period as the President and shall replace the President in case of temporary or permanent presidential vacancy, even if such a vacancy should occur before the assumption by the President of his/her office.

In case of a temporary vacancy in the position of President of the Republic, it shall be sufficient that the Vice President should take possession of the President’s position as soon as possible so that he/she may exercise it whenever necessary. In case of a permanent vacancy in the position of the President of the Republic, the Vice President shall assume the office until the end of the term.

The President of the Republic shall be able to entrust to the Vice President missions or special duties and to assign to him/her any responsibility of the executive branch. The Vice President may not assume the functions of Minister-Delegate.

When there is a vacancy in the position of Vice President because the latter is assuming the presidency, the former office shall be assumed by a minister in the order of precedence established by statute. The individual who, in accordance with this Article, replaces the President shall belong to the same party or movement and shall exercise the presidency until such time as Congress, in its own right and within the 30 days following the date when the presidential vacancy occurs, elects the Vice President who shall assume the presidency of the Republic.

In order to be elected Vice President the same qualifications are required which are needed to be President of the Republic.

In case of a permanent vacancy in the position of Vice President, Congress shall meet in its own right or on convocation by the President of the Republic in order to elect whoever has to fill the office for the rest of the term. A permanent vacancy in the position of Vice President is created by his/her death, his/her accepted resignation, or permanent physical disability recognized by Congress.

The number, designation, and order of precedence of the ministries and administrative departments shall be determined by statute.

In order to be a minister or director of an administrative department, the same qualifications are mandated as for representative in the House.

The Ministers and directors of administrative departments are the heads of public administration within their respective remit. Under the direction of the President of the Republic, it is their responsibility to formulate policies pertaining to their portfolio, direct the administrative operations, and execute the relevant statutes.

The ministers, in relation with the Congress, are spokesmen of the government, present government bills to the Houses, respond to the requests that the Houses make to them, and take part in debates directly or through deputy ministers.

The ministers and directors of administrative departments shall present to the Congress, within the first 15 days of each legislative term, a report on the state of affairs assigned to their ministry or administrative department and on the reforms that they consider appropriate.

The Houses may request the assistance of the ministers, the permanent committees, the deputy ministers, directors of administrative departments, the manager of the Bank of the Republic, the presidents, directors, or managers of the decentralized entities at the national level, and that of other functionaries of the executive branch of government.

The administrative function is at the service of the general interest and is developed on the basis of the principles of equality, morality, efficiency, economy, speed, impartiality, and publicity through the decentralization, delegation, and deconcentration of functions.

The administrative authorities must coordinate their actions for the appropriate fulfillment of the purposes of the State. The public administration, at all levels, shall have an internal control that shall be exercised within the limits stipulated by an Act.

The entities of the decentralized national services may only be created by statute or through its authorization, based on the principles that guide administrative activity. Individuals may carry out administrative functions under the conditions stipulated by an Act.

An Act shall establish the juridical regime of the decentralized entities and the responsibilities of their chairmen, directors, or managers.

An Act shall stipulate the functions that the President of the Republic may delegate to the ministers, directors of administrative departments, legal representatives of decentralized entities, superintendents, governors, mayors, and agencies of the State which the same law determines. Similarly, it shall determine the conditions under which the administrative authorities may delegate responsibilities to their subsidiaries or other authorities.

The delegation exempts the delegator from responsibility, which shall fall exclusively on the one being delegated with authority and whose actions or resolutions may always be amended or revoked by the delegator, who would then reassume the consequent responsibility.

An Act shall establish what recourse is available against the actions of those holding delegated authority.