The+Mexican+Constitution+of+1917



Signed into law on February 5, 1917 the Mexican Constituiton has been the guiding document for Mexicans for almost 90 years. The constitutional convention began December 1, 1916 at the insistence of Venustiano Carranza, the man who had drafted the Plan de Guadalupe and sought to legally attain the presidency of Mexico (Keen, 293). Carranza had drafted a very conservative Constitution which was immeadeately changed by the radical left-wing led by Francisco Mugica, who is almost solely responsible for diminishing the Church's power in Mexico in Article 3 (Keen, 293) The constitution also sought to deal with labor reform, womens rights, citizenship and the Nationalization of Mexican resources. Some of the important Articles include

//Clause 1// " The maximum duration of work for one day shall be eight hours." //Clause 2// " The maximum duration of nightwork shall be seven hours [...]" //Clause 3// " The use of labor of minors under fourteen years of age is prohibited. Persons above that agae and less than sixteen shall have a maximum work day of six hours." //Clause 4//. " For every six days of work a worker must have at least one day of rest."
 * Article 1:** "Every person in the United Mexican States shall enjoy the guarantees granted by this Constitution, which cannot be restricted or suspended except in such cases and under such conditions as are herein provided."
 * Article 27:** "Ownership of the lands and waters within the boundaries of the national territory is vested originally in the Nation, which has had, and has, the right to transmit title thereof to private persons, thereby constituting private property."
 * Article 123:**

Keen, Benjamin and Haynes, Keith //The History of Latin America// Houghton Miffilin Company Boston 2004 Constituitonal text courtesy of http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid+123#Article27 Photo courtesy of http://zedillo.presidencia.gob.mx/welcome/image/varios/5febf.jpg