Colombia 1991 Constitution (reviewed 2015)

TITLE XI. On the Territorial Organization

Chapter I. General Provisions

Article 285

Outside of the general division of the territory, there shall be divisions determined by statute for the exercise of the functions and services for which the State is responsible.

Article 286

Departments, districts, municipalities, and indigenous reservations are territorial entities.

An Act may grant the status of territorial entities to the regions and provinces that are formed under the terms of the Constitution and the relevant statute.

Article 287

Territorial entities enjoy autonomy for the management of their interests within the limits of the Constitution and the relevant statute. By virtue of this they shall have the following rights:

1. To govern themselves under their own authorities.
2. To exercise the jurisdictions appropriate to them.
3. To administer their resources and establish the taxes necessary for the exercise of their functions.
4. To participate in national revenues.

Article 288

The Institutional Act on Territorial Organization shall establish the distribution of powers between the Nation and the territorial entities.

The powers assigned to the various territorial levels shall be exercised in accordance with the principles of coordination, competition, and subsidiarity under the terms stipulated by statute.

Article 289

Under the authority of an Act, the departments and municipalities located in border areas may promote directly with the territorial entity bordering on the neighboring country on a level of equality, cooperation, and integration, programs whose purpose is to promote community development, the lending of public services, and the protection of the environment.

Article 290

With the execution of the requirements and formalities stipulated by statute, and in the cases determined therefrom, the periodic review of the borders of territorial entities shall be effected and the official map of the Republic shall be published.

Article 291

The members of the public associations of territorial entities may not accept any position in the public administration if doing so would make them lose their investiture.

The controllers and agents may be involved in the joint administrative boards and councils within which they operate in the respective territorial entities only when they are expressly invited for specific purposes.

Article 292

The deputies and councilors and their kin up to the degree stipulated by statute are prohibited from participating in executive boards of the decentralized entities of the respective department, district, or municipality.

Spouses or permanent companions of the deputies and councilors may not be designated officials of corresponding territorial entity if they are kin to the second level of consanguinity, first of affinity or merely civil.

Article 293

Without prejudice to what is established in the Constitution, an Act shall determine the qualifications, disabilities, incompatibilities, date of possession, durations of sessions, absolute or temporary disqualifications, causes of expulsion, and forms of filling the vacancies of the citizens who may be elected by popular vote for the implementation of the public functions in the territorial entities. An Act shall also stipulate the other necessary provisions for their election and performance of their functions.

Article 294

An Act may not concede exemptions nor preferential treatment in relation to the property taxes of the territorial entities. Nor may it impose surtaxes on top of taxes except as stipulated in Article 317.

Article 295

The territorial entities may issue public notes and bonds of public debt, subject to the conditions of the financial market, and also to contract foreign credit, all of this in accordance with the Act regulating the matter.

Article 296

For the preservation of the public order or for its restoration where it has been disturbed, the decrees and orders of the President of the Republic shall be applied forthwith and preferentially over measures decreed by the governors; the decrees and orders of governors shall be applied in similar manner and with the same effects in relation to the measures of mayors.

Chapter II. On the Departmental Regime

Article 297

The National Congress may decree the formation of new departments as long as the requirements mandated in the Institutional Act of Territorial Planning are completed and once the procedures, studies, and popular consultation are verified.

Article 298

The departments enjoy autonomy for the administration of sectional matters as well as the planning and promotion of economic and social development within their territory and within the limits established by the Constitution.

The departments exercise administrative functions of coordination, dovetailing with municipal action, intermediation between the nation and the municipalities, and the lending of the services determined by the Constitution and the relevant statutes.

An Act shall regulate matters connected with the exercise of the powers which the Constitution grants the departments.

Article 299

In each department there shall be a popularly elected political-administrative body known as departmental assembly, which shall be composed of no fewer than eleven (11) nor more than thirty-one (31) members. This body shall enjoy administrative autonomy and have its own budget, and may exercise political control over the departmental administration.

The regime of disqualifications and incompatibilities of the deputies shall be determined by statute. It may not be less strict than the one provided for with regard to members of Congress for the corresponding matters. The term of the deputies shall be four years, and they shall have the status of civil servants.

In order to be elected deputy a person has to be a citizen of full capacity, must not have been sentenced to imprisonment, except for political offenses or misdemeanors, and must have resided in the respective constituency in the year immediately prior to the election.

The members of the Departmental Assembly shall have the right to allowances during the relevant sessions, and shall be provided with a regime of benefits and social security, in the terms established by statute.

Article 300

The departmental assemblies, by means of ordinances, exercise the following powers:

1. To regulate the exercise of the functions and the provision of services for which the department is responsible.
2. To enact the regulations connected with the planning, economic and social development, financial support of and borrowing to the municipalities, tourism, transportation, the environment, public works, means of communication, and development of their border areas.
3. To adopt, in accordance with an Act, the plans and programs of economic and social development and public works, with the determination of investments and means that are considered necessary to promote their execution and to secure their completion.
4. To decree, in accordance with an Act, the taxes and levies necessary for the execution of the departmental functions.
5. To enact the organic rules on the departmental budget and the annual budget of revenues and expenditures.
6. To create and eliminate, subject to the requirements stipulated by statute, municipalities, segregate or aggregate municipal territories, and organize provinces.
7. To determine the structure of the departmental administration, the functions of their dependencies, the scales of remuneration appropriate to the various categories of employment; create the public institutions and industrial or commercial enterprises of the department, and authorize the formation of mixed [public-private] companies.
8. To issue policy directives on any matter that is not regulated by statute.
9. To authorize the Governor of the Department to make contracts, negotiate loans, transfer goods and exercise, temporarily, specific functions of those which correspond to the Departmental Assemblies.
10. To regulate, concurrently with the municipality, the areas of sports, education, and public health within the limits determined by statute.
11. To request reports on the exercise of their respective functions from the Controller General of the Department, the Cabinet Secretary, the chiefs of the administrative departments and the directors of the decentralized entities at the departmental level.
12. To fulfill the other functions assigned to them by the Constitution and the statute.The plans and programs of development and public works shall be coordinated and integrated with the municipal, regional, and national plans and programs.

    The ordinances referred to in subparagraphs 3, 5, and 7 of this article, those which decree investments, shares, or the transfer of departmental revenues and property, and those that create services for which the department is responsible or from whom the responsibility is transferred to may be enacted or amended only upon the initiative of the Governor.

13. To summon and invite the secretaries of the office of the Governor to attend the sessions of the assembly. The summons must be made not less than five days prior to a session and be formulated in the form of a written questionnaire. In case the secretaries do not attend, without an excuse accepted by the assembly, the latter may table a motion of censure. The secretaries must be heard at the session for which they were summoned, without prejudice to the possibility that the discussion is continued at subsequent sessions following a decision of the assembly. The discussion may not extend to other issues than those in the questionnaire and shall be placed at the top of the session’s agenda.
14. To table a motion of censure with respect to the secretaries of the office of the Governor for matters related to their official functions, or for ignoring the requests or summons of the assembly. The motion of censure must be tabled by one third of the members who make up the assembly. The vote shall take place between the third and 10th day following the end of the discussion, with a public hearing of the respective official. Approval of the motion shall require the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members of the relevant body. Once the motion is approved, the official shall be relieved of his/her functions. If it is voted down, no new motion of censure may be proposed on the same matter unless it is supported by new facts. The resignation of the official against which the censure motion has been tabled does not prevent the latter from being approved in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

Article 301

An Act shall stipulate the cases and the specific functions which the assemblies may delegate in the municipal councils. At any moment, the assemblies may reassume the exercise of the delegated functions.

Article 302

An Act may establish for one or several departments various qualifications and jurisdictions of administrative and fiscal management different from those stipulated for them in the Constitution, with attention to the need of improving the administration or lending of public services in accordance with their population, economic and natural resources, and social, cultural, and ecological circumstances.

In order to elaborate on the above, an Act may delegate to one or several departments the powers pertaining to national public organs or entities.

Article 303

In each of the departments there shall be a governor who shall be the head of the sectional administration and legal representative of the department; the governor shall be the agent of the President of the Republic for the maintenance of the public order and for the execution of the general economic policy as well as for those matters which, through agreements, the nation agrees to delegate to the department. The governors shall be elected for periods of four years and may not be reelected for the subsequent term.

An Act shall determine the qualifications, requirements, disabilities, and incompatibilities of the governors; shall regulate their election; shall determine the cases in which they are permanently or temporarily prevented from discharge of their official duties, and regulate the manner in which the vacancy resulting in these cases is filled; and shall stipulate the other provisions necessary for the normal execution of their responsibilities.

Provided that the governor is permanently prevented from discharging the duties of his/her office for more than eighteen (18) months before the end of his/her term, a Governor shall be elected for the remaining period. In case the end of the term is less than eighteen (18) months away, the President of the Republic shall appoint a governor for the rest of the term, who must belong to the party, political group or coalition for which the elected governor had been registered.

Article 304

The President of the Republic, in the restricted cases stipulated by an Act, may suspend or remove governors from office.

The regime of disabilities and incompatibilities applying to them shall be no less strict than that established for the President of the Republic.

Article 305

The Governor exercises the following powers:

1. To execute the Constitution and enforce it as well as the statutes, government decrees, and ordinances of the departmental assemblies.
2. To direct and coordinate the department’s administrative actions and to act in its name as manager and promoter of the complete development of its territory, in accordance with the Constitution and laws.
3. To direct and coordinate national services as delegated to the governor by the President of the Republic.
4. To present to the departmental assembly in a timely manner proposals for ordinances regarding plans and programs of economic and social development, public works, and the annual budget of revenues and expenditures.
5. To appoint and to remove freely managers or directors of public institutions and of industrial or commercial enterprises of the department. The representatives of the department on the executive boards of such entities and the directors or managers of same are agents of the Governor.
6. In accordance with general plans and programs, to encourage enterprises, industries, and activities which correspond to the cultural, social and economic development of the department and do not fall under the responsibility of the Nation or the municipalities.
7. To create, eliminate, and merge positions in the department’s dependencies, to define their special functions and to fix their remuneration subject to statute and the respective ordinances. He/she may not create obligations at the expense of the departmental treasury that exceed the global amount specified for the respective service in the budget as initially approved.
8. To eliminate or merge departmental entities in accordance with ordinances.
9. To veto on grounds of unconstitutionality, illegality, or unsuitability proposed ordinances, or to approve and promulgate them.
10. To examine the acts of municipal councils and mayors and, on grounds of unconstitutionality or illegality, submit them to the competent Tribunal so that it may decide on their validity.
11. To see to the accurate collection of departmental revenues, revenues of the decentralized entities, and of those which may be the object of transfers by the nation.
12. To convene the departmental assembly for special sessions in which it shall only consider the issues and matters for which it was summoned.
13. To select from the lists submitted by the respective national head of administration the managers or sectional heads of public institutions at the national level which operate in the department, in accordance with the relevant statute.
14. To exercise administrative functions that the President of the Republic may delegate.
15. Other powers specified by the Constitution, laws, and ordinances.

Article 306

Two or more departments may organize themselves as administrative and planning regions with legal personality, autonomy, and their own resources. Their principal purpose shall be the economic and social development of the respective territory.

Article 307

The respective Institutional Act, subject to the prior plan of the Committee of Territorial Planning, shall establish the conditions to solicit the conversion of the region into a territorial entity. The decision taken by Congress shall be submitted in each case to a referendum by the citizens of the departments concerned.

The same law shall establish the powers, organs of administration, and resources of the regions and their participation in the handling of revenues originating from the National Endowment Fund. It shall also define the principles for the adoption of the special statute of each region.

Article 308

An Act may limit the departmental appropriations earmarked for the honoraria of deputies and the operating expenses of the assemblies and departmental controllers’ offices.

Article 309

It shall be necessary to transform into a department the districts of Arauca, Casanare, Putumayo, the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina and the police districts (comisarías) of Amazonas, Guaviare, Guainia, Vaupés, and Vichada. The assets and rights which used to belong to the intendencies (intendencias) and police stations on any account shall continue being the property of the respective departments.

Article 310

The department of San Andrés Archipelago, Providencia, and Santa Catalina shall be regulated, in addition to the provision in the Constitution and the statutes for the other departments, by special provisions which in administrative, immigration, fiscal, foreign trade, exchange, financial, and economic development matters shall be established by the legislative.

By means of a law approved by the majority of the members of each House, it shall be possible to limit the exercise of the rights of movement and residence, establish controls on the density of population, regulate the use of the land, and submit to special conditions the transfer of immovable property in order to protect the cultural identity of the native [Indian] communities and preserve the environment and natural resources of the archipelago.

Through the creation of the municipalities that may occur, the departmental assembly shall guarantee the institutional expression of the original communities of San Andrés. The municipality of Providencia shall have a share of no less than twenty percent of the total value of said departmental revenues.

Chapter III. On the Municipal Regime

Article 311

As the fundamental entity of the political-administrative division of the State, it is the responsibility of the municipality to lend those public services determined by statute, to build the projects required for local progress, to arrange for the development of its territory, to promote community participation, the social and cultural betterment of its inhabitants, and to execute the other functions assigned to it by the Constitution and the statutes.

Article 312

In each municipality there shall be a political-administrative body popularly elected for periods of four years which shall be known as the municipal council, composed by no fewer than 7 and no more than 21 members, in accordance with the determination made by an Act based on the respective population. This body may exercise political control over the municipal administration.

An Act shall determine the qualifications, disabilities, and incompatibilities of the councilors and the schedule of the ordinary sessions of the councils. The councilors shall not have the status of public employees.

An Act may determine the cases in which the councilors shall be entitled to allowances for their attendance at sessions.

The acceptance of any public employment means that the respective councilor is prevented permanently from the discharge of his/her duties.

Article 313

The councils have the following competences:

1. To regulate the functions and efficient delivery of the services for which the municipality is responsible.
2. To adopt the appropriate plans and programs of economic and social development and of public works.
3. To authorize the mayor to make contracts and exercise temporarily specific functions among those for which the council is responsible.
4. To vote for taxes and local expenditures in accordance with the Constitution and the relevant statute.
5. To dictate the organic budgetary regulations and issue annually the budget of revenues and expenditures.
6. To determine the structure of the municipal administration and the functions of their dependencies; the scales of remuneration appropriate to the various categories of employees; create at the initiative of the mayor public institutions and industrial or commercial enterprises and authorize the formation of mixed [public-private] companies.
7. To regulate the uses of the land and, within the limits determined by statute, oversee and control the activities connected with the construction and sale of housing slated for residences.
8. To elect a representative for the period determined by statute and the other functionaries that the latter stipulates.
9. To dictate the regulations necessary for the control, preservation, and defense of the ecological and cultural patrimony of the municipality.
10. Other competences which the Constitution or statutes assign them.
11. To summon and invite the secretaries of the office of the mayor to attend the sessions of the council in the capitals of the departments and the municipalities with more than twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The summons must be made not less than five days prior to a session and be formulated in the form of a written questionnaire. In case the secretaries do not attend, without an excuse accepted by the district or municipal council, the latter may table a motion of censure. The secretaries must be heard at the session for which they were summoned, without prejudice to the possibility that the discussion continues at subsequent sessions following a decision of the council. The discussion may not extend to other issues than those in the questionnaire and shall be placed at the top of the session’s agenda.The councils of the other municipalities may summon and invite the secretaries of the office of the mayor to attend the sessions of the council. The summons must be made not less than five days prior to a session and be formulated in the form of a written questionnaire. In case the secretaries do not attend, without an excuse accepted by the district or municipal council, any of its members may table a motion with observations which may not lead to the resignation of the respective official. Its approval shall require the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members of the body.
12. To table a motion of censure with respect to the secretaries of the office of the mayor for matters related to their official functions, or for ignoring the requests or summons of the district or municipal council. The motion of censure must be tabled by one half of the members of the district or municipal council plus one. The vote shall take place between the third and 10th day following the end of the discussion, with a public hearing of the respective official. Approval of the motion shall require the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members of the relevant body. Once the motion is approved, the official shall be relieved of his/her functions. If it is voted down, no new motion of censure may be proposed on the same matter unless it is supported by new facts. The resignation of the official against which the censure motion has been tabled does not prevent the latter from being approved in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

Article 314

In each municipality there shall be a mayor, head of the local administration and legal representative of the municipality, who shall be popularly-elected for institutional periods of four (4) years and may not be reelected for the subsequent period.

When the mayor is permanently prevented from discharging the duties of his/her office for more than eighteen (18) months before the end of his/her term, a mayor shall be elected for the remaining period. In case the end of the term is less than eighteen (18) months away, the Governor shall appoint a mayor for the rest of the term, who must belong to the party, political group or coalition for which the elected mayor had been registered.

The President [of the Republic] and the governors in the cases restrictively stipulated by an Act may suspend mayors or remove them from office.

An Act shall establish the sanctions that apply for the improper exercise of that power.

Article 315

The following are powers of the mayor:

1. To execute and to ensure the execution of the Constitution, the statutes, the decrees of the government, the ordinances, and the resolutions of the council.
2. To protect the public order in the municipality, in accordance with the law and the instructions and orders that the mayor may receive from the President of the Republic and the respective governor. The mayor is the highest police authority of the municipality. The National Police shall promptly and diligently execute the orders given to it by the mayor through the channel of the respective commander.
3. To direct the administration of the municipality; secure the execution of the functions and the delivery of services for which the mayor is responsible; represent it in a judicial and extrajudicial capacity; and appoint and remove the officials under his/her jurisdiction as well as the managers or directors of the public institutions and the industrial or commercial enterprises of a local character, in accordance with the pertinent provisions.
4. To eliminate or merge municipal entities and dependencies, in accordance with the respective resolutions.
5. To present in timely manner to the Council proposals concerning the plans and programs of economic and social development, public works, the annual budget of revenues and expenditures, and other measures that the mayor may find appropriate for the effective operation of the municipality.
6. To sanction and promulgate the resolutions which the Council may have approved and to veto those that he/she considers inappropriate or contrary to the legal regulations.
7. To create, eliminate, or merge positions under the mayor’s jurisdiction, to stipulate the special functions and determine their emoluments in accordance with the relevant resolutions. The mayor may not create obligations that exceed the total amount allocated for personnel expenditures in the initially approved budget.
8. To cooperate with the Council for the effective execution of its functions, present to it general reports on his/her administration, and convoke it to special sessions in which only those issues and matters for which it was summoned may be examined.
9. To manage municipal expenditures in accordance with the investment plan and the budget.
10. Other matters which the Constitution and the statute provide for.

Article 316

In the balloting held for the election of local authorities and for the decision of matters of like nature, only citizens residing in the respective municipality may participate.

Article 317

Only municipalities may tax real estate. This does not bar other entities from imposing appraisal levies.

An Act shall allocate a percentage of these taxes, which may not exceed the average of existing tax surcharges, to the entities entrusted with the protection and conservation of the environment and the renewable natural resources, in accordance with the development plans of the municipalities of the area under their jurisdiction.

Article 318

With the purpose of improving the provision of services and securing the participation of the citizenry in the handling of public affairs of a local character, the councils may divide their municipalities into communes when urban areas are involved, and into jurisdictions in the case of rural zones.

In each of the communes or jurisdictions, there shall be a popularly elected local administrative board made up of a number of members determined by statute and which shall have the following functions:

1. To participate in the elaboration of municipal plans and programs of economic and social development and public works.
2. To oversee and control the provision of municipal services in its commune or jurisdiction and the investments realized with public funds.
3. To formulate investment proposals before the national, departmental, and municipal authorities entrusted with the elaboration of the respective investment plans.
4. To distribute the overall share allocated to it by the municipal budget.
5. To exercise the functions delegated to it by the council and other local authorities.

The departmental assemblies may organize administrative boards for the execution of the functions stipulated for them by the act of their establishment in the territory which the latter itself determines.

Article 319

When two or more municipalities have economic, social, and fiscal relations which give to the whole characteristics of a metropolitan area, they may organize themselves as an administrative entity entrusted with programming and coordinating the harmonious and integrated development of the territory placed under their authority; rationalize the provision of public services for those who are responsible for it, and, if such is the case, jointly provide some of them; and execute projects of metropolitan interest.

The Act on territorial planning shall adopt for the metropolitan areas an administrative and fiscal regime of special character; shall guarantee that in their organs of administration the respective municipal authorities may enjoy adequate participation; and shall stipulate the form of convoking and holding the popular consultations which the municipalities involved may decide upon.

Once the popular consultation is held, the respective mayors and municipal councilors shall record in a protocol the configuration of the area and shall define its powers, financing, and authorities, in accordance with the relevant statute.

The metropolitan areas may convert themselves into districts in accordance with the relevant statute.

Article 320

An Act may establish categories of municipalities in accordance with their population, fiscal resources, economic importance, and geographic situation, and stipulate a specific regime for their organization, government, and administration.

Article 321

The provinces are made up of municipalities or adjacent indigenous territories belonging to the same department.

An Act shall stipulate the basic statute and determine the administrative regime of the provinces that may be organized for the execution of the functions delegated to them by national or departmental entities and which an Act assigns to them and to the municipalities that make them up.

The provinces shall be created by ordinance, at the initiative of the governor, the mayors of the respective municipalities, or the number of citizens determined by statute.

For admission to an already constituted province, a popular consultation must be held in the municipalities involved.

The department and municipalities shall bring to the provinces the percentage of their current revenues that the assembly and respective councils shall determine.

Chapter IV. On the Special Regime

Article 322

Bogotá, Capital of the Republic and of the Department of Cundinamarca, is organized as District Capital.

Its political, fiscal, and administrative regime are determined by the Constitution, the special laws that are enacted for this purpose, and the provisions applicable to the municipalities.

Based on the general rules established by an Act, the council shall, at the initiative of the mayor, divide the territory of the district into localities, in accordance with the social characteristics of its inhabitants, and shall make the corresponding allocation of powers and administrative functions.

It shall be the responsibility of the district authorities to guarantee the harmonious and integrated development of the city and the efficient provision of the services for which the district is responsible; the management of matters proper to their territory shall be the responsibility of the local authorities.

Article 323

The district council shall consist of forty-five (45) councilors.

In each of the localities there shall be an administrative board, popularly elected for periods of four (4) years, which shall be composed of no fewer than seven aldermen/alderwomen, in accordance with the determination of the District Council made on the basis of the respective population.

The election of the senior mayor, the district councilors, and the aldermen/alderwomen shall be held on the same day for periods of four (4) years; the mayor may not be reelected for the following term.

When the senior mayor is permanently prevented from discharging the duties of his/her office more than eighteen (18) months before the end of his/her term, a senior mayor shall be elected for the remaining period. In case the end of the term is less than eighteen (18) months away, the President of the Republic shall appoint a senior mayor for the rest of the term, who must belong to the party, political group or coalition for which the elected mayor had been registered.

The local mayors shall be designated by the senior mayor from a list submitted by the competent administrative board.

In the cases restrictively stipulated by an Act, the President of the Republic may suspend or remove the senior mayor from office.

The councilors and aldermen/alderwomen may not form part of the executive boards of the decentralized entities.

Article 324

The local administrative boards shall apportion and appropriate the aggregates which are allocated to the localities in the annual budget of the district, taking into account the basic unsatisfied needs of their population.

Concerning the departmental revenues that are produced in Santa Fe de Bogotá, an Act shall determine the share appropriate to the capital of the Republic. Such share may not be superior to that established at the date this Constitution goes into effect.

Article 325

With the purpose of guaranteeing the execution of the plans and programs of integral development and the timely and efficient provision of the services for which it is responsible, within the terms set by the Constitution and the relevant statute, the Capital District may form a metropolitan area with the adjacent municipalities and a region with other territorial entities of departmental character.

Article 326

The adjacent municipalities may become incorporated into the Capital District if this is what the citizens who reside in them determine by means of a vote that shall be held when the District Council has expressed its approval of such incorporation. If the latter occurs, the constitutional and legal provisions in force shall be applied to the old municipality for the other localities that make up the Capital District.

Article 327

In the elections of governor and deputies to the Departmental Assembly of Cundinamarca, the citizens registered in the electoral rolls of the Capital District shall not participate.

Article 328

The Tourist and Cultural District of Cartagena de Indias and the Touristic, Cultural, and Historic District of Santa Marta shall retain their regime and character, and Buenaventura y Tumaco shall be organized as Special, Industrial, Port, Biodiversity and Biotourism District.

Article 329

The configuration of the indigenous [Indian] territorial entities shall be drawn subject to the provisions of the Institutional Act of Territorial Planning, and their delimitation shall be effected by the national government with the participation of the representatives of the indigenous communities following the plan of the Commission of Territorial Planning.

The safeguards that apply relate to collective property which may not be sold.

An Act shall define the relations and coordination of these entities with those of which they form a part.

Paragraph

In the case of an indigenous [Indian] territory that may include the territory of two or more departments, its administration shall be implemented by indigenous councils in coordination with the governors of the respective departments. In case that such territory should decide to constitute itself as a territorial entity, this shall be done in compliance with the requirements established by the first clause of this article.

Article 330

In accordance with the Constitution and the statutes, the indigenous territories shall be governed by the councils formed and regulated according to the uses and customs of their communities and shall exercise the following functions:

1. Oversee the application of the legal regulations concerning the uses of the land and settlement of their territories.
2. Design the policies, plans and programs of economic and social development within their territory, in accordance with the National Development Plan.
3. Promote public investments in their territories and oversee their appropriate implementation.
4. Collect and distribute their funds.
5. Oversee the conservation of natural resources.
6. Coordinate the programs and projects promoted by the different communities in their territory.
7. Cooperate with the maintenance of the public order within their territory in accordance with the instructions and provisions of the national government.
8. Represent the territories before the national government and the other entities in which they are integrated; and
9. Other matters stipulated by the Constitution and statute.

Paragraph

The exploitation of the natural resources in the indigenous territories shall be done without impairing the cultural, social, and economic integrity of the indigenous communities. In the decisions adopted with respect to said exploitation, the government shall encourage the participation of the representatives of the respective communities.

Article 331

The Autonomous Regional Corporation of the Rió Grande de la Magdalena entrusted with the improvement of navigation, port activity, the improvement and conservation of land, the generation and distribution of energy, and the use and conservation of the environment, fishing resources, and other renewable natural resources shall be established.

An Act shall determine its organization and sources of financing and shall define in favor of the riparian municipalities special treatment in the assignment of benefits and in their share of current national revenues.