Joaquín Balaguer(1906-2002)

President of the Dominican Republic from 1960-1962, 1966-1978 and 1986-1996.

Someone has said that in Latin America the constitutions have been, are and still will be for a long time simple pieces of paper. Constitutions are laws that are voted every year and violated every day. What is valid in each country, in each era, in each historical moment, are not the principles but the men. The effectiveness of a constitution, like that of any law, depends on the honesty of the magistrate who must apply it and who is called to become the guardian of its organic provisions.