The Genesis of Latin American Constitutionalism

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze whether Latin American constitutionalism was already present at the birth of the continent’s nation-states. To do this, it is necessary to understand how the first independencies took place, of the Republic of Haiti and the Republic of Paraguay, contextualizing the two historical moments. It defends the idea that Latin American constitutionalism is identified by its anti-colonial character, i.e. organization focused on the interests of its populations, indigenous, Afro-descendants and other traditional peoples, with regulation that allows access to the land and nature of these populations and does not limit the action of the State for foreign interests. In order to achieve this objective, both the Latin American society of independence and constitutionalism were analyzed, and the first two nation-states to be constituted in Latin America, Haiti and Paraguay, were chosen, as well as the process of their constitution and destruction, both of which present the characteristics of the construction of Latin American constitutionalism, both of which faced the metropoles and the new colonialities, and both of which were destroyed. The article concludes that the destruction of the two nation-states occurred for the same reasons as the difficulties in implementing the advances of Latin American constitutionalism in the late 20th and 21st centuries. The article aims to raise a discussion about the origins of Latin American constitutionalism that will allow us to expand our research into the subsequent process of formation of Latin American constitutional societies, through the 19th and early 20th centuries.