ART. 1. The Mexican nation is independent of the Spanish nation, and of every other,
even on its own Continent.
ART. 2. Its religion shall be the Catholic, which all its inhabitants profess.
ART. 3. They shall be all united, without any distinction between Americans and Europeans.
ART. 4. The government shall be a constitutional monarchy.
ART. 5. A junta shall be named, consisting of, individuals who enjoy the highest
reputation in the different parties which have shown themselves.
ART. 6. This junta shall be under the presidency of his Excellency the Count del Venadito,
the present Viceroy of Mexico.
ART. 7. It shall govern in the name of the nation, according to the laws now in force, and
its principal business will be to convoke, according to such rules as it shall deem
expedient, a congress for the formation of a constitution more suitable to the country.
ART. 8. His Majesty Ferdinand VII shall be invited to the throne of the empire, and in
case of his refusal, the Infantes Don Carlos and Don Francisco de Paula.
ART. 9. Should his Majesty Ferdinand VII and his august brothers decline the invitation,
the nation is at liberty to invite to the imperial throne any member of reigning families
whom it may select.
ART. 10. The formation of the constitution by the congress, and the oath of the emperor to
observe it, must precede his entry into the country.
ART. 11. The distinction of castes is abolished, which was made by the Spanish law,
excluding them from the rights of citizenship. All the inhabitants of the country are
citizens, and equal, and the door of advancement is open to virtue and merit.
ART. 12. An army shall be formed for the support of religion, independence, and union,
guaranteeing these three principles, and therefore it shall be called the army of the
three guarantees.
ART. 13. It shall solemnly swear to defend the fundamental bases of this plan.
ART. 14. It shall strictly observe the military ordinances now in force.
ART. 15. There shall be no other promotions than those which are due to seniority, or
which shall be necessary for the good of the service.
ART. 16. This army shall be considered as of the line.
ART. 17. The old partisans of independence who shall immediately adhere to this plan,
shall be considered as individuals of this army.
ART. 18. The patriots and peasants who shall adhere to it hereafter, shall be considered
as provincial militiamen.
ART. 19. The secular and regular priests shall be continued in the state in which
they now are.
ART. 20. All the public functionaries, civil, ecclesiastical, political, and military, who
adhere to the cause of independence, shall be continued in their offices, without any
distinction between Americans and Europeans,
ART. 21. Those functionaries, of whatever degree and condition, who dissent from the cause
of independence, shall be divested of their offices, and shall quit the territory of the
empire, taking with them their families and their effects.
ART. 22. The military commandants shall regulate themselves according to the general
instructions in con. formity with, this plan, which shall be transmitted to them.
ART. 23. No accused person shall be condemned capitally by the military commandants. Those
accused of treason against the nation, which is the next greatest crime after that of
treason to the Divine Ruler, shall be conveyed to the fortress of Barrabas, where they
shall remain until the congress shall resolve on the punishment which ought to be
inflicted on them.
ART. 24. It being indispensable to the country that this plan should be carried into
effect, in as much as the welfare of that country is its object, every individual of the
army shall maintain it, to the shedding (if it be necessary) of the last drop of his
blood.
Town of Iguala, 24th February, 1821.