Signed by the president and secretaries of the two houses of Congress to Bogota , June 24, 1879 . Let it be published and executed. The President of the Union: JULIAN TRUJILLO. The, June 23, 1879

Law 40 of 1879 (June 24), which reforms the law 60 of 1875.

The Congress of the United States of Colombia, decrees:

• Article 1. The merchant vessels which may enter the ports of the republic shall exhibit to the “administrador” or inspector of the port, the register and other sea documents. Said documents shall be deposited immediately with the consular officer of the nation to which such vessel belongs, who shall be obliged to deliver to the “administrador” or inspector a certificate of the deposit of said documents.
• The captain of a vessel who shall not comply with this provision shall be subject to a fine of from $500 to $1,000, within the judgment of the collector of customs or the inspector of the port respectively.
• Art. 2. Upon receiving the register and other sea documents belonging to a vessel of their nation which may have entered the port, the foreign consular officers in the ports of the republic shall execute a certificate setting forth the fact, which shall be delivered to the collector of customs or the inspector of the port.
• Art. 3. Said consular officers shall not return the register and other documents to the captain who may have deposited them in their hands until the clearance be presented to them executed by the proper authority.
• Paragraph. It shall be a cause for cancelling the exequatur, or for the withdrawal of the permission executed to the consuls, vice-consuls, or consular agents respectively, the fact of their returning the register and other documents which may have been deposited with them, before there may have been presented to them the necessary clearance executed by the proper federal officer.
• Art. 4. The fines and penalties referred to in this law maybe lowered, and even remitted by the executive power, when, in his judgment, there be presented satisfactory proof to relieve the persons upon whom they may have been imposed of all responsibility.