The superior political government of every _department_ is vested in a prefect, under immediate subordination to the president of the republic; that of every province is entrusted to a sub-prefect, who is immediately subordinate to the prefect; that of the districts to a governor, who acknowledges the sub-prefect as his superior; and in every town, or Indian village, there is a still humbler officer called _alcalde_, who acts under the orders of the governor of his district, and is entrusted with the ordinary routine of local police. To fill the appointment of prefect, sub-prefect, or governor, it is required that the candidate should be an active citizen, not under thirty years of age, and a man eminent for his probity. The duties of such functionaries are, 1. To maintain public security and order in their respective territories. 2. To cause the articles of the political constitution, the laws enacted by congress, and the decrees and commands of the executive power, to be duly carried into effect. 3. To enforce the completion of sentences pronounced by the different tribunals and courts of justice. 4. To take care that the functionaries subordinate to each of them shall faithfully discharge their proper duties. The prefects are also charged with the economical administration of the affairs of state within their respective departments. But they are restrained, 1. From interfering with, or in any degree interrupting, the course of popular elections. 2. From preventing the reunion of the departmental juntas, or interfering with these in the free exercise of their functions. 3. From taking any cognizance in judicial cases; but, should public tranquillity urgently require that any individual should be taken up, a prefect may command his immediate arrest,—transferring the delinquent, accompanied with the grounds of having taken him into custody, to the judicial magistrate or judge, within the precise term of forty-eight hours. DEPARTMENTAL JUNTAS. In the capital of every department there is a junta, composed of two members from each province. The object of these juntas is to promote the interest of the provinces in particular, and of the departments in general. The members are elected after the same manner with those of the Congress or Chamber of Deputies.[11] The prefects of the departments have to open the annual sessions of the juntas, to report to them in writing on the state of the public affairs of their respective jurisdictions, and to suggest such measures as appear to them calculated to promote the general advantage of the departments. Among the functions of this political body we may enumerate—