82 Article 2. The higher authorities of the different State entities, such as State Ministers, directors of autonomous and semi-autonomous institutions, of the State enterprises, and other public agencies, the Attorney General of the Nation and that of the Administration, the Accountant General of the Republic, the respective Governors and Mayors shall, subject to identification in advance, be able to declare non subsistent the appointments of public servants who participate in the acts described in Article 1 of this Law. Paragraph: The Executive Branch, through the Cabinet Council, shall determine whether the actions are against democracy and the constitutional order, so as to apply the administrative sanction of dismissal. Article 3. The declaration of non-subsistence of the appointment of a public servant may be contested only through the reconsideration remedy before the same authority that mandated the decision; and through the appeal remedy, before the superior authority, whereupon the governmental recourse becomes exhausted. Article 4. Neither Chapter VI, Heading I, of Volume III of the Labour Code, nor Article 137 of Law N° 8 of February 25, 1975 shall be applicable for purposes of the application of this Law, in the case of the workers’ unions of the public sector, Section Two. Article 5: To the extent that they are contrary to it, this law changes the provisions contained in Law N° 8 of February 25, 1975, Law N° 34 of September 26, 1979, Laws numbers 38 and 39 of September 27, 1979, Law N° 40 of September 28, 1979, and any other provision found to be contrary to it. Article 6: This is a public order law, which shall have a retroactive effect as of December 4, 1990. Article 7: This Law shall enter into force as of the date of its issuance, and shall remain in force until December 31, 1991. 105. The Preamble of the Convention reaffirms the determination of the American States “to consolidate in [the American Continent], within the framework of democratic institutions, a system of personal liberty and social justice based on respect for the essential rights of man.” In like manner, Article 29(c) of the Convention points out that no provision of this treaty can be interpreted in the sense of “precluding other rights or guarantees that are inherent in the human personality or derived from representative democracy as a form of government.” 106. With respect to the preceding item, it is desirable to analyse whether Article 9 of the Convention is applicable to the administrative punitive action, in addition to it’s being evidently applicable in the penal realm. The terms used in such precept seem to refer exclusively to the latter. However, it is appropriate to take into account that administrative sanctions, as well as penal sanctions, constitute an expression of the State’s punitive power and that, on occasions, the nature of the former is similar to that of the latter. Both, the former and the latter, imply reduction, deprivation or alteration of the rights of individuals, as a consequence of unlawful conduct. Therefore, in a democratic system it is necessary to intensify precautions in order for such measures to be adopted with absolute respect for the basic rights of individuals, and subject to a careful verification of whether or not there was unlawful conduct. Likewise, and for the sake of legal security, it is indispensable for the punitive rule, whether of a penal or an administrative nature, to exist and to be known or to offer the possibility to be known, before the action or