The Third Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) ordered the provisional suspension of Article 8 of Executive Decree No. 71 of February 5, 2021, which empowers the Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre to decide on any necessary measure to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.
Article 8 "empowers the Ministry of Health to establish, through a reasoned resolution, the measure of restriction of mobility of people, curfew, total quarantine, reopening of activities and any other measure necessary to mitigate spread of
COVID-19”.
The decision of the Court comes after the lawyer Ernesto
Cedeño filed a petition for annulment in which he requested that articles 4 and 8 of the aforementioned decree be declared illegal, however the Third Chamber agreed to the temporary suspension of article 8, as "the resolutions cannot exclude the approval of the President of the Republic."
With Executive Decree No. 71, the Health Minister was only empowered to make decisions on restricting the mobility of people and other extraordinary measures "while this is the responsibility of the Executive Branch," says the lawyer.
Cedeño supports the demand for nullity on “the lack of competence of the Ministry of Health to restrict the mobility of people, including those who are not sick; and also in the power that has been granted to the
Minsa, to adopt through resolutions, extraordinary measures while this is the responsibility of the Executive”.