Court suspends Health Minister’s superpowers

The Third Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Supreme Court provisionally suspended article 8 of an Executive Decree which gave the Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre power to unilaterally declare Covid-19  curfews and quarantines.

A nullity claim was presented by the lawyer Ernesto Cedeño, in which he requested the suspension of articles 4 and 8 of the decree, but the Third Chamber only granted the temporary suspension of article 8.

Article 8 establishes: ” The Ministry of Health is empowered to, through a reasoned resolution, establish the measure of restriction of people’s mobility, curfew, total quarantine, reopening of activities and any other measure necessary for the mitigation of the spread of Covid-19 ”.