The Ecuadorian Constitutional Court has declared unconstitutional the state of emergency decreed in the country by President Lenin Moreno due to the increase in contamination with COVID-19, according to a resolution published on Saturday.
“After having analyzed the executive decree number 1217” establishing the state of emergency and which entered into force at the end of December, the Court “decides to declare it unconstitutional because it does not comply with constitutional standards”, declared the court on Twitter.
It published on this social network the resolution it took to this effect during an extraordinary session held on December 27.
President Moreno decreed on December 21, for the third time in a year, a state of emergency valid for a month that includes a curfew, in order to contain a “serious increase” in COVID-19 cases caused by ” gatherings ”of people as well as the risk of exposure to the new variant of the virus that initially appeared in the United Kingdom.
In their analysis, the constitutional experts considered that the president had based his decision to establish the state of emergency on “a possible future risk and not current, without being based on sufficient, clear and specific information”.
President Moreno’s decision restricts freedom of movement and association and also imposes, for a period of two weeks, a curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. local time.
Ecuador, with a population of 17.5 million, detected its first case of coronavirus on February 29. To date, it has recorded 214,513 cases of contamination and 14,059 confirmed or probable cases of death linked to the coronavirus.
Due to the discovery of the new variant in the UK, Quito decided to require the presentation of a negative PCR test from people arriving from that country as well as the European Union (EU), Australia and Australia. South Africa.
Ecuador then extended this obligation to all travelers arriving from abroad.