Argentina’s Supreme Court revokes presidential decree closing schools

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina’s Supreme Court has revoked a decree by President Alberto Fernández to close Buenos Aires schools amid a surge in coronavirus cases, siding with the municipal government, which wants to keep students in classrooms.

Tuesday’s verdict ruled that the April presidential decree was a violation of the city of Buenos Aires’ legally guaranteed autonomy, which the Supreme Court said was the authority tasked with deciding whether or not schools should close.

Fernández had ordered schools in and around the capital to close temporarily amid a second intense wave of Covid-19 cases and deaths, initially until the end of April and later until May 21st.

But the municipal government challenged the measure in the Supreme Court, which kept schools and kindergartens open and ordered hybrid classes – in-person and online – in high school.

Member of an opposition party to the president, Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta argued that there is little evidence that in-person classes have increased infection rates. In contrast, the national government has said it aims to decrease circulation in order to contain the spread of the virus.

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