New daylight saving period in Mexico

Jesper Nørgaard jnorgard at Prodigy.Net.mx
Sat Jan 20 06:47:00 UTC 2001


Thanks to Gwillim Law for investigating this matter, and for the pretty accurate translation. I just have a small correction which doesn't change the general outcome.

He writes: "In the specific case of Distrito Federal, he telephoned the government of
Andrés Manuel López Obrador in order to ascertain his position.  [The
article doesn't report any conclusion reached in this matter.]"

Actually it should be "he urged the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to reconsider its position". It is correct that there was no conclusion about that yet. Note that "llamado" here is not a telephone call, but rather a petition, or beckon or attracting attention.

Another interesting article was

http://www.reforma.com/nacional/articulo/064327/

which in general terms explains the opposition to the daylight saving by various groups in Oaxaca, for instance peasants, teachers and lawyers. But the clou is mentioning the measure the teachers take:

"In Oaxaca, the 55.000 teachers from the Section 22 of the National Syndicate of Education Workers, refuse to apply daylight saving each year, so that the more than
10.000 schools work at normal hour the whole year."

In other words, all the pupils and teachers of Oaxaca are on Central Standard Time all year round, even when the rest of the state is on Central Daylight Time. Should that be included in the Timezone list? Probably not, but an amusing little revolution it is, similar to the state of affairs in Nunavut at one point, with different offices in the same region having different hour.

I have not found an official version of the presidential decree, but I assume that the exact hour that DST is starting and ending is the same as previous years, and indeed the same as for all the USA mainland daylight saving (there are exceptions in american Antarctica stations), e.g. starting at 2:00 Standard time, and ending 2:00 Daylight time.

Regards,

Jesper Nørgaard Welen
Email: jnorgard at Prodigy.Net.mx	
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----------
From: 	Gwillim Law[SMTP:gwil at mindspring.com]
Sent: 	Viernes 19 de Enero de 2001 13:54
To: 	TZ Mailing list
Subject: 	New daylight saving period in Mexico

Jesper Nørgaard Welen wrote:
> The decision is not yet taken, but according to these articles should be
> taken within 2-3 days:

The days have gone by, so I checked for more recent information at the same
Web site.  I found an article at
<http://www.reforma.com/negocios_y_dinero/articulo/064481/> that says
(translated):

Mexico City, January 17, 2000 - The Energy Secretary, Ernesto Martens,
announced that Summer Time will be reduced from seven to five months,
starting this year.

The measure, he said, is in response to the public demand to have one less
hour of natural light during the mornings in the first and last month of
summer time, in that the latter will begin on the first Sunday in May and
will end on the last Sunday of September.

This change in the period of application of summer time will entail a
reduction of ten weeks in comparison to the original schedule, which
envisioned setting the clock an hour ahead from April 1 to October 28.
Beginning this year, Mexico will have Summer Time with a duration of 20
weeks.

[...]  Concerning the possibility that some states in the Republic,
including Distrito Federal, may not apply summer time, the official said
that in the past, some states decided not to apply the measure, and this
caused distortions in relation to the rest of the country.

In the specific case of Distrito Federal, he telephoned the government of
Andrés Manuel López Obrador in order to ascertain his position.  [The
article doesn't report any conclusion reached in this matter.]

Yours,    Gwillim Law







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