A few months ago the end of the summer time changes in Mexico was announced. There was an exception, that of some border areas with the United States. A few months after the entry into force of the change, it is time for the time change for the municipalities that maintained the switch to summer time.
22 municipalities and one state. On March 12, about twenty municipalities near the border with the US and the state of Baja California will have to change their time to adjust to summer time. In the state of Nuevo León, the change will only affect the municipality of Anáhuac.
In Tamaulipas, the municipalities that will change their time are: Nuevo Laredo, Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Camargo, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Reynosa, Río Bravo, Valle Hermoso and Matamoros.
While in Coahuila the residents of Acuña, Allende, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jiménez, Morelos, Nava, Ocampo, Piedras Negras, Villa Unión and Zaragoza will change their watches. To this must be added the time change throughout the state of Baja California.
Border. All of these municipalities are located along the US border and therein lies the reason for the change. Since the US border states continue to implement the time change, the Mexican municipalities with the closest ties, in economic and demographic terms, to them remain in the change.
This is how the Law of Time Zones contemplated it at the time. The law also contemplates how future changes in time zones should be made if any Mexican state requires for any reason to change time zones: they must first formally request it to their local congresses and then to the federal one.
The latest changes? Changing the time gradually becomes an outdated habit, particularly in the countries closest to the equator. Time changes may make sense at certain latitudes where changes in daylight hours are relevant. In countries like Mexico, the time change makes little sense.
We will have to wait, of course, to see if this custom gives way in many other countries, including the southern US. In a world that is increasingly connected and digitized, it seems increasingly difficult for these changes to survive.
Image | Reynosa Municipality. Robox91, CC BY-SA 3.0
