The 1992 Colombian energy crisis was a crisis of the Colombian energy sector during the presidency of

César Gaviria César Augusto Gaviria Trujillo ( ; born 31 March 1947) is a Colombian economist and politician who served as the President of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 1994 to 2004 and National Di ...

, from May 2, 1992, to February 7, 1993, caused by

El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date ...

. El Niño caused droughts across much of the country, which lowered reservoir levels at many of its principal hydroelectric dams and a further crisis within the state public services company, Interconexión Eléctrica, S.A. (ISA).

Causes

El Niño occurs when warm waters originating off the coast of Australia reach South American shores. This causes significant variation in marine climates and droughts and floods. The 1992 El Niño, which produced droughts in Colombia, coincided with infrastructure problems within the nation's hydroelectric power facilities.

Rationing

The government under president

opted to take action, introducing a rationing program. On March 2, 1992, the government announced scheduled power cuts, of up to nine hours in cities such as Bogotá and up to 18 hours on the islands of San Andrés y Providencia. Public awareness campaigns were launched under the name ''"Cierre la llave"'' ("Turn Off the Tap"), hoping to measure how much water was being wasted. In the city of Cali, a decree was passed setting six days in prison as a penalty for heavy water users.

"Hora Gaviria"

As a further measure, Gaviria changed Colombia's time zone from UTC-5 to UTC-4, which was then the time zone of neighboring

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, beginning on Saturday, May 2, 1992, at 1:00 am. The measure came to be known as ''"Hora Gaviria"'' ("Gaviria Time"). Of Colombia's 1,024 municipalities, 1,000 declined to change time zones and took months to come into effect. The time zone change was ended on February 7, 1993.

Impacts

One of two most popular

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

s of 1992 in Colombia, '' En cuerpo ajeno'', was moved from 8pm to 10pm on Cadena Uno, then a highly unusual timeslot for flagship novelas on Colombian television, so that more viewers could see it when they were not impacted by energy rationing (the blackouts in Bogotá ended at 9 pm). The other popular telenovela, ''

Sangre de Lobos Sangre may refer to: * Sangre, a fictional Earth-like planet in the science fiction novel ''The Men in the Jungle'' by Norman Spinrad * Sangre (comics), the de facto leader of the Marvel Comics supervillain group Children of the Vault *''Sangre (fi ...

'', was already being broadcast at 10pm on

Canal A Canal A (previously known as ''Cadena Dos'') was a Colombian open television network launched on January 16, 1971, under the name ''Tele9 Corazón''. History TV9 Telebogotá (Teletigre), the first private television station in Colombia, began ...

. Caracol Radio created a program, ''La Luciérnaga'' ("The Firefly"), for the early evening hours when power cuts were in effect in many areas; as of 2015, the program remains on the air.

References

{{Portal, Colombia, Energy Energy crises Energy in Colombia Economy of Colombia 1992 in Colombia 1992 in the environment Economic history of Colombia