MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay goes into wintertime mode

The time change was decreed by then-President Horacio Cartes in 2014

Effective Sunday, Paraguay went into winter time, which meant setting the country's clocks at GMT -4 until the first Sunday of October, which places the entire country one hour behind its Mercosur partners (Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina).

The winter-time scheme was established in 2014 through a Presidential decree from then-head of state Horacio Cartes. The issue is now being debated in Congress.

Cartes' decision was adopted to avoid the overlapping of increased residential energy consumption with commercial demand at peak hours and thus prevent loads higher than recommended in the National Interconnected System.

In September of 2022, the House of Deputies passed a bill “Establishing the official time in the Republic of Paraguay” setting the country's daylight saving time at GMT -3 for the entire year, in line with Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

On March 2, the Senate modified the proposal of the Lower House and kept the current mechanism. The bill was then returned to the Lower House to decide whether to endorse it or ratify its original version.

Time changes in Paraguay were established also to help prevent cases of insecurity, it was argued.