Times of trouble in Mexico

Telling the time divides Mexicans politicians

What time is it?

Usually a simple question, but one that could soon have Mexicans double-checking their watches.

The mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is refusing to bring the clocks forward in the nation's capital together with the rest of the country for daylight saving in May.

And his stance over time in one of the world's biggest cities has blown into a constitutional crisis, with the mayor's office and the presidency both saying they have the right to decree the hour.

The capital city is set to live in its own time zone, if the mayor gets his way

The dispute began when the federal government in January said it planned to stick to daylight saving, a controversial issue since it was introduced in Mexico in 1996, but it would shorten the period from six months to five.

Mr Obrador insists President Vicente Fox does not have the authority to decree daylight saving for the whole of Mexico, and says he will take the issue to the Supreme Court.

Mr Fox's office has hit back, saying it is the mayor's decision not to change the clocks that violates the constitution.

President Vicente Fox says he has the power to mandate a time change

The federal government says the time change saves around $600m in energy costs and helps co-ordinate Mexican companies with their main trading partners in the United States.

Time trials

Federal officials are worried that a conflict over time will baffle tourists flying into Mexico City, as well as workers struggling into the capital from the sprawling suburbs that would be in a different time zone.

Opponents argue the clock change does not lead to huge energy savings, but it does disrupt people's biological clocks and endangers children who have to set off to school in the dark.

Opinion polls in Mexico City indicate that most residents dislike the time shift, but also oppose having a different time from the rest of the country.

Whether clocks go back or stay the same come May, the dispute has already heated up the political atmosphere.

Mr Lopez Obrador, who belongs to the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution and is a possible presidential candidate in 2006, is already staking a claim to be one of the main figures on the national stage.

Vicente Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, and who took office just a few days before the mayor, is similarly keen to stamp his style on the country.