Sixto’s hour: the summer Ecuadorians woke up earlier

30 years ago Ecuadorians got up earlier than usual. Daily activities began before dawn and had to end before sunset. Although now the fees to achieve better results in productivity -as indicated by the best-selling book The 5am Club– They suggest that people wake up early, in 1992, the lack of rain led the government of that time to decree that the days would start an hour earlier.

Sixto Duran Ballen, the longest-serving person to assume the Presidency of Ecuador, had been in office for just three months when he asked Ecuadorians to get uncomfortable. He sacrifice, as Durán Ballén described it, consisted of all the activities starting an hour in advance. For example, The children entered the schools at 07:00. But as of the presidential decree of November 25, 1992, classes would start at 06:00. This measure sought to avoid energy rationing and save the country millions of dollars.

Ecuadorians complied with the presidential decree and called it “the hour of Sixtus” either “sistine”. Archival images from that time show citizens ready to start the work or student day without even finding sunlight.

Although the decree provided for the change in the start of activities, Many Ecuadorians decided to advance their clocks one hour, so as not to confuse the start of the day or delay your commitments. For three months, life in Ecuador began with the first light of the sun. The practice of changing the time on watches is common in countries that have the four seasons marked, but it had never been implemented in a country like Ecuador where the difference in sunlight is only 25 minutes a day.

As soon as Durán Ballén assumed the Presidency, the politician had to face protests and stoppages led by union and student sectors. According to the newspaper’s newspaper archives The Telegraph, the oldest in the country, the first strike that Durán Ballén had to face was that of the carriers who asked that the ticket fare be increased from 80 to 100 sucres, the Ecuadorian currency that was in force at that time. To achieve its purpose, transportation was suspended and people chose to move in vans or walk.

Added to the demonstrations was the political situation in the National Congress. Durán Ballén had to govern with a struggle between the blocks of congressmen. The then president did not have a majority in the Legislature.

As if that were not enough, the government of Durán Ballén had to renegotiate foreign debt and, to cover Ecuador’s obligations, it adopted a package of economic measures. A few days after serving a month in office, the then president raised telephone and electricity rates, adjusted interest rates, created a single tax for companies and increased the price of some fuels: “Raising the cost of gasoline is necessary to maintain the economic stability of the country”, said Durán Ballén in one of his televised interventions.

In this context, on October 13, 1992, the then manager of the Ecuadorian Institute of Electrification, Alfredo Menaalerted the government that the flow of the dam paute it registered a level of almost half the average cubic meters per second. The lack of rain prevented the flow from generating the necessary electrical energy to supply the country’s demand.

By the end of that month, the levels in the stream were even lower. The government, then, was preparing to make a energy rationing plan. Before starting with it, the Executive sought to exhaust all its cards.

At the beginning of November of that year, three turbines arrived from the United States to cover the energy deficit, according to The Telegraph. However, the installation of the turbines would take three months. By November 9, the Minister of Energy, Andres Barreirosocialized the electricity rationing plan.

Despite the rationing, the electricity deficit seemed to have no solution. That same November, Durán Ballén decreed to advance the official time of the country by 60 minutes, to take advantage of the greatest amount of sunlight. Added to this provision was the suspension of electrical service at night for public institutions, building facades, squares, parks, and sports fields. The measure was maintained until January 30, 1993.when the rains appeared and the flow of the Paute River reached its levels before the drought.

Official data showed that the government wanted to save on fuel imports for state-owned thermoelectric plants near 156,000 million sucres, approximately USD 87 million at that time. The blackouts had already caused losses of USD 600 million sucres in the public and private sectors.

However, some opponents of Sixto’s time have pointed out the measure as a smokescreen so that the public opinion agenda would focus on the energy crisis and not on the protests or the economic crisis that the government was facing.

In one of his speeches in January 1993, collected in the book My way Written by Sixto Durán Ballén himself, the then president referred to the Sistine and pronounced: “We have faced the biggest drought suffered in the last 30 years without energy rationing that would have cost at least $400 million, thanks to the exemplary sacrifice and discomfort of many –especially children– and thanks also to the fact that we took urgent measures to rehabilitate the thermoelectric park”.

During his presidency, Sixto Durán Ballén had to lead the actions during the War of the Cenepaof 1995, the armed conflict between Ecuador and Peru due to the differences in delimiting the borders of both countries. At that moment, Durán Ballén said the most remembered phrase of his and that became a symbol of national cohesion: “not a step back”.

Politically he had to face two corruption scandals. One of them known as the case flowers and honey, which involved the granddaughter of Durán Ballén in a collective scam. Undoubtedly, the most critical moment in his government was the political trial of former vice president Alberto Dahik, who was accused of the illegal handling of public funds. Although Dahik managed to save himself before Congress, upon learning that ordinary justice would issue a prison order against him, the then vice president fled the country on a journey typical of a movie. So, Durán Ballén was left without a vice president.

Despite the conflicts, Durán Ballén managed to reduce inflation and increase the country’s monetary reserve. In addition, he promoted a referendum where the Yes won.

At 95 years old, Sixto Duran Ballen He passed away in 2016. The former president asked that his coffin not be taken to Carondelet, the seat of government, but to the Municipal Palace. This because he did not want his funeral to take place in the presidential house that had been “contaminated with corruption in recent years,” according to what his friend told the local press, Carlos Larreategui.

During Durán Ballén’s funeral ceremony, the attendees repeated in one voice “not a step back”. While others, the closest ones and the citizens who remembered the politician’s presidency, told the anecdotes of Durán Ballén. There was no shortage of those who remembered when the president decreed that everyone get up an hour earlier, before dawn.

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