This time is drawn directly from the reference standards of the MNI Time and Frequency Laboratory, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 14 of Article 6 of Decree 4175 of 2011, a standard that creates the MNI and separates it from the supervision of industry and commerce. It is used in all areas of law where the setting of an hour is required, whether contracts, tenders, auctions, among others. It can be known to the general public on the horalegal.inm.gov.co website. Colombia Legal Time is an official service of the Colombian state, which determines the local time of the country. It comes directly from the reference standards of the Time and Frequency Laboratory of the National Institute of Metrology (INM). It is found 5 hours behind UTC (UTC-5). [1] [2] It is the responsibility of the National Institute of Metrology to disseminate, maintain and coordinate the standard time in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 14 of Article 6 of Decree 4175 of 2011[10], with Decree 2707 of 1982[1] as the precedent establishing the legal time of the Republic. The legal time service was based on the need to define a time model that regulates timing in a clear and unique way throughout the Colombian mainland, located approximately between the meridians 66º and 79º west longitude. In this way, the meridian is set at 74° west longitude, which crosses Bogotá (the capital of the country)[5] as a determinant of time throughout the region, which is practically in the same time zone.

The idea of introducing summer time was proposed as early as 1979 by the then Minister of Mines, Alberto Vásquez Restrepo. [9] Colombia, by Law 91 of 1914[3], adopted the International Convention on the Creation of an International Union of Time and thus the time zone GMT-5 for the entire national territory. [4] In 1982, Decree 2707 of September 16 of the Ministry of Economic Development introduced Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) minus 5 hours as official time. Source: auslandsvorwahlen.net » Calling code for Colombia In the past, Colombia used daylight saving time only once on its territory. Between 1992 and 1993, under the government of then-President César Gaviria Trujillo, the reduction of water reserves in reservoirs, exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon, led to a national energy crisis that forced the authorities to carry out a series of planned blackouts that lasted more than a year. To counter the negative effects of power outages, the Government decided to move clocks in the country forward by one hour from UTC – 5 to UTC – 4 to midnight on 2 May 1992. [6] The measure, unofficially known as “Hora Gaviria”, lasted nine months. [7] [8] Since then, Colombia has not reintroduced daylight saving time and maintains its official UTC−5 time throughout the year.