Colombia’s Congress has handed a invoice which is able to ban bullfighting throughout the Andean nation from 2027.
The ban is the end result of a vocal marketing campaign by animal rights activists, who’ve lengthy argued the apply is merciless.
Bullfighting was launched in Colombia by the Spanish throughout colonial instances and have become very talked-about, drawing hundreds of spectators to massive bullrings in cities equivalent to Bogotá, Medellín and Manizales.
The invoice nonetheless must be signed by the president, Gustavo Petro, however as he has backed the ban, that is thought-about to be a formality.
The president welcomed its approval by Congress, writing on X that “those that benefit from the dying of animals will find yourself having fun with the dying of human beings, simply as those that burn books, find yourself burning human beings”.
Supporters of bullfighting had protested in opposition to the invoice, saying it could deprive not simply those that breed the bulls of their livelihood but additionally the various avenue distributors who hawk their wares on the bullrings.
With a purpose to mitigate its affect, the invoice will permit for a three-year transition interval through which these whose companies are tied to bullfighting might be supplied assist discovering various incomes.
Bullrings will in future be used for cultural and sporting occasions, the invoice stipulates.
Colombia is the most recent nation in Latin American to ban bullfighting.
Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay banned the apply over a century in the past, and there are additionally bans in place in Brazil and Chile, amongst others.
Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless allowed in Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
Mexico Metropolis imposed a ban in 2022 solely to see it overturned two years later.
Greater than 40,000 folks flocked to the primary bullfight to be held within the metropolis’s bullring, the world’s largest, for the reason that ban was overturned.
In Europe, bullfights are nonetheless held in France and Spain, though some cities have outlawed it.
