Monday, January 29, 2024

Mexico activists protest return of bullfights to capital

Reuters
Sun, January 28, 2024 





Mexico activists protest return of bullfights to capital
A demonstration against the return of bullfighting takes place outside the Plaza de Toros Mexico bullfighting ring, in Mexico City


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Animal rights defenders in Mexico City on Sunday marched to protest the return of the centuries-old spectacle of bullfighting to the capital after almost two years.

"Torture is not art, it is not culture," demonstrators shouted near the Plaza Mexico bullring. "Yes to bulls, no to bullfighting."

Mexico's capital held its first bullfight in almost two years on Sunday, after the Supreme Court paved the way for the spectacle's return in December.


Bullfights have been held in Mexico since the 16th century.

While a ruling suspended bullfighting in 2022 as a precautionary measure amid a longer-running case, the Supreme Court struck that decision down. Activists hope a final resolution will come later this year.

(Reporting by Toya Sarno Jordan and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Bullfighting brings out protesters in Mexico City

AFP
Sun, January 28, 2024

Activists on January 28, 2024 protested the restart of bullfighting in Mexico City, after the Supreme Court revoked a suspension that prevented them from taking place (Rodrigo Oropeza)


Activists protested on Sunday against a resumption of bullfighting in Mexico City, after the Supreme Court revoked an earlier suspension.

Dozens of people gathered in the central Glorieta de Insurgentes roundabout before heading to the city's Plaza de Toros bullring -- the largest in the world, with seating for 50,000 -- hours before the event was to start.

"We are completely against the fact bullfights have returned, and that these events continue to be held where only pleasure is sought through the torture of an animal," Jeronimo Sanchez, director of the NGO Animal Heroes, told AFP.

Protesters waved banners with images of bullfighting, urging "No to bullfighting" and "No more deaths of innocents."

Two demonstrators donned bull masks and covered themselves with blood-red paint.



Mexico has long been a bastion of the fights.

But in June 2022, a judge ordered the indefinite suspension of the centuries-old practice in Mexico City, agreeing with animal rights activists who had filed suit.

Last month the Supreme Court revoked the decision, although Mexican media said the judges ruled only on technical aspects and have yet to decide on the case's merits.

After the high court decision, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador proposed a referendum on the future of bullfighting in Mexico City.

So far, only a handful of Mexico's 32 states have banned the practice, which in 2018 generated millions in revenues and employed around 80,000 people.

bur/mdl/bbk


Bullfighting set to return to Mexico City amid legal battle between fans and animal rights defenders

Associated Press
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Mexican bullfighter Sergio Flores demonstrates his capework during a bullfighting workshop, in Aculco, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. The workshop is part of an initiative promoted by the Mexican Association of Bullfighting to attract new followers to this centuries-old tradition and confront the growing global movement driven by animal defenders.
 
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Bullfights were set to return to Mexico City on Sunday after the country’s highest court temporarily revoked a local ruling that sided with human rights defenders and suspended the events for more than a year and a half.

The resumption of bullfights in the Plaza México arena, the largest of its kind in the world, has raised expectations in the face of a lengthy legal battle between enthusiasts and opponents, who argue the practice violates animal welfare and affects people’s rights to a healthy environment.

Bullfighting is still allowed in much of Mexico. In the capital, the legal fight for its future is full of twists and turns.

In May 2022, a local court ordered an end to bullfighting activities at Plaza México in response to an injunction presented by the civil organization Justicia Justa, which defends human rights. But the activities were set to resume Sunday because the nation’s Supreme Court of Justice in December revoked the suspension while the merits of the case are discussed and a decision is reached on whether bullfights affect animal welfare.

Another civil organization filed an appeal Friday on animal welfare grounds in a last-ditch effort to prevent the activity from resuming. A ruling was not expected before Sunday’s event.

As an alternative to the court system, some local organizations called for a march in the Zócalo, or main plaza, in central Mexico City, as well as protests around Plaza México on Sunday.

Animal rights groups have been gaining ground in Mexico in recent years while bullfighting followers have suffered several setbacks. In some states such as Sinaloa, Guerrero, Coahuila, Quintana Roo and the western city of Guadalajara, judicial measures now limit the activity.

Ranchers, businessmen and fans maintain that the ban on bullfights affects their rights and puts at risk several thousand jobs linked to the activity, which they say generates about $400 million a year in Mexico. The National Association of Fighting Bull Breeders in Mexico estimates that bullfighting is responsible for 80,000 direct jobs and 146,000 indirect jobs.

The association has hosted events and workshops in recent years to promote bullfights and find new, younger fans.

Bullfight advocates working with young people to attract new followers in Mexico

FERNANDO LLANO
Sat, January 27, 2024 

Mexico Bullfighting Workshop
Farmhands lasso a calf during a bullfighting workshop at the the San Jose cattle ranch in Aculco, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. The workshop is part of an initiative promoted by the Mexican Association of Bullfighting to publicize the different activities that surround the breeding of fighting bulls. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

ACULCO, Mexico (AP) — The corral gate swings open and an energetic calf charges in, only to be wrestled stuggling to the ground and immobilized by having its legs tied. The men go to work vaccinating the calf and marking its number with a burning iron on its back.

It happened in one of the sessions of a workshop that José Arturo Jiménez gave this past week at his ranch in Aculco, a town in the State of Mexico near Mexico City, attended by about 40 university students and others.

The event was part of an initiative by the Mexican Association of Bullfighting to attract new followers for the centries-old tradition of bullfighting by educating young people about the different activities that surround the breeding of fighting bulls.

The association is trying to counter the growing global movement driven by animal defenders who seek to abolish bullfighting, which they consider torture of bulls.

Although bullfighting is still allowed in much of Mexico, it is suspended in some states, such as Sinaloa, Guerrero, Coahuila and Quintana Roo. There is also a legal fight in Mexico City that threatens the future of the capital's Plaza Mexico, the largest bullfighting arena in the world.

Jimenez admitted that a good part of the public that now attends bullfights in Mexico is not very young.

So Jiménez and other members of the association in recent years have dedicated themselves to promoting a hundred events and educational workshops for young people in different parts of Mexico.

“You have to give the elements to people so they can decide what they like and don’t like ... and at least let them know our truth and decide if it is good or bad,” the 64-year-old rancher said.

During the workshops, participants are taught the different aspects of the breeding of fighting bulls, their rigorous care and the studies that are conducted to determine the fighting spirit and proclivities of various animals.

Among those attending the rancher’s workshop was environmental engineering student Estefanía Manrique, who six years ago became drawn to bullfighting after recluctantly accompanying her mother to Plaza Mexico to see a cousin in a bullfight.

Before going “I had this idea that it was abuse,” Manrique said, but her perception was changed by the ritual surrounding the bullfight.

“I really like theater, and seeing how they analyze the bulls and move them according to the characteristics they have — and it even seems that they are dancing, other times they seem to be acting — I loved that,” the 22-year-old said.

She added that her love for bullfighting has caused problems among her university classmates because most of her social circle are more sympathetic to the view of animal rights activists, but she said she defends her passion.

Jimenez has high hopes that the incipient educational effort will succeed in drawing in new afficianados for bullfighting and ensure the survival of the tradition.

“We want them to continue more than with this party," he said. "Let people follow to go to the countryside, raise their animals, sow their seeds, harvest, have a bond with the land, eat healthy food and are not hypocritical, not made of glass and know that animals have to be killed to eat them and they have to be respected and cared for.”

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