Colombian bullfighters decry new ban on the centuries-old tradition and vow to keep it alive

CHOACHI, Colombia — Sebastián Caqueza says a new law to ban bullfighting in Colombia by mid-2027 will not dampen his passion for the sport that he has been practicing since has was a small boy.

Caqueza became a professional matador five years ago by taunting a fully grown bull for about 20 minutes and killing it with his sword, in a ceremony known as the Alternativa. Now, the 33-year-old says he will struggle to make a living as a bullfighter, but vows to do his best to stay in the centuries-old tradition.

''I will continue to participate in bullfights outside of Colombia,'' said Caqueza. ''And once bullfights are illegal in Colombia, we will stage them here anyway, because this is our passion and our life.''

''I will die a bullfighter'' Caqueza said.

The legislation signed Monday by President Gustavo Petro places restrictions on bullfighting for a three-year transitional period and then imposes a full ban by mid-2027. It also orders the government to turn more than a dozen bullfighting arenas into concert halls and exhibition venues.

The bill was approved earlier this year by Colombia's Congress after a heated debate. It removes Colombia from the short list of countries where bullfighting is still legal, including Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru, although the bill does not spell out sanctions for those who continue to stage bullfights.

Recent polls conducted across Colombia indicate bullfighting has lost popularity in the South American country, and animal rights activists have widely celebrated the government's efforts to end an endeavor they describe as cruel and out of touch with modern values.

The bill has especially worried matadors, their assistants and cattle ranchers who specialize in rearing fighting bulls, whose future is now uncertain.

''For me bullfighting is like loving someone, and now we are banned from that," said Nicolas Nossa, a 70-year old retired matador, who runs a bullfighting academy in Choachi, a town of less than 10,000 people surrounded by grazing fields and forested mountains.

In the town's small bullfighting arena, students practice with their capes, using a cart topped with real horns that an instructor pushes toward them. The bullfighting academy has trained more than 100 youths, according to Nossa, including the matador Caqueza, who began to study his craft as a teenager.

But the new legislation is already forcing the academy to make some changes.

Classes have been suspended for children under 14 since May, when legislators approved the bill. Now the academy's leaders must decide if they should continue training a younger cadre of bullfighters in a country where the activity will soon be banned.

Nossa lamented the uncertain future of bullfighting and said he hopes plans by bullfighting supporters to file a lawsuit in Colombia's Constitutional Court will succeed in blocking the ban.

Animal rights activists had been asking Congress to implement a ban for more than two decades, often losing key votes by narrow margins.

Andrea Padilla, a senator for Colombia's green party who has long been a champion of animal rights, believes views about spectacles involving animals have changed. She said passing anti-bullfighting legislation was finally possible because Colombia's first left-wing government put pressure on many legislators to approve it.

Padilla questioned the arguments of bullfighting aficionados, who praise bulls for their bravery and say their destiny is to die with honor in the ring.

''I don't understand how you can raise an animal to see it destroyed in a public event,'' she said.

Bullfights stopped in Bogota while Petro was mayor, but they resumed after his term ended, thanks to a court decision that said shutting down the bullring violated the rights of aficionados to express their cultural heritage.

Still, supporters of bullfighting continued to face barriers in Bogota and other major cities like Medellin, though Cali, Colombia's third largest city, has continued to hold these events on a regular basis.

The last bullfight in Bogota was in March 2020, just before large gatherings were banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

''In 2012, Petro arbitrarily shut down the bullring, and since then lots of other smaller towns began to do the same,'' said Caqueza, the bullfighter from Choachi.

Cattle ranchers who raise the aggressive and lean bulls used in bullfights have also suffered from the tradition's decline, and now their future is uncertain.

''What are we going to do with all this cattle?'' Sáez de Santamaría asked during a recent visit to his ranch. ''For every bull that dies in a ring, there are 10 to 15 more fighting bulls'' on Colombian ranches.

Sáez de Santamaría estimates there are more than 30,000 fighting bulls in Colombia.

Padilla, the green party senator, regrets that the new law — drafted by a member of the president's Historical Pact party — does not specify what should be done with bulls bred for fights, but said she hoped their owners would let them live.

Sáez de Santamaría said fighting bulls, which generally weigh between 400 and 450 kilos (800 pounds and 990 pounds) and can bring around $5,000 for use in fights, are expensive to maintain. He predicted most ranchers will end up selling their bulls to slaughterhouses.

He said he is contemplating turning his property into a ranch for raising beef cattle or perhaps into a dairy farm. Or he may just sell it to developers in the area who have been buying up land to put up factories and apartment buildings.

There are no reliable statistics in Colombia about how many people make a living from bullfights, so the economic impact of the ban is unclear.

The bill, however, calls on the government to identify people who make a living from bullfighting and finance projects that will help them develop new livelihoods.

Die-hard bullfighter Caqueza said he is not interested in doing anything else.

''If we can't fight bulls, we are dead in life,'' he said.

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