Colombia approves ban on bullfighting starting in 2027

The Congress of Colombia approved Tuesday a ban on bullfighting starting in 2027. With 93 votes in favor and two against, the Chamber of Representatives gave the green light to the proposal that now only needs the signature of the president, Gustavo Petro, who is openly anti-bullfighting, to become law. Colombia is one of the countries with the greatest bullfighting tradition in the Americas.

Until the ban comes into force, in three years, the Colombian government assures that it will look for employment alternatives for workers who depend directly or indirectly on bullfighting.

"It is a historic milestone," Representative Juan Carlos Losada, who gave his support to the project, told AFP. As of today, Colombia "is leaving the sad list" of countries "where bullfighting, animal torture, is still considered a cultural element," he added. Other legislators, including Senator Esmeralda Gómez, the author of the anti-bullfighting law, burst out in hysterical joy alongside people dressed as bulls in the seat of Colombian popular sovereignty.

Petro celebrated the approval on X: "Congratulations to those who finally managed to make death not a spectacle," wrote the Colombian president, making a strange analogy between the bullfighting tradition and the death of human beings.

The approved text includes other shows similar to bullfights that are held with calves and heifers. The truth is that, as AFP reports, the authorization or prohibition of this activity depends on local governments under a 2018 ruling by the Constitutional Court, which delegated possible restrictions to Congress.

Bogotá and Medellín, the two main cities in Colombia, have banned bullfighting since 2020, while in Cali (southwest) and Manizales (central-west), it is allowed because it is a central part of their festivals.

Colombia joins the list of countries that prohibit bullfighting in the region, such as Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Guatemala. In Mexico, four of the 32 states have banned it. However, in February, a court reversed a temporary suspension of bullfighting in Mexico City. It was then that fans, under the slogan FREEDOM, once again filled the rings after the lifting of the ban.

Seven countries in the world still hold bullfighting events: Ecuador, Spain, France, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Venezuela.

In Quito, the capital of Ecuador, it is prohibited to kill the bull. Venezuela has canceled some bullfights, and in Peru, the courts ruled against the ban in 2020. In Spain, the place of origin of this ancestral festival, left-wing groups that call themselves "animalistas" continue to pressure to end the bullfighting festival, so far with little success.