The Colombian Congress approves the ban on bullfighting | EUROtoday

The Colombian House of Representatives accredited this Tuesday the ban on bullfighting. In a half-filled chamber, there have been 93 votes in favor and a pair of in opposition to — out of a complete of 188 members. Now, the undertaking should undergo a reconciliation between the textual content accredited this Tuesday and the one beforehand outlined by the Senate, to then be sanctioned by President Gustavo Petro, one in every of its defenders. The probably factor is that there will probably be no setbacks – collapses in conciliation are uncommon – and that Colombia will thus emerge from the small group of eight international locations on the earth that also enable bullfighting at the moment.

The ban on bullfighting will come into impact three years after the approval of the undertaking, in 2027. The goal of the lately accredited textual content is for the bullrings all through the nation to grow to be the scene of concert events, performs, chess championships and entrepreneurship festivals. “The purpose of this law is to contribute to a cultural transformation that is based on the recognition and respect for animal life, and that contributes to the achievement of total peace,” reads the presentation offered by consultant Alejandro García, of the Green Alliance, and which is predicated on the undertaking of Senator Esperanza Hernández, of the Historical Pact.

García recalled after the approval that the initiative went via a number of obstacles in current months. “We knew it wouldn't be easy. But we never imagined it would be so difficult. This project has been dropped 14 times and is now close to becoming law,” mentioned the Risraldense. Likewise, he referred to as on bullfighters to take part within the conversion of bullrings into cultural areas. “To the cities, Manizales and Cali, I say: this is an opportunity for these underused spaces (one week a year) to be truly places of culture, art and sport,” he remarked. “We tell the country that animal welfare is prioritized, and we tell the world that Colombia is in a process of cultural reconversion.”

Another of the authors of the undertaking, Juan Carlos Losada (Liberal Party), additionally emphasised that it was “10 years of struggle.” “What you have here today is a country that says that there is no form of torture that can be considered culture in this world. “Colombia sets an example to the entire world because we are becoming an increasingly less violent and increasingly civilized society,” declared the Bogota native after the vote. “Torture is not regulated, but prohibited,” he added. Minutes later, the congressmen broke out in celebratory chants. “No more olé,” they exclaimed, in reference to the expressions utilized in bullfighting to encourage bullfighters.

The representatives who left the premises to not vote on the initiative belong primarily to the Democratic Center and Radical Change, each of that are right-wing and against the Government. Congressman Christian Garcés, who hopes that the Constitutional Court overturns the accredited textual content, insisted till the final minute with another undertaking to control bullfighting and scale back animal abuse—with out eliminating deaths. “You can't simply prohibit it because jobs are created here,” he declared in the course of the session. For her half, Ana María Monsalve, consultant of the Afro-Colombian communities, requested to talk after the approval and identified that “hundreds of boys and girls” will probably be affected as a result of their mother and father will probably be left with out help. “Today they leave thousands of people without jobs who they have not even identified,” she mentioned.

Victory for the president

Petro had promised in the course of the marketing campaign that he would put an finish to reveals that contain practices of animal abuse, as he did in Bogotá when he was mayor (2012-2015). “We will not allow the use of public venues or resources for these purposes,” he mentioned on a number of events earlier than being elected as the primary left-wing president in many years. Once in energy, Petro reiterated his need to finish the bullfights. “I ask the mayors not to authorize more shows with the death of people or animals,” he wrote after the collapse two years in the past of a grandstand within the Plaza de El Espinal that left 4 useless and greater than 200 injured.

This Tuesday, the Government celebrated the victory in Congress. The Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco, celebrated on the venue and commented upon leaving that the choice “is a leap to modernity.” “Let's give the Chamber credit for interpreting a new culture, a new vision of what the country has to be. It is understanding that there was a tradition that played with the pain of sentient beings, of animals,” he declared on Caracol Radio. Petro, for his half, spoke via X. “Congratulations to those who finally managed to make death not a spectacle. “Those who have fun with the death of animals will end up having fun with the death of human beings,” he famous.

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