After more than a year of a ban finally overturned by the Supreme Court, bullfighting resumed on Sunday January 28 in Mexico City, the largest arena in the world, to the great anger of anti-bullfighting activists, who came forward.
Tens of thousands of aficionados took over the Monumental Plaza de toros Mexico, which can accommodate up to 41,000 people seated, for the first bullfight of the season, with the Mexican bullfighter Joselito Adame, injured in April of A horn blow to the left leg.
” Freedom. Bulls, living culture”, we read in the middle of the arena, where Joselito Adame and Diego Silveti carried out the first kills, under the traditional white handkerchiefs. Joselito Adame thanked in a written message “the entire Mexican public represented this afternoon by all those present at the Mexico City bullring, an unparalleled public that keeps bullfighting alive, patient for its return, affectionate, critical and passionate.”
“Torture is neither art nor culture”
The arenas were protected by a cordon of police intended to block the march of opponents of bullfighting, who marched under the slogan “Torture is neither art nor culture”. Bullfights were banned in June 2022 by the decision of a judge in Mexico following a complaint from an animal rights organization, Justicia justa. On December 6, 2023, the Supreme Court annulled this decision, without ruling on the merits of the appeal. The anti-bullfighters are betting everything on a final decision in the coming weeks.
Bullfights were imported by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. The sector generated a turnover of 414 million Mexican pesos in 2018, with 83,000 direct jobs, argue aficionados. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has suggested a referendum in the capital on the future of bullfighting. Four of Mexico’s thirty-two states ban them.