The House of Representatives of Colombia today passed a bill to ban bullfighting throughout the country with 93 votes in favour and two against.
The measure, which will now be reconciled with the text previously approved by the Senate and then to presidential sanction, provides for a period of three years for the economic and labour conversion of persons, whose livelihood is based on this activity.
During this period, a joint effort will be carried out with the Ministries of Labour, Environment, Interior, Agriculture and Trade to provide employment options to these individuals, as disseminated.
The Ministry of Culture, for its part, will be responsible for making the economic investment to change, convert or restructure the spaces where bullfighting took place in the different municipalities of the nation.
Regarding the news, the country’s president, Gustavo Petro, congratulated the promoters of the initiative to prevent the death of animals from remaining a spectacle. “Those who have fun with the death of animals will end up having fun with the death of human beings; like those who burn books, they will end up burning human beings,” the head of state wrote on his account of the social network X.
In addition to bullfighting, the newly approved rule also prohibits rejoneo, heifers, becks and groves.
This article has been translated after first appearing in El Pais