Ecuador votes to end 500 years of bullfighting

Source: Irish Times

The Irish Times - Monday, May 9, 2011
Ecuador votes to end 500 years of bullfighting

TOM HENNIGAN in São Paulo

~snip~
As well as ending the killing of bulls in the ring, voters in a referendum held on Saturday outlawed cockfighting and casino gambling. More controversially, President Rafael Correa won approval for new controls on the country’s media and financial sectors.

Voters backed all 10 constitutional reforms backed by the popular Mr Correa, who campaigned hard in favour of the new measures. Provisional results though from electoral authorities show the margin of victory was tighter than expected.

The president’s opponents had claimed the referendum was the latest moves in his campaign since taking power in 2007 to strengthen the power of Ecuador’s executive. However, at a victory rally on Saturday night, Mr Correa called the result a victory for his “citizens’ revolution”, saying voters had not been scared off by a “ferocious opposition” and a corrupt press. “We have beaten them all,” he told supporters.

Bullfighting has long been a traditional pastime of Ecuador’s European-descended elite. Its supporters sought to portray the proposed ban as an attack on their freedom of expression and cultural heritage and claimed an end to the spectacle would leave 100,000 people out of work.

Read more: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0509/1224296491068.html

I know it is for me K&R

It is a civil thing to do and should be outlawed everywhere.

A most welcome development!

Ecuadoran toreadores protest before the referendum.


But it would have been nice if the Irish Times reporter had fact checked. He cites "500 years" of bullfighting in Ecuador. Can't be, because the Conquistadores did not arrive in Ecuador 500 years ago (1537 is the date recognized). Bullfighting is thought to have been begun sometime in the mid-1700s.

But that is what happens when a reporter in Sao Paulo, Brazil, writes stories about events in Ecuador, which is thousands of miles northwest of Brazil, on the other side of the continent.

The referendum question:

«¿Está usted de acuerdo en que en el cantón de su domicilio se prohíban los espectáculos que tengan como finalidad dar muerte al animal?»

"Are you in agreement that in the cantón where you live that (entertainment) spectacles whose outcome is to kill the animal be prohibited?"

Cantón in Ecuador is a political entity (region). Bullfights may still take place in a cantón in which the voters voted against the prohibition.

They might consider taking their skills to the streets, creating mime street bullfighting! Could use buses as bulls.

Would be a lot more equal than large numbers of men with swords and horses against one trapped animal brought there to be sacrificed.

500 years did seem a very long time for bullfighting in Ecuador. Maybe he confused Ecuador with Spain? Easy mistake for some, I guess.

I hope the cantons won't use their "states' rights" privilege to keep this non-sporting event alive.

Not to minimize the bullfighting ban, which is good, but what kind of media controls did it allow? Was the bullfighting ban an emotional hook to slip in media controls?

Gotta watch what you say, watch what you do.

but casino gambling?

Reason for hope.

Now, Mexico and Spain, you're next.

And yet here, in the "greatest country on earth", state legislature by state legislature, we're still having to fight to outlaw cockfighting, bear baiting, spring-trapping of foxes, and to ensure animal shelters keep their charges fed, warm, and decently housed, and that euthanasia is done in the most humane way possible.

They stopped humans fighting each other many centuries ago, but the animal events have continued into the 21s century.