The controversy generated by a statue of the bullfighter César Rincón that was removed in Duitama

The removal of a statue of the bullfighter Cesar Rinconduring an official ceremony in the town of Duitama, sparked a controversy in Colombia, where bullfighting fans consider it an affront to history and animal rights activists defend the action as a step towards transform bullrings.

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The statue was located in front of the César Rincón Bullring, in that town in the department of Boyacá, a setting that will now be used as a market and cultural venue. The mayor of Duitama, José Luis Bohórquez, expressed during the event that the statue could not continue “in contradiction to the spaces we have to celebrate life,” so it will be located somewhere else in that municipality.

“Today we are not going to destroy, not to violate, because we did not come from that culture, but we are going to say that everything in life has its spaces and the space of that statue has already passed, as the space of death has already passed in this space “Bohórquez added. The director of the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS), Gustavo Bolívar, and the pro-government senator Esmeralda Hernández, who promoted in Congress the law approved this month that banned bullfighting throughout the country, participated in the event.

“With the removal and transfer of the monument to the bullfighter César Rincón from the Duitama bullring, we are taking the first step towards transforming these spaces of torture. Together with Gustavo Bolívar and José Luis Bohórquez, we are announcing the investment of resources so that the bullrings belong to everyone.”Hernandez said on his social networks.

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This month, the Colombian Congress approved the bill banning bullfighting, after several years of failed attempts. Bullfights, traditionally popular in Colombia, were losing followers and currently there were only them in the bullrings of La Santamaría, in Bogotá; in Cañaveralejo, Cali and in the Plaza de Toros de Manizales, a city that has the largest fans in the country, as well as in some provincial plazas.

Questioned decision Senator María Fernanda Cabal, from the opposition Centro Democrático party, criticized the government for removing the statue at the same time that President Gustavo Petro recognized, just a few days ago, as a “protected” asset the hat of former guerrilla leader Carlos Pizarro, assassinated in 1990 and last commander of the 19th of April Movement (M-19) of which the current president was a member.

“The logic of the leftists in power. They destroy the monument of the bullfighter César Rincón in Bogotá (sic), but they exalt the hat of the terrorist Carlos Pizarro of the M-19. The inversion of values ​​increasingly absurd”said the congresswoman in X. The Toro de Lidia Foundation, from Spain, described what happened in Duitama as “the true image of savagery.” “They can tear down all the sculptures they want, but the anti-bullfighting people will not be able to destroy the memory of the Colombian people,” added this organization on its social networks.

The most important bullfighter in Colombia Born in 1965 in Bogotá, César Rincón became interested in the world of bullfighting through his father’s profession, who was a bullfighting photographer.

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On December 8, 1982, he took the alternative in the Colombian capital with Antonio Chenel “Antoñete” as godfather and José María Manzanares, as witness. In 1991 he came out through the front door of the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid during the San Isidro Fair. Rincón retired from the bullring on September 23, 2007 in the Plaza Monumental in Barcelona and said goodbye definitively to bullfighting in Santamaría, Bogotá, in February 2008. although he remains active with a cattle ranch of fighting bulls.

EFE