The Commission on Culture and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Peru, chaired by Congressman Edgard Reymundo Mercado, approved with 11 votes in favour, 3 against and 1 abstention, the bills 828/2022-CR and 5492/2022-CR, which recognise bullfighting and cockfighting as cultural manifestations.
This initiative is the response to the advances of the national and international anti-bullfighting movement, possibly as a reaction to the law approved in Colombia this year where all bullfighting was prohibited. The purpose of the ruling is to recognise traditional bullfighting and cockfighting as cultural manifestations and expressions of national multiculturalism, as well as to promote their safeguarding and sustainable development within the framework of the fundamental right of access to culture. In this way, any attempt to ban these bloody spectacles based on the suffering they cause to sentient beings will be more difficult to succeed — this is a tactic that has worked in other regions.
The approved text instructs entities such as the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of current legislation, to implement and update the cultural registry and inventory of bullfighting and cockfighting activities at the national level. In addition, it instructs the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism to strengthen the sustainable development of bullfighting and cockfighting tourism activities, as well as to declare the recognition, protection and breeding of the breeds of bullfighting bulls and fighting cocks of Peru to be of national interest.
Peru is one of the nine countries in the world where there is a bullfighting industry, the others being Spain, Portugal, France, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, the United States, and Colombia, but the latter country banned them on 28th May 2024, although such a ban will be enforced within two years.
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