The Second District Court of the Mexican State of Zacatecas has permanently suspended ten bullfights in the Monumental bullring that were planned for the 2022 National Fair of Zacatecas from the 3rd to the 18th of September. The suspension was granted by Judge María Citlalic Vizcaya Zamudio from a request of the National Anti-Corruption Collective (COLECNA). On 22nd August the same court granted a provisional suspension in response to this complaint, but on 29th August it made the suspension definitive.
The resolution issued had, among one of its grounds, that the bullfighting company organising the bullfight (of which Senator Armando Guadiana Tijerina is a partner), continued promoting ticket sales and advertising bullfights throughout the metropolitan area of the capital of Zacatecas despite the issue of the first provisional suspension that prohibited this.
This suspension is quite significant as the State of Zacatecas, located in North-Central Mexico, it’s known to have a strong bullfighting industry. The brothers Antonio and Julián Llaguno are said to have created in this state the breed of bullfighting bull most used in Mexico. The Llaguno brothers founded in Zacatecas the Torrecilla and San Mateo bull ranches. Zacatecas has now 20 bullfighting bull farms registered with the National Association of Bullfighting Bull Breeders.
The bullfighting industry is powerful in this state, so it lobbied the politicians till, on 8th August 2013, the state of Zacatecas declared bullfighting an Intangible Cultural Heritage. However, in June 2022, the top court in Mexico, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), invalidated a decree of the Mexican state of Nayarit that considered cockfighting and bullfighting as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, which suggests that the Zacatecas declaration may end up being nullified as well. It is not surprising that an anti-corruption non-profit led to the suspension of bullfights in Zacatecas as in regions with a strong bullfighting industry there are claims about the bullfighting fraternity operating almost in a “mafia” style fashion.
