The mayor of Duitama, José Luis Bohórquez, announced at an event on June 25, 2024 that the municipality of Boyacá will begin to experience changes.
One of them has already been carried out in the bullring, where the monument to the bullfighter César Rincón was removed, which had been inaugurated on December 3, 2012. This action was carried out after the law banning bullfights in the country was approved.
Knocking down the statue of the most important bullfighter in Colombia generated controversy in the country, to the point that the senator of the Democratic Center María Fernanda Cabal recalled that President Petro paid tribute to the guerrilla Carlos Pizarro.
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In her post, María Fernanda Cabal criticized the removal of the monument to bullfighter César Rincón in Duitama, calling the action an example of the “logic of leftists in power.” Cabal pointed out that while monuments like the one in Rincón are destroyed, symbols such as the hat of former guerrilla Carlos Pizarro of the M-19 are praised, which represents an “inversion of values.”
“The logic of the leftists in power. They destroy the monument of the bullfighter César Rincón in Duitama; but they exalt the hat of the terrorist Carlos Pizarro of the M-19. The inversion of values is increasingly absurd,” said the senator from the Democratic Center.
However, the aforementioned was not the only publication that the legislator made regarding the situation, since, In another of his posts about it, he said that the people who carried out said action should go to countries like Cuba or Iran.
“Vandalism must be drastically penalized. We are full of addicted imbeciles who believe they are morally superior when they are maladaptive fanatics. Let them go to Cuba or Iran. There they are imprisoned for 30 years,” he expressed in his X account.
The mayor of the municipality, José Luis Bohórquez, reported that the statue will not be removed, but moved to another location.“We carry out a symbolic act of reconciliation with our animals and we will relocate the iconic statue, because it is part of our historical memory.”said the local leader.
In front of the César Rincón Bullring, in that town in the center of the department of Boyacá, the statue was located, in a space that will now be used as a market and cultural center.
César Rincón, in an interview with Week, expressed his regret and concern about the situation. “our ethical and moral values are disrupted and there is no right to what happens… There are no more words, the qualifiers fall short. It’s unfortunate… It’s an ideology that they want to impose on us, it’s their taste.”he mentioned.
Regarding the situation, Gustavo Bolívar, director of the DPS, spoke with W Radio about the recent Social Prosperity program titled “Life Transformations”, launched in Duitama. Bolívar explained that, after the approval of an anti-bullfighting law, the objective is to convert the bullrings into multiple-use spaces, including peasant markets.
In addition, Bolívar mentioned that, during said activity, the mayor made the decision to remove the statue of César Rincón. He indicated that the plan is to create a bullfighting museum that preserves the historical memories of this practice, highlighting that in the past there was no animal consciousness as developed as the current one.
But in relation to the statue he clarified that: “I have nothing to do with this issue, I was invited, but regarding the statue I did not even participate, the mayor told me that the monument is going to be transferred to a museum because the bullring is going to have another name.”
Finally, The director of the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS) expressed his hope that the statue of César Rincón can be located within the same plaza.
And on May 28, with 93 votes in favor, the House of Representatives approved in the last debate the bill that regulates bullfighting in Colombia. This decision provoked a variety of reactions on social networks, where users expressed both their support and their rejection of the new regulations.
