Novice matadors’ hunger strike over bullfight ban

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2014, file photo, Colombian bullfighters Omar Rodriguez, left, Alfredo Pena, second left, Diego Torres, second right, and David Rodriguez, right, stand outside La Santa Maria bullring while staging a hunger strike in Bogota, Colombia. Eight bullfighters have been striking for more than a week in tents outside the city's only bullring after Mayor Gustavo Petro ended bullfighting in the city when he cancelled the bullring's lease in June 2012. He said he wanted public places to be used for activities of "life, not death". (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File) FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2014, file photo, Colombian bullfighters Omar Rodriguez, left, Alfredo Pena, second left, Diego Torres, second right, and David Rodriguez, right, stand outside La Santa Maria bullring while staging a hunger strike in Bogota, Colombia. Eight bullfighters have been striking for more than a week in tents outside the city's only bullring after Mayor Gustavo Petro ended bullfighting in the city when he cancelled the bullring's lease in June 2012. He said he wanted public places to be used for activities of "life, not death". (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

By Associated Press August 18, 2014 3 min read

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – Two years after Bogota’s leftist mayor suspended bullfights at the capital’s history-steeped bullring, a clutch of apprentice matadors is pressing for their reinstatement with a hunger strike.

The two-week-old protest outside the classically styled arena, La Santamaria Plaza, comes as the country’s Constitutional Court is expected to rule on a legal attempt to force Mayor Gustavo Petro to allow the blood sport to resume in the city-owned venue.

One of the eight novices, weakened from the liquid-only diet, had to be hospitalized last week, said a comrade, 19-year-old Diego Torres. Torres said late Sunday that he and another hunger striker also might need to be hospitalized shortly. But that would not halt the strike, he said.

Soon after his election in late 2011, Petro announced that La Santamaria would no longer host the ceremonious slaughter of bulls but be devoted exclusively to non-violent entertainment. It has long served as a concert and theater venue.

“The man has marginalized us,” complained Torres. “Here, everyone looks at us like we’re the scum of the earth.” The apprentices have also lost income. Each earns a bit more than $330 per fight.