The Mexican Supreme Court prevents Nayarit from considering bullfights as cultural heritage

New setback for bullfighting defenders in Mexico.

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) invalidated on Wednesday the Nayarit decree that declared bullfights and cockfights as intangible cultural heritage.

After weeks of sessions and debates, the second chamber of the high court has voted to declare the decree unconstitutional, among other arguments, because the animals are "deserving of decent treatment."

The verdict of the Supreme Court comes at a very tense moment between the courts and bullfighting after the closure of Plaza México, in the capital, by order of a federal judge.

The decision of the SCJN has not been a surprise.

The discussions in recent weeks were aimed at agreeing with the civil association Contigo Tepic, which promoted an amparo against the decree that was approved in Nayarit in 2019. The resolution has been proposed by Minister Alberto Pérez Dayán and approved with four votes. in favor and one against Minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa.

In the first place, the SCJN considers that Nayarit does not have "the power to issue this type of declarations on cultural heritage", since they depend on the Federal Government.

But the room has left no room for ambiguity: “Cockfights and bullfighting, when translated into activities that generate suffering, agony and even the death of sentient species, unnecessarily or unjustifiably, are incompatible or irreconcilable with the human right to a healthy environment and, therefore, are not subject to protection under the so-called cultural rights.

Thus, the magistrates consider that it is incompatible to protect these animals from mistreatment and at the same time give the financial and educational aid, which an activity receives when it is an intangible cultural asset, to promote shows.

In addition, the sentence names the popular right to a healthy environment, protected in article 4 of the Mexican Constitution.

His interpretation, which had already been slipped in other sessions, served as a precedent in the resolution of federal judge Jonathan Bass in the case of the Just Justice association against the Mexico City bullring, La Monumental.

“There is a jurisprudential tendency of the SCJN to endorse that the protection of the right to a healthy environment implies the eradication of cruel treatment against animals”, explained the lawyer Luis Pérez de Acha to EL PAÍS.

The link between this human right and bullfighting is not without controversy.

While Judge Bass pointed out, on the one hand: "Society is interested in respecting the integrity of all animals because they are living beings that make up ecosystems and, therefore, contribute environmental services that are essential for being human";

bullfighting maintain that "the brave bull lives and is bred for bullfights would become extinct if it has no other use and there if the ecosystem would suffer damage".

The Supreme Court has been very blunt regarding the implications of its resolution.

“Any interpretation of this ruling, in the sense that cockfights or bullfighting are contrary to or prohibited by the Constitution, would be clearly wrong.

This Chamber only and expressly considers that said activities are not susceptible to recognition as intangible cultural heritage”, collects the approved project.

However, it can open the door for this cultural protection to be invalidated in other States.

In Mexico, in addition to Nayarit, in eight others —Aguascalientes, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Nuevo León and Guanajuato—, the bullfighting festival enjoys the same declaration as intangible heritage.

In the case of Nuevo León, Congress approved this declaration just a few weeks ago.

Beyond the judicial circuits, the debate on the prohibition of bullfighting in Mexico also has a political version.

For example, the Animal Welfare Commission of the Mexico City Congress approved a reform in December to suspend them.

But the blockade of political groups, especially Morena, has made it paralyzed.

While the head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, advocates resolving the conflict in a citizen consultation, a kind of referendum to decide on its continuity.

However, the policy has not yet given details of how it would be carried out.

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