Mexico City bans violent bullfighting, sparking fury and celebration

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City lawmakers on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to ban violent bullfighting, triggering outrage from aficionados and celebration from animal rights advocates.

The legislation, approved by a 61-1 vote, prohibits the killing of bulls and the use of sharp objects that could injure the animals. It also sets time limits on how long bulls could be in the ring, all part of an initiative dubbed “bullfighting without violence.”

The decision sparked angry protests from bullfighting supporters and matadors, some of whom tried to breach a police barricade at the local Congress. Some carried signs that read “Being a fan of la fiesta brava (bullfighting) is not a crime, it’s a point of pride.”

Meanwhile, Animal rights protesters and lawmakers pushing the bill celebrated, walking out onto the steps of Congress surrounded by police in riot gear, pumping their fists and carrying stuffed bull dolls.

“It was either this or nothing," said Sofía Morín, an animal rights activist with the organization Culture Without Torture, Mexico Without Bullfighting, leading the initiative to change the laws. “We prefer this because, without a doubt, it's a huge step in protecting animals.”

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada of the ruling Morena party echoed activists saying the decision would turn the Mexican capital into a place “that respects the rights of animals.

Tuesday’s vote appeared to be an attempt to broker a compromise between two warring sides of the debate after years of back-and-forth about the practice.

Bullfighting has long been considered a tradition and a pastime in Latin American nations, but has come under criticism for animal cruelty because bulls are often killed at the end of the fight. Animal rights groups say that approximately 180,000 bulls are killed every year in bullfighting worldwide.

The tradition, which has long drawn big crowds to arenas across Mexico, was dealt a blow when a judge in Mexico City banned the practice in June 2022, shutting down an arena that has been billed as the world’s largest bullfighting ring. The judge ruled that bullfights violated city residents' rights to a healthy environment free from violence.

While animal rights advocates celebrated it as a victory, and a step toward ending the bloody tradition, bullfighters said it dealt an economic blow to the city. The National Association of Breeders of Fighting Bulls in Mexico says bullfighting generates 80,000 direct jobs, and 146,000 indirect jobs across the country. Overall, the industry generates approximately $400 million a year.

That was the concern for many in the crowd protesting the end of the violent fights, while others like Juan Pablo Pimienta screamed through a megaphone “it's an activity where the fighting bull dies in a bullring. That's its nature. ... It is a beast."

In 2023, Mexico’s Supreme Court overturned the ban without explanation, allowing bullfighting arenas to be flooded once again with fans of the so-called “fiesta brava.”

On Tuesday, in a speech before the city's congress, Green Party lawmaker Jesús Sesma acknowledged that the decision would anger a segment of the city’s population.

“To those families who feel frustrated today, we're here to say that no one lost their job,” he said. “There was a middle ground to continue with these bullfighting spectacles, but now without violence.”

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A young supporter of bullfighting joins a demonstration in support of bullfighting outside Mexico City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate its continuation in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

An animal-rights demonstrator carries a sign that reads in Spanish "A real festival does not need blood," outside Mexico's City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate the continuation of bullfighting in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

People demonstrate against bullfighting with signs that read in Spanish "Human liberation. Animal liberation," center, and "Violence is not culture," right, outside Mexico's City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate the continuation of bullfighting in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

A protester wearing a bull costume and shirt that reads in Spanish "No to bullfighting!" gathers outside Mexico's City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate its continuation in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

A supporter of bullfighting holds a sign that reads in Spanish "Prohibited to forbid" outside Mexico's City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate the continuation of bullfighting in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

A young supporter of bullfighting joins a protest in support of bullfighting outside Mexico's City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate its continuation in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

A supporter of bullfighting holds a sign that reads in Spanish "Freedom" outside Mexico's City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate its continuation in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

A supporter of bullfighting holds a sign that reads in Spanish "Bullfighting is an art" outside Mexico's City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate its continuation in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

FILE - Animal rights activists smeared with fake blood and donning banderillas to depict bulls stabbed in bullfights, protest against bullfighting, in Mexico City, Feb. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

FILE - Mexican bullfighter Sergio Flores demonstrates his capework during a bullfighting workshop, in Aculco, Mexico, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)