InvestigationIn this Caribbean island passed under the American flag in 1898, the ban on cockfighting, passed by the United States Congress, is seen as a humiliation by a part of the population.
Shortly before the deadline for registration, Luis Bermudez entered the arena of the small town of Caguas and presented his roosters at the weigh-in. Three Puerto Rican-bred athletes: cut crest, feathered thighs and bare backbone to facilitate combat and strength assessment by bettors – dozens of people, almost all men – sitting in four rows around the ring "A simple carpeted esplanade.
The birds were first exposed in nearby glass cages with their future opponents. Then, with the help of the referees, Luis Bermudez, a retired 68-year-old civil servant, prepared them as one prepares the hands of a boxer, fixing a sharp plastic tip in place of their lug (the rear claw) – for that every bird, we say, fight on equal terms. This Thursday, December 5, the fight was about to start. For one of the last times, without doubt …
"This unilateral decision clearly shows that we are in a colonial relationship"
Anibal Acevedo Vila, former governor of the island
As of December 20, such fights will be banned in Puerto Rico. So decided the Congress of the United States. Luis Bermudez, who has been practicing this "sport" since his childhood, is saddened by it: "How can people who have never been to Puerto Rico ban these fights that have been in our tradition for centuries? " The prohibition was passed secretly, at the end of 2018, in the agricultural programming law passed by the Congress, in which Puerto Rico, a single American territory and not a full-fledged state, is not represented.
Since then, the case turned to political controversy. "This unilateral decision clearly shows that we are in a colonial relationship", accuses the former governor (2005-2008) of the island, Anibal Acevedo Vila, who receives The world in San Juan, the capital. "It's part of our culture, especially in the mountains," he continues, recalling that one of his predecessors, in the 1970s, was nicknamed "the Rooster who does not back".
A tradition and thousands of jobs
This type of fight is old as the Spanish conquest. When they colonized the island in 1898, the Americans decided to ban them before having to restore them in 1933, because they had gone underground. "The Americans did not want Puerto Ricans to conspire against the United States. It was necessary to keep the population happy and intoxicated ", analyzes the lawyer Yolanda Alvarez, who campaigned for the ban and devoted a thesis to the subject. Even today, the fighting takes place in 70 authorized arenas, but also in the backyards of the villages.
