On 26 June 2022, a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

collapsed in El Espinal,

Tolima Department Tolima () is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the Andean region, in the center-west of the country. It is bordered on the north and the west by the department of Caldas; on the east by the department of Cundinamarca; on the ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

during a

bullfight Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms wh ...

Background

The stadium was hosting a

corraleja A corraleja is a bullfighting Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several va ...

, which is a bullfighting tradition popular in Columbia. There are no bullfighters in a corraleja – spectators are allowed to enter the ring and engage the bull. On 20 January 1980 during a corraleja, several stands collapsed, killing more than 500 spectators.

Collapse

The collapse occurred at the three-story wooden stand section filled with audience members. There were 800 people sitting in the collapsed section before the accident happened. The stands were overcrowded because there had been no corraleja the prior year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The stands were built with thin wooden boards and tied together with rope. A bull that was part of the show escaped the ring and caused mayhem in El Espinal, and was later captured.

Victims

A total of six people were killed and another 322 people were treated at local public and private hospitals. Of the initial four fatalities reported, two of them were women (Blanca Sandoval and Rocío Botto), one man (Fidel Hernández), and one 14 month old baby. Fabio Buitrago, a witness to the collapse, said that he saw "many people crushed under the rubble" of the stands. 14 of the injured were pregnant women and 27 were children. Most of the injured were taken to the San Rafael Hospital in El Espinal.

Investigation

According to Yerson Hernán Oliveros Calderón, one of the organizers of the event, the government of the

did not authorize the use of the

guadua ''Guadua'' is a Neotropical genus of thorny, clumping bamboo in the grass family, ranging from moderate to very large species. Physically, '' Guadua angustifolia'' is noted for being the largest Neotropical bamboo. The genus is similar to ''Bam ...

that they had used in the construction of the stands, so the organizers had to import it from Armenia.

Responses

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Iván Duque Iván Duque Márquez (; born 1 August 1976) is a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the president of Colombia from 2018 to 2022. He was elected as the candidate from the Democratic Centre Party in the 2018 Colombian presidential ...

expressed his solidarity to all of the victims' families and ordered an investigation to the incident. President-elect

Gustavo Petro Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego (; born 19 April 1960) is a Colombian politician who is the 34th and current president of Colombia since 2022. Upon inauguration, he became the Pink tide, first left-wing president in the History of Colombia, recen ...

urged a ban on such events, citing that it was not the first time it happened. The Mayor's Office of El Espinal expressed regret for the collapse. The mayor of El Espinal, Juan Carlos Tamayo, claimed that the tragedy was unforeseeable since officials had done all due diligence in inspecting the premises. He also defended the participation of children in the corralejas, stating that he himself takes his minor children to the events and that they are "tradition". He said that engineers employed by the city would be sent to investigate the cause of the collapse. The mayor of

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

, Jorge Iván Ospina, said that he will ban corralejas and other

blood sports A blood sport or bloodsport is a category of sport or entertainment that involves bloodshed. Common examples of the former include combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, and some forms of hunting and fishing. Activities characte ...

involving animals, citing animal rights concerns and safety issues, specifically the collapse in El Espinal. A three-day period of mourning was declared in El Espinal, and

cavalcades A cavalcade is a procession or parade on horseback, or a mass distance ride by a company of riders. Sometimes the focus of a cavalcade is participation rather than display and the participants do not wear costumes or ride in formation. S ...

and corralejas previously scheduled for four days during the mourning period were canceled.

References