Tijuana Mayor Abdiel Gutiérrez Coronado announced Thursday that a bullfight scheduled for July 5 at the Nuevo Toreo de Tijuana will not take place. A federal district judge denied organizers a definitive injunction that would have allowed the event to proceed, effectively ending their legal path to staging the fight.
The event would have been Tijuana’s first bullfight since April 2023, when animal rights groups successfully obtained a judicial suspension halting all bullfighting in Baja California. Organizers had framed the July 5 date as part of the Nuevo Toreo’s reopening, but the court’s refusal to grant the injunction blocked those plans.
Forgery Allegations Surround the Permit
The mayor also raised serious questions about the event permit itself. The authorization was reportedly signed by former government secretary Arnulfo Guerrero, but Guerrero has denied signing it. Gutiérrez Coronado said the document may be a forgery. A formal complaint has not yet been filed but is expected in the coming days.
City legal counsel Alejandro Rivero Huerta confirmed that the administration is treating the permit as potentially fraudulent. The allegation adds a criminal dimension to what has been a prolonged legal and cultural battle over bullfighting in the border city.
New Animal Welfare Rules in the Pipeline
Rivero Huerta also disclosed that a new “sentient beings” municipal regulation has already been sent to Tijuana’s city council for review. The proposed rules would establish broader protections for animals within city limits. The existing Taurine Spectacles Regulation, which has governed bullfighting permits in the municipality, is also under scrutiny for possible revision or repeal.
The moves place the current administration firmly on the side of animal welfare advocates who have fought to end bullfighting in the region. Baja California has been one of Mexico’s key legal battlegrounds over the practice. In April 2023, courts halted a bullfight that promoter Manuel Bowser Miret, owner of the Nuevo Toreo, had scheduled for July 2 of that year. Bowser later celebrated when a Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the broader state suspension in April 2025, calling it a “legal victory” for fans of the tradition.
A Long Legal Fight With No Clear End
Mexico’s Supreme Court lifted a separate ban on bullfighting in Mexico City in late 2023, but individual municipalities and states have continued to pursue their own restrictions. In February 2025, animal rights groups asked a Baja California judge to block Bowser’s renewed efforts to stage fights at the Nuevo Toreo.
Anyone who purchased tickets for the July 5 event should consider it cancelled. No refund process has been publicly announced. The story was first reported by Jornada BC.