CARACAS, Feb 6 — Fuelled by beer, rum and whiskey, spectators cram the stands around the combat pit, imploring their favourite to “kill” his opponent as dollar bills exchange hands between punters and bookies.
Cock fighting is legal in Venezuela and at arenas in Caracas, politics is banned.
“Everyone comes here: The poor, the rich, the politicians, the non-politicians. There’s everyone,” said Angel Salamanca, who runs a club that organises cock fights in the El Silencio neighbourhood of Caracas.
In Venezuela and several Latin American countries cock fighting is considered part of the “culture” inherited from European colonisers. Cock fighting is also popular in Asian countries like the Philippines, but banned in the West.
“In this country, the powerful bet on cock fights,” a cock breeder told AFP.
Cock fighting recently caused a stir in Puerto Rico, a US territory, where the government passed a law legalising bouts despite federal US laws prohibiting it.
Massive prize money
And it is US dollars that fuels the betting in Venezuela, something that would have been unthinkable just one year ago.
Bets are laid with US$10 (RM41), US$20 or even US$50 bills. Bottles of rum at the arena cost US$5 — substantial sums in a crisis-ridden country where the minimum wage is just US$6 a month.
The use of dollars is necessary, though, given the local bolivar currency lost 98.6 per cent of its value in 2019.
Public confidence in the bolivar is minimal and bills are rare.
In 2020, 70 per cent of transactions in the country are expected to be conducted with dollars, up from half in 2019, according to analysts Ecoanalitica.
Using US dollars also protects bookies from unpaid debts, says Salamanca.
Bookies once accepted electronic bank transfers but many people “didn’t pay”, so the dollar solved that issue.
The sums are nothing to be scoffed at. In some fight arenas, the top prize given to the most impressive cock can range from US$5,000 to US$30,000.
That’s potentially 5,000 times the minimum wage.
No politics
Cock fighting is “a bit like boxing”, says one spectator. Cocks are weighed and examined prior to their bouts, which take place amidst a white-hot atmosphere of screaming fans.
One major difference, though, is that the loser often dies.
The trainer of a winning cock kisses his bird in jubilation, while another waiting for his animal to fight whispers in its ear “to bring him luck”.
While passions can run high, there’s an unwritten rule that political opinions are left at the door.
Branding President Nicolas Maduro a “dictator” or his rival and opposition leader Juan Guaido an “American puppet” are strictly banned.
“We never talk about politics, we come here to forget,” said Avilio Subero, the owner of a cock fighting club in Cota 905, a tough Caracas neighbourhood that often makes the news for murders and shoot-outs.
The paying public is made up primarily of labourers, pubic employees and even soldiers.
The first prize to the most valiant cock is not always paid in dollars.
One day in Subero’s establishment, the winner was given a 30 kilogramme pig, enough to leave some supporters salivating.
Maria, whose husband is a cock trainer, took one look at the pig and started dreaming of a tasty pork meal. — AFP
