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ACADIANA
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T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
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S u n d ay, J a n u a ry 18, 2026
Parish may seek return of rooster fighting
‘LOUISIANA IS ALWAYS
MY PRIORITY’ After two years as governor, Landry boasts big wins, flashes of controversy
Some St. Landry officials tout economic benefits
ä Tracking Landry’s agenda.
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
PAGE 5A
Favorable political winds provided plenty of lift when Jeff Landry became governor in January 2024. He inherited an overflowing state treasury from his Democratic predecessor, John Bel Edwards, and he took office with a Republican supermajority in the Legislature, the first GOP governor in modern times with that benefit. Landry has moved aggressively to take advantage since then, securing conservative wins that have toughened anti-crime laws, reduced income tax rates and allowed more parents to send their children to private schools with taxpayer dollars. At the same time, Landry has shown a penchant for jumping into controversial issues with inflammatory comments that have won him headlines — not always favorably. He called for the execution of Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolás Maduro and won plaudits on Fox News. He demanded the resignation of LSU’s athletic director, saying he’d “rather let Donald Trump pick the next coach,” and was roasted by
sports columnists nationally. Now, as he begins his third year, Landry is facing questions of whether his appointment as Trump’s special envoy to Greenland will distract him from serving the needs of Louisiana. Not at all, Landry told The Times-Picayune | The Advocate during a 45-minute interview at the Governor’s Mansion. “Louisiana is always my priority,” he said. Nor, he added, does his new international role mean he’s looking to move on to a high-profile role in Washington. “The voters can kick me out,” he said. “But I’m not leaving Louisiana.” Landry has been raising money for his reelection campaign in 2027. No challenger has surfaced yet. Landry, 55, was elected as Louisiana’s 57th governor in 2023 in the primary, without having to contest a runoff, after leading during the entire campaign. Voters liked his exuberant Cajun personality, his conservative
ä See LANDRY, page 4A
BY JOEL THOMPSON Staff writer
juts from a short post by a bank of oyster shells near where he jumped. His loss has stung this small community of oystermen and fishing guides down Hopedale Highway, raising
Off Napoleon Avenue in the small community of Sunset sits a large dormant building with a “For Rent” sign out front. It’s been several things over the years, including a shortlived high-end production studio, but its legacy is as the Sunset Recreation Game Club. The club, sometimes simply referred to as the Sunset Pit, was known for its cockfighting ring, in which roosters from across the region and the nation would be brought to fight one another, often resulting in a violent and deadly end. Cockfighting has a long history in Louisiana, which was the last state to ban the practice in 2008. Before that, the Sunset Pit, which dates back to the 1940s, would frequently fill up its 600-seat arena with cockfighting enthusiasts. News accounts from the early 2000s describe an overflowing parking lot with license plates from Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, Texas and the Carolinas. Recently, cockfighting enthusiasts in St. Landry Parish have renewed arguments the practice is constitutionally protected, and its continued prevalence across parts of rural Acadiana is proof of its important cultural connection to Cajun heritage. A St. Landry Parish council member agrees and has begun efforts to pursue an exemption to allow the controversial practice. Old habits die hard, and arrests for cockfighting have continued to be an issue in recent years in St. Landry Parish, with multiple ongoing investigations and arrests in Arnaudville and Opelousas. Before the practice was banned, James Demoruelle, a former cockfighter from St. Landry Parish, claims to have raised more than 53 gamecocks for the purpose of fighting. He has led numerous efforts to reverse the ban, most notably in 2014 while state lawmakers were discussing stronger measures against cockfighting. In December, Demoruelle addressed the St. Landry Parish Council in favor of changes to the law, reminding council members that within rooster fighting culture, Sunset was known as the “cockfighting capital of the world” and hosted prestigious fighting events. “In Sunset, when there were cockfights, you filled up every hotel room in (Opelousas). People came here from all over the world,” Demourelle said, according to a report from St. Landry Now. His testimony resonated with council member Timmy LeJeune, who scheduled a Jan. 7 meeting of the St. Landry Parish Council’s Administrative and Finance Committee to discuss next steps in pursuing an exemption to the law in St. Landry Parish. The normally sparsely attended committee meeting was standing room only. Security officers nervously counted heads during the meeting, and upon the committee’s adjournment, required all attendees to immediately exit the building to comply with the building code. It
ä See CERRATO, page 6A
ä See FIGHTING, page 6A
Governor Jeff Landry STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Oystermen grieve Honduran deckhand Man drowned fleeing Louisiana immigration sweep BY JOHN SIMERMAN and SOPHIE KASAKOVE
Staff writers
A week before Christmas, a white minivan pulled up to the docks in Hopedale, and four U.S. Coast Guard agents jumped out in black vests. Aboard the Rambler, an oyster boat that had docked to offload its haul, two deckhands from Honduras acted fast. They feared the same fate as other immigrants working at the bottom reaches of St. Bernard Parish who were arrested in a sweep on the water in early November. Cerrato The younger of the two deckhands hid in the Rambler’s cabin, he said. His coworker, Walter Cerrato, a father of three with a wife in Houston, ducked into a cooler on the deck. The agents approached the boat and the young deckhand rushed to Cerrato, who he called “hermano” — brother — and told him he would jump, he said in a phone interview in Spanish. Cerrato worried the agents would catch up with them, he told
WEATHER HIGH 51 LOW 31 PAGE 6B
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
A wooden cross memorial on pilings has been placed near where deckhand Walter Francisco Cerrato Cabrera died in late December after he jumped into Bayou La Loutre in Hopedale to avoid being arrested by U.S. Coast Guard agents. his friend. But after the younger man dropped into Bayou La Loutre, the older one followed. Water rushed into the younger man’s boots and a strong current swept him away from the boat, he said. By the time he reached the other bank and looked back to see Cerrato’s head sink beneath the
water’s surface, “it was already too late.” Walter Francisco Cerrato Cabrera drowned in his white shrimp boots after 20 years working on oyster boats around Hopedale. He was 48. Friends said he couldn’t swim. A wooden cross memorial now
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