POZA RICA, Mexico — A weakening Dean dumped heavy rains across central Mexico, drenching mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane.

In the storm-lashed city of Poza Rica, neighbors banded together to clear the streets of fallen trees with axes and machetes, while workers began reconnecting downed power lines. Dean killed 20 people in the Caribbean but there were no reported deaths so far in Mexico.

"We have emerged in good shape because of our organization, because of our precautions," said Veracruz Gov. Fidel Herrera. "Now we enter the difficult phase of reconstruction and aid."

The National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded Dean to a tropical depression late Wednesday and predicted it would dissipate today as it passed over Mexico's high mountains. But with up to 20 inches of rain expected to fall, authorities worried there could still be floods or mudslides.

The mountain ranges near Mexico's coast are dotted with villages connected by precarious roads and susceptible to disaster. A rainstorm in 1999 caused floods that killed at least 350 people.

MADRID, Spain — State-run Spanish television has quietly yanked live coverage of bullfighting from its programming, ending a decades-old tradition of showcasing the national pastime out of concern that the deadly duel between matador and beast is too violent for children.Television Espanola's first broadcast in 1948 was a bullfight in Madrid. But for the first time in the network's history, none of its channels have shown live fights this season, only taped highlights on a late-night program for aficionados.In practical terms, the unpublicized decision by the Socialist government is largely symbolic. Of the hundreds of bullfights during the March-October season, state-run TV only tended to broadcast about a dozen. Pay TV channels and stations owned by regional governments are full of live bullfights.Still, many in the bullfighting world — and in the conservative opposition — are livid over what they see as a slight to a cherished piece of Spanish culture."We think it is awful," said lawmaker Juan Manuel Albendea. He said that when most Spaniards return from vacation in September, the center-right Popular Party will press Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to restore the broadcasts.