Colombia protests Escobar restaurant in Singapore
SINGAPORE: Colombia has lodged an angry complaint with the government over a restaurant in the city-state named after drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
In a letter to the Foreign Ministry dated Feb 2, the Colombian embassy expressed “serious concern”, saying the eatery was paying tribute to the “worst criminal in the history of Colombia”.
“The Embassy of the Republic of Colombia wants to share some information to refresh the horror that this criminal caused in Colombia... not to mention the drug addiction he promoted and the war he declared,” the threepage letter said.
“If the idea of the owner was to make his or her business look profitable and trendy, it is inducing... confusion, because Colombia is not what ‘Narcos-Netflix’ portrays anymore.”
It said Colombia cannot “tolerate any more tributes to that criminal”.
When a reporter visited the restaurant in the business district here yesterday, patrons occupied about a dozen tables having post-work drinks, seemingly unaware of the controversy.
Several bouquets stood on stands by the door next to a decal of Escobar’s face, congratulating the eatery on its recent opening.
Owner Stan Sri Ganesh said he decided on the name “simply because it had the word ‘bar’ in it”.
Several users have posted abusive comments on the gastropub’s Facebook page, he said.
“It was meant to be a pun... we never expected the abuse.”