Owner of gastropub Escobar to unveil new logo without face of drug kingpin
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A gastropub named after the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar has come under the spotlight after the Embassy of Colombia took issue with its branding.
ST PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN
Gracia Lee
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SINGAPORE - The owner of a gastropub named after the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar has agreed to revamp its logo after consultations with the authorities on Wednesday (Feb 7).
Mr Stan Sri Ganesh, 36, owner of Escobar Singapore, told The Straits Times that the gastropub has "decided to revamp its logo and whatever faces in our unit that resemble Pablo", as advised by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) and police.
He hopes to unveil the new logo in a month or so.
The gastropub's name, however, will not be changed as it is a common Spanish surname, he said.
"We now recognise that this could be a sensitive issue to some members of the community. We were just using his image as a pop culture reference, but in no way wanted to condone or glorify the actions of Pablo Escobar."
Mr Ganesh said he had also received death threats and other abusive comments on Facebook.
"It's a pity that the community that is telling us not to encourage violence and abuse is the same community that is threatening to harm our family, bomb the place down and assassinate us," he said, adding that the police have advised them to report such comments.
The three-week-old gastropub in China Square Central came under the spotlight after the Embassy of Colombia took issue with its branding last week.
In a three-page letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated Friday (Feb 2), it expressed "serious concern" that the bar was paying tribute to the "worst criminal in the history of Colombia", AFP reported.
"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 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 any more."
It added that Colombia cannot "tolerate any more tributes to that criminal."
Pablo Escobar was a notorious Colombian drug kingpin in the 1980s whose Medellin cartel supplied up to 80 per cent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States, making him the wealthiest criminal in history.
Thousands of people lost their lives during his reign over the cartel as he often kidnapped and killed anyone who stood in the way of his interests.
In a report by TODAY, a CNB spokesman said the use of Pablo Escobar's name and likeness is highly objectionable and contradictory to Singapore's zero-tolerance on drugs and the Government's preventive drug education efforts.
"The glamorisation of a drug kingpin and associated drug use is irresponsible and insensitive," the CNB spokesman told TODAY.
The gastropub later apologised in a Facebook post on Wednesday and announced that it is revamping its logo.
