Colombians angry and bemused by The Sun’s controversial Harry Kane 'cocaine' front page
The tabloid has its fair share of opponents at home, but across the Atlantic, people in the South American country were upset and bemused by the paper's headline, above a picture of the smiling England striker.
“As 3 Lions face nation that gave world Shakira, great coffee and er, other stuff, we say... Go Kane!”, it read - a play on words mocking Colombia’s history as a leading global producer of cocaine.
Calling it "controversial", local newspaper El Espectador said it reminded the country "of its difficult past with drugs hours before the clash".
It went on to warn: “Colombia’s response will be on the pitch."
Néstor Osorio-Londoño, the country's ambassador to the UK had earlier expressed his displeasure to The Independent.
“It’s rather sad that they use such a festive and friendly environment, as the World Cup, to target a country and continue to stigmatize it with a completely unrelated issue”, he said.
“I’m totally annoyed because it isn't the first time that a newspaper relates us to drugs”, said Valeria Cuevas, a journalist based in Bogotá. “The Sun, although a popular newspaper in England, continues to spread the misconception of the country we are not”, added Ms Cuevas.
“I still think that if we stop selling cocaine it won’t stop first world countries from using drugs”, said Irene Arenas, an English teacher and human rights consultant. “So I think it’s unfair because it’s obviously a prejudice against all Colombians, but I also think it’s an international problem of supply and demand”.
Others are less outraged by the headline than they are amused by the seemingly poor quality of English media.
“I found it funny because I didn’t think it was real ”, said Nicolas Ruiz, a humanities professor. “It’s too stupid to be real, it looks more like a joke than a story… Its as if they used the ironic format of a meme”.
At present England and Wales have the fourth highest consumption of cocaine per capita, while Colombia stands at 34th.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ront-page-newspaper-three-lions-a8429756.html
