The owners of a Cuban restaurant were astonished when they were asked to take down a flag featuring the face of Che Guevara.

The Sportsman pub in Hyde, Tameside, has a Cuban eatery called El Cuba Libre above it run by the landlord's wife who is from the Caribbean island.

In the window is a Cuban flag, which the owners say has been there on and off for five years, featuring the iconic image of the face of the revolutionary leader Guevara.

However a row has erupted after a police officer visited and asked them to take it down.

A GMP licensing officer visited the pub last Friday, December 22, saying there had been a complaint about it.

Pub landlord Geoff Oliver claims he was told to remove it from the window and was warned if he refused there could be consequences, with it potentially being recorded as a crime.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

But a source said a force licensing officer merely paid a visit on behalf of Tameside council to make him aware of the complaint and "ask if he would consider taking it down."

They insist he was not told he had to or threatened with an investigation.

Geoff, 65, has described the incident as attempted 'political censorship' and said the request was particularly offensive to his Cuban wife Maria, known as Cangui, 54, who he met in Havana, where Guevara is considered a national hero.

Guevara, along with the country's former president Fidel Castro, was part of the 26th July Movement which launched a rebellion to overthrow the former Cuban Authoritarian Dictator Batista, which led to the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the establishment of a Communist government.

Geoff, from Glossop, said: "I just find it unbelievable.

"Every day people, including many of our customers, walk around with Che Guevara’s image on T-shirts and other memorabilia and using this logic they are not allowed to do that either.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

"He's just an iconic figure. He's also been dead for 50 years so he's not going to do anyone any harm. I just don't understand how anyone could find it offensive.

"In Cuba he's a national hero and seen one of the founding fathers. Cangui was very upset when we were asked to take it down.

"But ultimately for a police officer to tell us what political symbols we can and can't display inside our own establishment is just wrong.

"The implications of that are wide-ranging and quite sinister."

He says he has no intention of taking it down.

GMP declined to comment.

Nobody at Tameside council was available for comment.