Colombian singer Juanes receives death threats over Cuba peace concert

It has been billed as a "concert for peace" in Cuba, but political passions have unleashed death threats, protests and insults against the rock star organiser of an event that will bring together some of the biggest names in Latin American music.

Militant Cuban exiles have accused Juanes, a Colombian singer and one of Latin America's biggest stars, of succouring the island's communist government with a concert next month in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana.

Protestors in Florida smashed CDs, burned T-shirts and sent angry messages to his Twitter account, including warnings he was hated and "will die", prompting police to step up vigilance near the singer's Key Biscayne home in Miami.

Juanes, 37, has recruited top Latino acts to perform with him at the 20 September Peace Without Borders show, including Puerto Rico's Olga Tañon, Spain's Miguel Bosé and Cuba's Silvio Rodríguez and the band Los Van Van.

The Grammy-award winning artist, whose real name is Juan Esteban Aristizábal, said the event was intended to set aside ideological differences and "knock down our own mental walls". He organised a peace-themed concert on Colombia's border with Venezuela during last year's tension between the two governments.

Critics say the Cuban concert will espouse official propaganda because it will feature local acts closely associated with the Castros' half-decade old rule. Fidel, 83, appeared on Cuban television on Sunday for the first time in more than a year, the latest sign his health is improving. His brother Raúl took over as president 18 months ago.

The exiled Cuban singer Willy Chirino said Juanes had strayed into politics. "I love the fact that he decided to play a concert for peace for the Cuban people," he told the Miami Herald. "But if he doesn't want any political connotations, why is he inviting Silvio Rodríguez and Amaury Pérez ... two of the most pro-revolutionary artists in Cuba?"

Juanes has reportedly invited Gorki Águila, the outspoken singer of the Cuban punk band Porno Para Ricardo, who has been jailed and fined but continues to rail against the Castros as geriatric tyrants.

Águila, who is currently visiting relatives in Mexico, said he would love to perform but had not yet received the invitation and doubted the authorities would allow him join the line-up.

"Juanes' initiative seems well-intentioned but naive," he told the Spanish newspaper El País. "If the concert talks about peace it must talk about the lack of freedom. Otherwise it's not going to be credible."