Cuba: Pre-concert nerves caused Juanes outburst

Cuba: Pre-concert nerves caused Juanes outburst

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090925/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_peace_concert


.. AP – Colombia's Juanes holds a Cuban flag as he performs during the 'Peace Without Borders' concert at the … .

HAVANA – Cuba's official press said Friday that a Colombian rock star's nerves got the better of him before last weekend's historic "peace concert" in Havana, causing an outburst against authorities in which he threatened to cancel the show.

The complaint by the Grammy-winning Juanes and other singers became an overnight sensation on YouTube and Spanish-language television, and has been held up by some Cuban exiles in South Florida as evidence of the communist-run island's repressive ways.

In a confrontation with what appeared to be a member of Cuban state security at Havana's famed Hotel Nacional hours before Sunday's show, the singer complains of being followed and mistreated, and threatens to cancel the event if authorities restrict access to the concert site.

"I just realized a little while ago that since yesterday, the guy who's bringing me breakfast, the guy who is accompanying me, then I see him in the concert, and now I see him sending messages," Juanes shouts in the video, which was recorded by journalists accompanying him.

"We are very upset, very upset," Juanes yells. "We are here for the youth of Cuba ... for the future of Cuba."

At one point, Juanes and Spanish performer Miguel Bose threaten to cancel the much-anticipated show, while Puerto Rican star Olga Tanon tries to persuade the men to perform.

"We're leaving. This is finished," Juanes yells.

The videotaped exchange was an embarrassment for Cuba, which had hailed the performance as a rejection of the isolationism preached by some in South Florida. Juanes received death threats before the concert, though opposition to the concert was far from universal in the Cuban-American exile community.

An article in Friday's state-run Granma newspaper says the pop star was "clearly nervous" in the hours before the concert and was confused about a hotel employee's identity.

"Juanes apologized not only to the young man, but to all the workers who witnessed the momentary mess," Granma wrote.

Juanes' manager Fernan Martinez Maecha, who accompanied him to Havana, told The Associated Press on Friday that the singer did have pre-concert jitters, and blamed the hotel confrontation on mutual mistrust.

"There were a lot of nerves," he said. "Putting on a concert in Cuba is difficult. This isn't Disney World, but that's why we went there."

He said the hotel worker singled out by Juanes later explained that he went to a concert rehearsal Saturday because he had to work at the hotel Sunday and wouldn't be able to attend the event.

"Cubans have a million spies. They're not going to use the same spy to serve breakfast and make your bed," Martinez Maecha said. "Look, they didn't know what we were going to do. There were a million people coming. We had doubts about them, and they had doubts about us."

Hundreds of thousand of people attended Sunday's 5 1/2-hour show at sprawling Revolution Square, making it the biggest visit by an outsider to Cuba since Pope John Paul II's 1998 tour.

Juanes, who has won 17 Latin Grammy awards, more than any other artist, is known for his social activism. He and the other performers had brushed off the criticism from Miami, saying the show was about music, not politics.

Don't we all go to the most radical anti government personages to get the real story on the government?

Like teabaggers, with their revelations of Obama's death panel plans, here in the US - they've got the straight dope.

From where? I imagine coming from Colombia he would take them seriously. I'd be nervous too.

Sounds like baloney to me. Evidently the Cuban regime is a repressive communist dictatorship, using orwellian 1984-style spying and snooping networks to inform itself and control the population. However, I doubt they have "millions of spies". As a matter of fact, I doubt they have the support of 10 % of the population, so it would be pretty hard for them to recruit 1 million spies.

As a matter of fact, I doubt they have the support of 10 % of the population, so it would be pretty hard for them to recruit 1 million spies.

Please do post some evidence to this "fact" so we can climb on that bandwagon of yours.

As a matter of fact, I doubt they have the support of 10 % of the population. The fact is that I doubt they do have the support of 10 % of the population. I happen to know what's in my head (ie the opinion). Or in other words, I stated what I think. And what it's a fact that I think that way.

Why do I think the government lacks support? Because the regime is old, has failed to bring progress, it's just a machine devoted to the creation of excuses for their failures ("the gringos", "yankee imperialism", "the weather"). Realite bites for those suckers, they don't seem to get it life is full of adversity, and it's their business to deal with it. And in this, they have failed miserably. The bulk of the population realizes this regime is hopeless, but they're unable to change it because it's a very efficient dictatorship. So there they are, sucking dirt year after year, with tremendous potential sapped by the absurd dogma imposed by the communist dictatorship they've suffered under for so long.

When you don't know jack, just make shit up. :dunce:

You'll have to find me 1 million cuban spies. I don't think they exist.

As a matter of fact, most Cubans I know are so talkative, they couldn't spy on first graders without bragging about it.

I think you are full of crap. That's a fact.

Now, as to your speculation that only 10% of Cubans support the Cuban government, how do you come to this opinion?

Do you have any information that you can share with the very interested group here in the Lat Am forum?

Seriously, I would like to see some kind of fact based evidence that might lead one to surmise that.

Thanks.