Event promoters insist the Sept. 20 concert will have no ideological overtones, even if it is being staged in Havana’s Revolution Plaza — with its famed, building-size homage to fallen revolutionary Ernest “Che” Guevara.
“Nobody is coming to sing to the Cuban system. Juanes isn’t a Communist, he isn’t a socialist,” folk singer Amaury Perez told The Associated Press. “I can assure you, because I’ve been involved in all of the preparations, that no political condition has been imposed.”
The Grammy-winning Juanes is known for his social activism. His first “Peace Without Borders” concert in March 2008 drew tens of thousands to the border between Venezuela and Colombia when tensions were high over a Colombian commando raid into neighboring Ecuador that to killed a leading rebel commander.