Juanes or McCarthy back to Havana?

Some reactions in Miami to the Colombian singer Juanes publicized concert  in Havana,  next September, seem to revive the era of the most accentuated MacCarthysm.  
 
As if we were in the late 50s, when GOP Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, promoted incriminations, gossips and black lists against people suspicious of being communist, now the so called "voices of the Cuban exile", some show and music managers and TV and radio presentators question Juanes for what he wants:  to play one of his Peace without Borders concert, in a communist country.   
 
This is not the first evidence of cultural intolerance coming from Miami regarding Cuba. In 1991 the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) set great political and economic  pressures over the Miami Dade County to pass a bill forbidding the performance of any Cuban artists there.  
 
In 1993, a picture by Cuban painter Manuel Mendive, (Pavorreal), was burned in public in Miami and in July 1996,  a Molotov cocktail was thrown against the place where the Cuban vedette Rosita Fornes was about to perform.  
 
A bomb threat also forced to suspend a concert by Cuban Stars of the Buenavista Social Club, in 1998, and the famous orchestra Van Van performed under great tension in the Arena Coliseum of Miami, after concluding a 25 North American cities tour.   
 
Now with Juanes a new "hunt of witches" is in progress, in this case Havana targeted. Hopefully the singer explained he stays firm in his is decision of singing in Cuba, despite he lives in Miami with his wife and daughters. Some people in Florida has critized him for that decision and called for a sales boycott of his records.  
 
In an interview with Univision,  Juanes explained  that before going to Cuba, he asked for support to US State Secretary Hillary Clinton and the Cuban counterparts. He also said that political shades will be out of that concert, the artists will have "open microphone" and available broadcasting for TV and Internet.  In something similar to an apologize, he pointed this as a "white concert". The artists will finance the event and there is no economic interest.  
 
Beyond what Juanes decides about this concert and what would ever happen to him in Miami, there are many other choices for those who are claiming to bring peace to Cuba.  Here, some recommendations:     
 
1. For US Citizens, to request to the US Gov. the following:   
 
a) To lift the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba. It's harmful, not only for the Cuban Government.
b)  To close Camp Delta and the US Base in Guantánamo Bay. Certainly, it's the less peaceful place in Cuba, where torture and no-laws prevail.  
c) To eliminate  the  Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA), Public Law 89-732, enacted on November 2, 1966, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, to grant privileges to Cuban refugees arriving in the United States.  

d) To Prosecute Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, Cuban native terrorists based in the USA, and responsible for the killling of 73 people in a Cuban plane bombing  in Barbados, in 1976. 

e) To free the Cuban Five Heroes,  prisoners in the USA for fighting terrorism in Florida.They are victims of a legal aberration in Miami, eleven years ago.

f) To place Cuba out of the list of countries promoters of terrorism. There is no reason for that treatment.  

g) To let the genuine Cuban arts and culture reach Miami and other US cities, with no ideological prejudices, media biased or corporate pressures. 

h) To give Cuba and the Cubans the opportunity  to define their own paths, models, way of living, etc. and stop US politic interference from Miami or Washington.   
 
   
 
Juanes is clear about that a concert doesn't make peace itself, neither it will change the concept of freedom and dignity of millions. He said that going to Cuba " is a symbol and it is time of changing minds. Cuba is not only the government. Cuba is 11 millions of Cubans."  
 
The Caribbean Island won't change its political system neither to accept blackmailing for a concert, food or medicines.  Political pressure against Cubans have failed for years, and there have been remarkables events as the visits of Pope Juan Pablo II; former US President James Carter and dozens of US senators and religious leaders.  The images of Martí and  Che Guevara have not been removed at the Havana's Revolution Square for that  reasons. So if Juanes finally achieves his goal, he'll find a a respectful and educated people joinning him and his guests to deserve and enjoy art and peace for all.   

BRIEF MEMORY OF ARTISTS PERFORMED IN CUBA

1979. Havana Jam.Billy Joel, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, Stephen Stills, Bonnie Bramlett, Mike Finnigan, Billy Swan, Weather Report, the Fania All-Stars, and jazzmen Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Willie Bobo, and the Heath Brothers, to mention but a few.

1999. Music Bridges. Producer/songwriter Alan Roy Scott, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Osborne, Montell Jordan, Jimmy Buffet, Indigo Girls, Peter Buck, Lisa Loeb, Me' Shell Ndegeocello, Lee Roy Parnell, Dave Koz, and actor Woody Harrelson, plus many others, in a week-long songwriting spree with Cuban musicians.


2001, South Welsh Manic Street Preachers

2002. Asian Dub Foundation

2005 Audioslave. Rick Wakeman, Former Yes keyboardist
Australians Air Supply
Simply Red, from UK.

2006 Brazilian metal rockers Sepultura
Mexican Café Tacuba

2007  US Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed parts of "Sicko".

2009 US Actors Bill Murray, James Caan and Robert Duval, as well as Puerto Rican-born actor Benicio del Toro