Video: Colombian rock star Juanes's outburst against Cuban concert censorship

The Colombian rock star Juanes gave a much anticipated concert for peace in Havana, the Cuban capital, along with 14 other Hispanic artists on September 20. But the concert was nearly cancelled when the singer realised his every move was being spied on by Cuban authorities. A cell-phone video captured Juanes exploding before the Cuban concert producers hours before the show.

In an intensely emotional breakout in the lobby of the hotel where the artists were staying, Juanes and the Spanish singer Miguel Bosé denounced the behaviour of Cuban authorities after discovering several "preventive" measures taken to avoid any controversial incident during the concert (see Observer Ernesto Hernandez Busto's detailed explanation below).

After they repeatedly threatened to cancel the show, the Puerto Rican singer Olga Tañón, and a member of Cuban rap group Los Orisha, intervened to calm them down and convince them to perform.

The video was leaked by an exiled Cuban radio journalist, Leticia del Monte, who filmed the outburst on her iPhone. She later gave her interpretation of events in a TV interview. "Juanes paid a high emotional price for singing in Havana. For the first time, the reality of the oppression and fear that 11 million Cubans experience every year hit him in the face," she said.

Extracts from the leaked footage of Juanes' outburst

Partial translation of the argument, first aired on TV channel Mega TV.

Bosé: There will be no concert! There will be no concert. We can't do any more. We can't show any more goodwill than we already have. Everything, everything, we accepted everything. We kept our word. We came with no political prejudice. Someone in charge unblock this situation now or there will be no concert.

Unkown person: But there weren't police there, only artists.

Juanes: (to unknown person): Fuck, no. No way, no, Mano. Don't screw me brother.

Bosé: No, it's over, it's over. Stop.

Juanes: So tell me, what do we do? Should we leave Cuba now? We're angry. We're really angry! Really angry, really angry, do you understand? It's not right.

Olga: They may adopt an aggressive stance but we can't... OK we're angry. But go in peace.

Juanes: It's just that we can't allow that people who came to see the concert not be able to enter the show. If they don't wear white T-shirts they can't come in? What is this?

Olga: We can't communicate in the same way as they do.

Orisha:  Juanes, Juanes. If we stop now, they'll have won. Do you get that?

The second part of the video is an audio extract of Juanes claiming he noticed someone following him. The segment was not captured in video: 

"So what do we do? Do we leave Cuba now? We're angry. We're really, really angry — understand? We came here to sing for Cuban youths, for Cuba's future. And we've encountered so much censorship. Enough, it's got to stop. I just realised that the guy who was serving my breakfast yesterday was also at the concert rehearsals, and now I see him hiding in a corner there sending text messages. What is going on here?"

"Juanes was naïve if he didn't expect his concert to be manipulated by the Cuban government"

Ernesto Hernandez Busto is a Cuban writer based in Spain and editor of the blog Penúltimos Días, which commented on the event.

Juanes realized (a little late) that his concert could be manipulated by the Cuban government. He was naïve. He was under a lot of pressure from exiled Cubans, especially in Miami, where he lives, that put him in a difficult position. Once in Cuba, he found out three things that angered him:

a) The area right in front of the platform had been reserved for people hand-picked by Cuban authorities, for so-called "security" reasons.

b) Authorities wanted to block access to anyone not wearing a white shirt (in theory, to respect the concert's "peace" theme, but in reality to avoid T-shirts with political messages, which there were in the end).

c) Both he and other concert participants were under tight surveillance from the moment they set foot on Cuban soil, to avoid any unwanted occurrence during the concert in such a highly emblematic place. That final point made him explode.

Cuban authorities were not concerned about security, as for every other concert in the world. They just didn't want any visible act of political opposition to occur on the stage when the world's cameras were focused on it, making any repression difficult without further tarnishing Cuba's image.

The explanation of the incident by the official Cuban newspaper Granma is absolutely not credible. In an audio extract of the dispute, you can clearly hear Juanes complain he noticed someone following him in his hotel, out in the street and during the concert rehearsals. Granma claims there must have been some kind of "mix-up" (not explaining exactly what the mix-up was) and that the person was the hotel's "sommelier". They claim the video was fabricated, when in fact it was filmed on the iPhone of a radio journalist who later gave her version of events.

For Cubans, Juanes is a sort of envoy from a far-off yet comforting civilisation. To islanders, his concert was a chance to "disconnect" from the harsh realities of their lives. Cubans in exile are more critical because, living in a democracy, they have a more complex, controversial image of the situation.