Paz Sin Fronteras


Paz sin Fronteras refers to a series of free outdoor concerts lead by the Colombian singer Juanes along with other internationally recognized artists. The first string of concerts took place in 2008 along the Colombia-Venezuela border on the Simón Bolivar International Bridge. The second took place in 2009 in Cuba's Plaza de la Revolución and a third was planned for Caracas, Venezuela in 2013.The purpose of the first concert was to reaffirm the nonviolence message that Colombians, Venezuelans, and Ecuadorians are South American Brothers, independent of the relation between the political orientation of shifting Governments. It was organized by Juanes, who in turn was the show's host. It took place March 16, 2008 between 1:35 pm and 5:40 pm on the Simón Bolivar International Bridge, on the Colombia-Venezuela border located between the city of Cúcuta and the town of San Antonio del Táchira.
Paz sin Fronteras began as an initiative against the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis that held Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, since Colombian forces invaded Ecuadorian territory in the Santa Rosa Bombardment of 2008. This bombardment took place as a result of the failure of Raul Reyes, second in command of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces.These border violations of the neighboring country generated a crisis that included the movement of Venezuelan and Ecuadorian troops to the borders. This crisis ended with the Rio Group meeting on Friday, March 7, 2008 in the Dominican Republic.
The artists that participated in the first concert were Alejandro Sanz, Juan Fernando Velasco, Carlos Vives, Juan Luis Guerra, Miguel Bosé, and Ricardo Montaner, in addition to Juanes. None of the artists or the individuals in charge of the concert received any payment for their services, as the event was a free outdoor concert with the purpose of serving as a symbol of peace in the region. According to the calculations, more than 300,000 people attended Paz sin Fronteras.
The second concert took place in the Havana on the stage of La Plaza de la Revolución in front of more than 1,150,000 people. The audience was made up of mostly Cubans, with foreigners including tourists and students. In an unprecedented figure for this kind of show, Juanes and his guests closed the historic concert of Paz Sin Fronteras Project in the Havana.
The artists who attended: Juanes, Olga Tañón, Danny Rivera, Miguel Bose, Victor Manuelle, Luis Eduardo Aute, Juan Fernando Velasco, Jovanotti, Amaury Pérez, Silvio Rodríguez, Orishas, Carlos Varela, X-Alfonso, Cucu Diamantes, Yerba Buena and Los Van Van ended with excitement, singing in a grand chorus for peace, in the second concert of Paz sin Fronteras.
The artistic performance, which exceeded five hours has become since then an unprecedented historic success, both for the number of people who attended and for the international repercussion.
In the words of Olga Tañón, this day surpassed "all the expectations of my life. Thank the people of Cuba for it" Her fellow Puerto Rican, Danny Rivera, was inspired and his declarations made up these verses: “This concert is the seed that grows in the ground, the marvel of the human being transforms into rain, into water, into wind so that the new dream of the human being germinates.”

Paz Sin Fronteras

Performances

The concert was broadcast live on several television networks throughout the Americas. It was broadcast on Caracol and RCN in Colombia and on Venevisión, RCTV Internacional and Globovisión in Venezuela. It was also broadcast on A&E in Latin America and on Univisión in the United States.

Cancelled attendances

Colombian president Álvaro Uribe cancelled his attendance at the concert by request of Fernán Martínez, Juanes' manager, who communicated to his office that the concert was intended to have a neutral agenda instead of a political one.
Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira was invited to perform at the concert, but she could not attend because of a busy schedule. However, she stated a press release saying that she would wear white on March 16 as a form to demonstrate her sympathy for Paz Sin Fronteras.

Paz Sin Fronteras II

Message

The message of the concert, according to U.S. representative Jim McGovern, was to circumvent politicians, and using the medium of music, speak directly to young people and encourage them to think in fresh ways – to change their way of thinking – and leave behind the old politics, the old hatreds, prejudices and national enmities that have locked too many people into patterns of conflict, violence, poverty and despair, dividing them from one another. It was an attempt to break down barriers and ask people to join in common purpose.

Performers

The concert was transmitted live on the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network and was also acknowledged by U.S. representative Jim McGovern in the House of Representatives during morning-hour debate on September 22, 2009 which was broadcast on C-SPAN.

Format

Many of the 1.5 million patrons wore white to symbolize peace. The BBC's Michael Voss, who was at the five-and-a-half-hour concert, said there was a mood of excitement as many residents of the isolated, music-loving island had never seen anything like it before.

U.S. reactions

Both the United States and Cuban governments helped facilitate the concert, including providing Juanes and his company of 15 international and Cuban artists full control over message and staging. The Departments of State, Treasury and Commerce, and especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, provided various licenses and authorities required for U.S. musicians, technicians, musical and production equipment to travel to Cuba.

Controversies

A small vocal group of Cuban exiles in Miami protested the concert charging that it would service the PR campaign of the Communistic Castro government. The location of the Havana concert was also seen as possibly symbolic by Cuban exiles, as Revolution Square features the headquarters of the Cuban Communist Party along with a giant metal sculpture of Che Guevara's face. Various demonstrations were staged in South Florida, where some destroyed CDs from Juanes publicly by running them over with a steam roller. Juanes also received death threats from Miami-based critics of the Cuban regime.
Before and after the performance, Juanes stated that his "Peace Without Borders" concert is not about politics but reconciliation. According to William Booth from the Washington Post, whose following commentary is now part of the Congressional Record, "Tanon shouted that she brought greetings from Miami – home of many Cuban exiles who live in opposition to the Cuban government – and no one in the crowd booed, but instead whistled and cheered".
The concert was used by Hugo Chávez during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly of September 24, 2009 to criticize the Cuban exiles in Miami for destroying Juanes' CDs in protest.