Colombian singer Juanes has been authorized by Cuba's military regime to hold a concert in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución. A ``nonpolitical concert'' held in a country oppressed by the same dictatorship for more than 50 years.

Juanes was kind enough to call me and ask for my thoughts on his peace initiative. I responded that the Cuban people needed freedom, not concerts. Juanes seemed surprisingly naive when it came to the Cuban authorities. I warned him he would become a useful propaganda tool for the regime. I spoke at length of Cuba's deplorable human-rights record, the plight of Castro's victims and the pain in every Cuban's heart, which he acknowledged.

Talked to Clinton

He wanted me to know he had met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I reminded him that the other Clinton (the former president) thought that calibrated steps and cultural exchanges would change Castro's criminal nature.

Fidel Castro responded by shooting down two civilian airplanes as they flew in international airspace. Four young men were pulverized by Castro's MiGs, three were American citizens. I hung up thinking that Juanes was a dreamer, a reflection of his songs.

That was until I came across images of Juanes at a press conference in Madrid in 2008 with a backdrop of Havana Club rum. It was his La Vida Tour sponsored by the Cuban-French company confiscated from its original owners in the name of the revolution. Juanes, the idealist, sponsored by a company owned by a government, which has been condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Commission? Juanes, the pacifist, sponsored by a company owned by a country that appears on the U.S. State Department list of states that sponsor terrorism?

Juanes no longer seemed the idealist. Neutrality may be a smooth road to travel. Yet life has taught me that raising one's voice against injustice may not be a melodious tune, but its notes are loaded with dignity.

Ironically, Juanes has chosen World Peace Day to sing in a country ruled by those responsible for training the guerrillas that have brought so much bloodshed to his native Colombia. He must have at least known that Cuban artists in exile are not allowed to sing in Cuba. One, Amaury Gutierrez, said: ``If President Alvaro Uribe would have banned Juanes from performing in his beloved Colombia, I would refuse to sing there.''

From Cuba, the concert's artistic director, Amaury Perez, was not amused with my criticism. He said my tone was ``insolent'' and labeled me ``intolerant.'' This coming from an official artist where the regime's cultural policy is defined in the words of Fidel Castro: ``Within the revolution all; outside, nothing.''

Freedoms denied

Fifty years into the revolution that would have brought freedom, Cubans are denied access to the Internet, and homemade antennas or parabolic dishes are banned. Cubans do not enjoy individual freedoms, and there is no free press. Political prisoners are abundant, and repression is a way of life. Yet some insist that things are normal and that somehow the regime's oppressive behavior should be rewarded and relations normalized.

In 2003 I interviewed by telephone Rosa Maria Sevilla in Havana, a mother whose son, Barbaro Ledon Sevilla, along with two other friends, had been executed by firing squad within a week of their arrest. Their crime was taking a ferryboat to escape to the United States.

Her testimony was heart wrenching: ``They killed my child. They knocked on my door at three in the morning to tell me he had been executed. The whole world needs to know this is a crime. My son killed no one, he harmed no one. My only son, child of my soul, he was only 22 years old. They did not release his body so we could bury him. I dreamed they brought him here, and his father said: `Let's lie in bed with him tonight, and we will bury him in the morning.' My heart aches, my lungs hurt from so much crying.''

In Cuba, one of the so-called intellectuals who in a public letter backed the regime's crime of killing the three young black Cubans was Amaury Perez, artistic director of Juanes' ``nonpolitical'' peace concert.

And he calls me intolerant?

Ninoska Pérez-Castellón is director of the Cuban Liberty Council.

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