Huge crowd attends Cuba peace concert

HAVANA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people jammed Havana's Revolution Square on Sunday for a concert by Colombian rocker Juanes and other international pop stars who hope music can do what politics has not -- bring together Cubans here and in the United States.

"Kids, we came to Cuba out of love ... it's important to swap hate for love," Juanes told the crowd of hundreds of thousands. Organizers had expected at least half a million, but concert organizer Juanes said it topped one million people.

The much-hyped event was beamed live to an international television audience, including viewers in Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community and center of opposition to Cuba's communist-led government.

Many exiles had accused Juanes of helping to legitimize a government that they said denied its people basic human rights and stifled dissent by throwing opponents in jail.

Playing before a swaying, dancing audience dressed in white -- Cuban authorities asked people to come dressed in white as a symbol of peace -- the 37-year-old singer responded to critics by saying music was above politics or ideological enmity.

"Music should travel like air, it should reach everywhere, whatever we think," said Juanes, winner of 17 Latin Grammy awards.

The audience, which endured soaring temperatures in the huge square, chanted "Cuba, Cuba, Cuba" and "Juanes, Juanes".

Citing the case of fellow Colombians kidnapped and held by guerrillas in the Colombian jungle, Juanes dedicated a song to "all those deprived of their freedom, wherever they are".

Puerto Rican Olga Tanon, on the bill with 14 other musicians from six countries including Miguel Bose of Spain and Jovanotti of Italy, kicked off the show by shouting its central message: "It's time to change."

In Miami, across the Florida Straits, a small group of anti-communist exiles staged a protest against the concert.

Juanes has said his "Peace Without Borders" concert was not about politics but reconciliation. He believes U.S. President Barack Obama has "opened the door" to change by taking steps to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.

"This concert is one little grain of sand more in the process of improving relations through art," Juanes, who has a home in Miami, said on arrival in Cuba this weekend.

OBAMA SEEKS CHANGE IN CUBA

In a slight easing of the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, Obama in April lifted curbs on family travel to the island by Cuban Americans and on remittances sent by them.

In an interview aired Sunday by Spanish-language network Univision, the U.S. president said he would like to see Cuban leaders respond to this overture by moving away "from some of the anti-democratic practices of the past."

Cuba's government last week chided Obama for not doing more to completely end the U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

In the concert crowd, Hector Pena, who works in tourism, called the show "a success," but shared Obama's skepticism about its ability to change long-bitter U.S.-Cuba relations.

"With or without Juanes, Cuba and the United States are two big noses that will never be able to kiss," he said.

The concert sparked criticism in Miami, where many Cubans fled after Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and steered Cuba toward communism and long-lasting ideological enmity with Washington. Castro, 83, resigned last year due to health problems and was succeeded by his brother Raul Castro.

In August, Juanes CDs were smashed on Calle Ocho, the main street of Miami's Little Havana, in an attention-grabbing protest by anti-Castro group Mambisa Watch.

On Sunday, in a Calle Ocho park where elderly exiles gather to play dominoes, several spoke out against the concert.

"There has been a lot of blood spilled in Cuba and people executed by firing squad. He (Juanes) is singing over dead bodies," said Hernan Gonzalez, 77, who said he spent six years in a Cuban jail for opposing Fidel Castro in the 1960s.

Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto condemned the Miami protests, telling reporters on Friday the concert was "a huge blow ... against that vulgar form of fascism practiced over there" in Miami.

A number of Cuban dissidents support the concert, even though they say the government is using it to project an image of tolerance that does not exist. News reports say Cuban authorities had warned some dissidents not to attend the event because they feared they would stage a protest.

(Additional reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes, Esteban Israel, Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta in Havana, Pascal Fletcher in Miami; editing by Pascal Fletcher and Anthony Boadle)