WORLD BRIEFING / CUBA
Hundreds of thousands of people jammed Havana’s Revolution Square 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.
Juanes, who helped organize the concert, said more than 1 million people attended, but the figure could not be verified.
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 regime that they said denied its people basic human rights and stifled dissent.
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