Cuban Performs With Silvio Rodríguez After Controversial Remarks At Concert

Cuban Performs With Silvio Rodríguez After Controversial Remarks At Concert
Published September 21, 2013
EFE

HAVANA – Robertico Carcasses, a Cuban musician who criticized the
government at a nationally televised concert earlier this month, was
back on stage at a Silvio Rodríguez show in this capital.

Rodríguez, who came to Carcasses' defense amid the controversy, included
the 41-year-old pianist and leader of the jazz-fusion band Interactivo
in his line-up of artists Friday at an open-air concert in the Havana
neighborhood of Santiago de las Vegas.

Without making any mention of the controversy swirling around Carcasses,
Rodríguez presented his fellow musician as a "talent" and recalled that
they worked together recently on an album.

During Friday's show, Carcasses provided piano accompaniment for
Rodríguez on his song "Segunda Cita" and also performed two other
instrumental numbers with other musicians.

Carcasses did not make any remarks to the crowd of 300 people, but he
told foreign correspondents afterward that he hoped he had put the
controversy behind him.

During a Sept. 12 official concert in Havana that was broadcast live on
national television, Carcasses sang a song calling for free access to
information and the election of the president by direct popular vote.

The jazz fusion artist said Monday he had been barred indefinitely from
performing at future state-run events because of his comments during the
concert, which had been organized to demand the release of Cuban
intelligence agents imprisoned in the United States.

But authorities on the Communist-ruled island later reconsidered and
lifted the sanction.

The 66-year-old Rodríguez, Cuba's best-known folk singer, came to
Carcasses' defense on Tuesday.

He said his fellow musician had committed a "regrettable error" in
pressing his demands at an event organized to call for the release of
agents "who have sacrificed their lives for the security of the people."

However, as a Cuban citizen, Carcasses "has the right to express what he
thinks in his country," Rodríguez added.

Considered heroes in Cuba, the four agents were arrested in 1998 and
convicted of espionage in 2001, receiving sentences ranging from 15
years to life in prison.

While a fifth agent who was also arrested and convicted of the same
crime has since been paroled and allowed to return to Cuba, the other
four spies remain in prison.

The Cuban Five insisted they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile
community, not the U.S. government.

Cuba says the men were sent to Florida in the wake of several terror
bombings in Havana allegedly masterminded by anti-Castro militant Luís
Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative.

Source: "Cuban Performs With Silvio Rodríguez After Controversial
Remarks At Concert | Fox News Latino" -
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2013/09/21/cuban-performs-with-silvio-rodriguez-after-controversial-remarks-at-concert/