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Monday September 13 1:12 PM ET

Exiles force Cuban band to cancel Miami debut

By Angus MacSwan

MIAMI (Reuters) - Anti-Castro Cuban exiles backed by city officials have forced Cuba's most popular dance band, Los Van Van, to cancel its Miami debut, the promoter said.

The show, which was scheduled for Oct. 9 at a downtown hall, would have been a spectacular high point in efforts to bring artists from communist-ruled Cuba to the exile bastion Miami and to foster contact between the estranged communities.

Instead, it has plunged the city into fresh controversy over the behavior of hard-line exiles and whether they are restricting American freedoms while claiming to fight for democracy.

``It's off for now,'' promoter Debbie Ohanian said Saturday. ''They really strong-armed the management of the Knight Center.'' The company that runs the hall pulled out Friday night.

Ohanian said she would go to court to fight to rearrange the show, and she planned to meet with officials of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Hard-line exiles went on the offensive after the concert was announced this week and Spanish-language radio shows urged listeners to seek the show's cancellation.

``This is the official Communist band of (President) Fidel Castro,'' Miami's Cuban-born Mayor Joe Carollo said on La Poderosa radio.

Despite the 37-year U.S. embargo against Cuba, artists from the island can perform in the United States under a category of cultural exchanges, though they are supposed to be reimbursed only for their expenses.

Until recently they avoided Miami because of the hard-line stance of some exiles. In 1996, a mob assaulted concert-goers outside a performance by Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Subsequent incidents, and efforts by local authorities to ban Cuban groups, led to fierce debate in Miami about freedom of speech.

Two years ago the international music industry fair MIDEM threatened to take its Latin American showcase elsewhere if local authorities banned Cuban groups from performing.

But several top Cuban acts, including El Medico de la Salsa and NG La Banda, have played without serious incident in the past few years -- and attracted large crowds of younger Cubans. Ohanian had persuaded Los Van Van leader, Juan Formell, the time was right for a Miami show.

The band, which has delighted audiences around the world for 30 years, is at a new peak of international popularity with the current enthusiasm for Cuban culture. It is now on a U.S tour.

Hugo Cancio, a Cuban-born promoter who has led the way in bringing Cuban bands to Miami, said he was outraged by the cancellation.

``I'm very upset. When I heard, I felt I was back in Cuba -- this is the type of thing that happens there,'' he told Reuters.

It amounted to victory for Castro as it highlighted a view of Miami's Cubans as intolerant right-wingers, he said.

``The musicians are the ones we should be supporting because they are pushing for change in Cuba -- their lyrics are protesting against the government, they go abroad and come back to Cuba talking about liberty and making money.''

Ninoska Perez of the Cuban American National Foundation, the most powerful exile group, said she was delighted the show was canceled.

``(Los Van Van) are the official representatives of the Cuban government. This is not a cultural exchange. This is politics. These people played when thousands of people were sent to work camps to bring in the sugar harvest,'' she said.

Reuters/Variety

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Submitted 14 Sept., 1999