Call it the Fracas in Caracas -- a sparring match between two heavyweights, a politician and a pop singer. This week, the heated ideological showdown between Spanish superstar Alejandro Sanz and the combative president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, escalated into a full-fledged battle over free speech.
The long-simmering dispute between the romantic warbler and the socialist head of state boiled over this month after Sanz accused the Chavez government of sabotaging -- for the second time in three months -- a scheduled concert in the Venezuelan capital. Soon, a petition in support of the singer was circulating on the Internet, signed by 160 artists, including such big names as Shakira, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, along with actress Penelope Cruz and soccer star David Beckham.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, February 24, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 57 words Type of Material: Correction
Latin Grammys: In some copies of the Saturday Calendar section, the Culture Mix column about the showdown between singer Alejandro Sanz and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the Latin Recording Academy moved the inaugural Latin Grammy ceremony in 2000 from Miami to Los Angeles. That move was made in 2001, the second year of the Latin Grammys.
The latest round came Thursday when the president scoffed at the allegations during a news conference and invited Sanz to perform in Caracas as proof that his government supported artistic expression. Chavez also invited one of Sanz's defenders, Argentine rocker Fito Paez, to "bring his guitar" after Paez, who's scheduled to perform in Caracas in May, blasted Chavez for not tolerating dissent and called the Sanz affair "just one more sign of the arrogance and brutality" of the Venezuelan leader.
"Let me be the first to invite any one of you to come to my country to sing," Chavez said, adding that he had never heard the work of either artist. "We are pushing a great cultural initiative, so long live the song and the free exchange of ideas."
The singer says no, gracias. Sanz dismissed the invitation as a request for a command performance at the presidential palace, which it wasn't. "The thing is, I don't want to go sing for Mr. Hugo Chavez," Sanz told me Thursday in an interview from Miami. "I want to sing for the people of Venezuela."
Forgive me for not sharing the selective outrage of the artists who signed the Sanz statement, including one of my heroes, singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat, victim of his own repression under the Franco dictatorship in Spain. Where were all these artists when the Bush administration, for purely political reasons, repeatedly prevented Cuban and other artists from entering the U.S. and performing here?
