MIAMI, Aug 24 (Reuters) -
Bureaucracy permitting, music will bridge a deep political divide this week in Miami,
where star musicians from communist Cuba are due to take the stage in the heartland of
exile opposition to President Fidel Castro.
If last-minute visa snags are overcome, a planned concert in Miami Beach, arranged as part
of an annual industry fair called the MIDEM Latin and Caribbean Music Market, will be the
biggest concert by Cuba-based talent yet seen in Miami.
Several dozen Cubans were slated to take part in the international music get-together,
though most were still in Havana late on Monday, waiting for their visas from U.S.
authorities, who blamed the delay on a bureaucratic foul-up.
"This is not a political problem. It's a procedural issue,'' one U.S.
official said, explaining that the musicians had applied for the wrong sort of visa.
Among the Cuba-based musicians scheduled to play a special MIDEM ``Cuban Legends Jam
Session'' were pianist Chucho Valdes, together with his group Irakere, and 90-year-old
singer-guitarist Compay Segundo, featured on a hit album recorded in Havana in 1996 by
American guitarist Ry Cooder.
MIDEM organisers said Compay Segundo already had his visa and Valdes was expected to get
his in time to perform.
In Havana, though, officials said some of the musicians would probably not arrive in time
for Tuesday's concert. MIDEM runs through Friday.
Whenever they play, the musicians will face protests -- though perhaps less virulent
ones than in the past. Cuban exile leaders say musicians who continue to live in
Cuba help support the island's communist government by giving part of their earnings to
the Cuban state. "They collect dollars and take them back to the (Castro) regime,''
representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, told Reuters in a telephone
interview.
He accused the Clinton administration of giving too many visas to Cuban musicians.
`They are part of the whole slave economy,'' he said. ``I don't like them playing in the
United States.''
Miami Beach police said on Monday they had set aside special areas for protests against
the concert.
``Even though the Miami Beach Police Department only expects peaceful demonstrations
during MIDEM, steps have been taken to prevent any potentially difficult situation,''
police spokesman Al Boza said.
Washington maintains a 36-year-old economic embargo on Cuba, but artists from the
island can perform in the United States if the shows are presented as cultural exchanges,
not commercial ventures.
Still, most have stayed away from Miami. Two years ago, an angry mob spat at and scuffled
with concert-goers when Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba performed in Miami. Shortly
after the near riot at that concert, a restaurant featuring a Cuban singer was firebombed.
Local political pressure prevented Cuban artists from appearing last year at the first
MIDEM fair held in Miami.
That ignited a debate over freedom of speech in which critics accused the exiles of
behaving as repressively as the forces they opposed. The France-based MIDEM threatened not
to return to Miami, seen by many as the de facto capital of Latin America, if Cuban
musicians and music impresarios were not allowed to take part.
Political analysts say hardline opposition to Castro in Miami has been weakened by the
death late last year of Jorge Mas Canosa, founder of the powerful Cuban American National
Foundation, and by a call for reconciliation among Cubans issued by Pope John Paul during
his historic visit to Cuba in January.
Diaz-Balart rejected that view, saying the sheer number of visas given by the Clinton
administration to Cuba-based musicians had made protesting against every concert
increasingly difficult.