Juanes insults Chavez on Twitter
By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director
.jpg "Photo: musiblog.es")
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Colombian pop-star Juanes surprised his fans and stirred controversy over the weekend after he made fun of the Venezuelan President on the social networking site Twitter.
“I´ve been sent Chavez´s pin number. Would someone like to have it so that you can send him messages to his Blackberry?” said the Grammy award winner on his Twitter page Saturday evening. “Here you go” he added, “it´s H1J0D3PU7A,” a combination of letters and numbers that translates roughly to “son of a bitch.”
The message angered Chavez supporters in Venezuela and concerned Colombians who replied to Juanes´s message, asking the singer to show respect to the Venezuelan head of state.
But Juanes refused to back down, arguing that he was only repeating a joke that was already circulating on the social networking site, and expressing his concern for the state of civil rights in Venezuela.
“If we are going to talk about peace, then let us talk about respect,” he said in a later message where he discussed the recent wave of student protests in Venezuela. “Many young people in Venezuela are being beaten and repressed.”
Twitter messages can be deleted by their creators, but Juanes has refused to remove the Chavez Blackberry joke from his page.
“I speak with you like I speak with my friends at home or in the street,” he told his 350,000 twitter followers “and I´m not going to change this.
I am not bothered by the insults [from Chavez supporters] and I respect them because I understand where those feelings come from.”
Juanes is known for his efforts to promote peace in Latin America. He is planning a free concert in Haiti with several well known pop stars and he organized a free peace concert on the border between Venezuela and Colombia in 2008 in a famous effort to improve relations between both countries.
The Medellin native attempted to strike a more conciliatory tone on Sunday night telling his followers that he has deep appreciation for Venezuela, and that a “country is its people, not its President.”
The musician´s comments come as Chavez urges his followers to “continue the revolution” through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Juanes, on the other hand, has acknowledged he “admires” and “supports” Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, although he disagrees with plans to reelect Uribe for an unprecedented third term in office.
“A president with a conciliatory discourse who generates hope and peace,” he told SEMANA magazine, ”would be much better than one that continues to promote this culture of war.”
The singer has announced he will launch a new album later this year.
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