Paz sin Fronteras[1] (Peace without Borders) refers to a series of free outdoor concerts led by the Colombian singer Juanes along with other internationally recognized artists.
[2] The purpose of the first concert was to reaffirm the nonviolence message that Colombians, Venezuelans, and Ecuadorians are South American brothers, independent of the relation between the political orientation of shifting governments.
Paz sin Fronteras began as an initiative against the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis between Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, after Colombian forces invaded Ecuadorian territory in the Santa Rosa Bombardment of 2008.
The artists who attended included Juanes, Olga Tañón, Danny Rivera, Miguel Bosé, Víctor Manuelle, Luis Eduardo Aute, Juan Fernando Velasco, Jovanotti, Amaury Pérez, Silvio Rodríguez, Orishas, Carlos Varela, X-Alfonso, Cucu Diamantes, Yerba Buena and Los Van Van, singing together in a finale chorus for peace, in the second concert of Paz sin Fronteras.
[citation needed] The concert was broadcast live on Caracol and RCN in Colombia and on Venevisión, RCTV Internacional and Globovisión in Venezuela.
[8] The message of the concert, according to U.S. Representative Jim McGovern, was to circumvent politicians, and using the medium of music, speak directly to young people and encourage them to think in fresh ways – to change their way of thinking – and leave behind the old politics, the old hatreds, prejudices and national enmities that have locked too many people into patterns of conflict, violence, poverty and despair, dividing them from one another.
[9] A group of Cuban American exiles in Miami, Florida protested the concert, charging that it would service the PR campaign of the Communist government of Fidel Castro.
[9] The concert was used by Hugo Chávez during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly of September 24, 2009 to criticize the Cuban exiles in Miami for destroying Juanes' CDs in protest.