Juanes calls for peace and brotherhood with Ecuador

Colombian rock star Juanes takes part in peace ceremony on the Ecuador-Colombia border.

The singer-songwriter met Ecuadorian musician Juan Fernando Velasco to exchange their nations’ flags in front of a 500-strong crowd on the Rumichaca Bridge, a border crossing between the two countries.

Juanes, recently voted best Latin artist of the decade by the U.S. Billboard magazine, told Ecuadorean daily El Universo that “these kind of civilian demonstrations can make a deep impact on politics. We should listen to what the people are asking for: peace, which unfortunately we do not have.”

“You should never give up on the cause of non-violence and brotherhood … From Colombia you can see the mountains of Ecuador, it doesn’t make sense to generate these mental barriers, because the border is only mental,” he continued.

The ceremony is part of the Global March for Peace, which passed through Colombia earlier this week and is now moving on to Ecuador.

Relations between the neighboring nations have been strained since Colombia’s March 2008 bombing of a FARC camp in Ecuadorean territory. Diplomatic links between the two were only reinstated in late November with the reopening of embassies in Bogota and Quito.