Ruben Blades: Minister of Salsa: better known outside his country as a singer-songwriter and actor, this Renaissance man today speaks from a political stage, as Panama's Minister of Tourism.

• Author: Balaguer, Alejandro
• Position: Interview

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Oye, hermano, ique chevere verte de nuevo! Hey, brother--great to see you again!

It is the unmistakable voice of Ruben Blades that reverberates through the meeting room at the Panamanian Tourism Institute, followed by a strong bear hug so heartfelt that it is if we had been friends our whole lives, although we had only talked for a couple of hours during an interview at the beginning of his political career. Blades laughs with unfeigned joy. He comes in with an entourage of assistants; one throws him a blue blazer across the conference table. Blades catches it in flight, furrows his brow, gives me a look of complicity and mischief worthy of Pedro Navaja, and says, "It doesn't match." We laugh. "It's just that as the years go by, I start to be like my grandmother, who used to wear different colored shoes," he confesses.

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Without a doubt, the famed salsa singer, Hollywood actor, and now Minister of Tourism of this welcoming Central American nation is a special character--a "rare animal" in traditional politics and much beloved by many. In the following interview, he shares his voice--not the voice of the salsero, but of the Panamanian leader who is genuinely interested in the future of his country, his people, and Latin America as a whole.

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* What is the ideal country of your dreams?

A country that is developing not only economically, but also in spiritual terms. The great civilizations have had those elements of material development, but also of spiritual development. What is happening now is that there are problems that didn't exist back in those times. It's just that basic society today is more complex, it's made up of different ethnic groups and different interests. The ideal would be a society in which the spiritual aspect and the aspect of physical well-being could become part of the same proposition. A society that is responsible and that has solidarity--that is the ideal.

* Looking toward Latin America, do you think we have development models that are sufficiently fair and sound?

Some believe there is a contradiction with capitalism, but I don't believe that exists. The problem with capitalism is that it didn't create more capitalists; what it created was monopolies, oligopolies. First there was pressure to bring about an economic opening, then that was closed without allowing other people to access the possibility of that type of organization of capital. The problem with communism is that it did away with private initiative and sought to create a forced parity. In other words, something that doesn't exist. Human beings have that, desire, that initiative--call it egotism in the worst case scenario, the desire to get ahead in the best case--but that is something that is latent in all cultures. So if we can establish a direction that allows for that sense of initiative to be put in effect without it becoming a vehicle of oppression, or something that eliminates opportunities for someone else, then we will have a more just society.

* Is it that we're too egotistical?

That is why we had to create laws as an artificial means to produce parity, equality, and access. Now I see capitalism in terms of the production of goods and the development of economic consequences, but with a social responsibility; that is why people talk about social capitalism. I think the two things can be joined together. The problem is that there is a lot of confusion. For example, people talk about the doctrine of neoliberalism; I have to laugh because liberalism implies opportunities, yet people refer to neoliberalism as if it were a new version of monopolies. So if we are talking about neoliberalism now, we would be talking about a proposal in which the markets are open to possibilities for the people. But that's not what you read about. What you read about neoliberalism is that it perpetuates the sale of all national resources to foreigners and the control by oligarchies of countries' means of production--and that is not liberalism.

* Latin America has 540 million inhabitants, of which 200 million live in poverty, with tremendous inequality in resources. How far should we go in order to have more just societies?

There are many factors, as with everything...