Venezuela salsa singer Oscar D'Leon, who was arrested and forced to spend a night in jail in Colombia after failing to perform at a concert, was released Tuesday and given permission to return home, officials said.
D'Leon, known as the "Devil of Salsa," was detained Monday at the airport in Barranquilla, 435 miles north of Bogota, as he prepared to return to Venezuela, police officer Emilio Vence said in a phone interview.
Concert organizers had filed a complaint against D'Leon for allegedly failing to meet his contractual obligation. It is illegal in Colombia for anyone with legal proceedings against him or her to leave the country.
But after meeting with Colombian prosecutors in the nearby city of Cartagena, the 61-year-old salsa singer was given permission to return to Venezuela, said a spokesman for the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota. It wasn't clear whether charges were still pending.
Vence said D'Leon wasn't mistreated during his brief detainment.
"He wasn't locked up in a dungeon, but rather a room with air conditioning," said Vence, head of the Colombian secret police in Atlantico province. "We treated him the way someone of his stature deserves to be treated."
D'Leon, who had already played in several earlier carnival celebrations in Barranquilla, told local Caracol radio Tuesday he backed out of a Feb.4 concert because organizers refused to pay an advance fee.
Concert organizer Gregorio Rico said an advance payment had been made to the salsa star.
D'Leon said he hoped "the people who have done this take time to reflect, and they should be worried because they stirred up this ballyhoo for which they are to blame, not me."