The Cuban Alfredito Fominaya posted a video on Facebook directly responding to the troubadour Silvio Rodríguez following the controversy over his demand for an AKM rifle.
The young man's message to Silvio encapsulates the feelings of thousands of Cubans: "No one wants to see their homeland destroyed or bombed. No one. What we want, and what the people are asking for, is freedom. Freedom for this land that can no longer endure."
Fominaya did not limit himself to rejecting the warmongering rhetoric. In his video, he pointed directly to Silvio's contradiction: "You chose to carry the wrong instrument. You preferred to carry an AKM to perpetuate the oppressor instead of taking the guitar, which is what you know how to use to inspire the people."
The young man also defended the right of Cubans abroad to speak out about the situation in the island.
"There are people who have left Cuba, but they carry Cuba in their hearts because Cuba weighs heavily; Cuba is bigger than the land that bears its name. Those are more Cuban than many who are here and could make a change but do not," he said.
One of the most powerful moments of the video was his interpretation of the current historical moment.
"People have jumped over the fence of fear and are shouting freedom," he stated. In his view, the people in Cuba now have something much greater than fear: the confidence that real change will come. "In 67 years, we didn't have the hope that we have today."
The controversy began on March 18 when Silvio Rodríguez published on his personal blog Segunda Cita the phrase "I demand my AKM if they launch. And let it be clear that I say this very seriously." This was his response to statements made by President Donald Trump, who had said days earlier: "I think I will have the honor of taking Cuba in some way. I can do whatever I want with it."
On March 20, during National Defense Day, General Álvaro López Miera, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, presented Rodríguez with a real AKM rifle and a symbolic replica in an official ceremony presided over by Miguel Díaz-Canel in the Granma Hall, in recognition of his so-called "patriotic willingness."
The episode was widely interpreted as regime propaganda to divert attention from the serious internal crisis: blackouts of up to 20 hours a day, shortages of food and medicine, and rampant inflation.
The Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer labeled Silvio Rodríguez as "coward," "hypocrite," and "useful idiot." Another Cuban responded with irony regarding the controversy, asking for an AKM in exchange for the ration book, so that the people can defend themselves against the real oppressors.
Silvio Rodríguez, the iconic 79-year-old troubadour, had declared in October 2025 to Rolling Stone magazine that he had never felt disillusioned with the Cuban regime, a stance that now, amid the island's worst energy and humanitarian crisis in decades, has cost him an unprecedented wave of criticism both inside and outside of Cuba.
Fominaya closed his message with a phrase that encapsulates the demand of an entire generation: "You chose the wrong side. Freedom for Cuba."
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