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Ada Galano, president of the Nationale Coordinator of Cubans Resident in Italy (CONACI) and a figure who days ago requested AKM rifles to defend the Cuban regime, has now published an "emotional message about friendship and gratitude" on her social media that starkly contrasts with her previous belligerent rhetoric.
The post on Facebook, titled "THANK YOU FRIENDS BECAUSE TOMORROW COULD BE LATE", appeared days after her statements before Miguel Díaz-Canel sparked a wave of criticism on social media, a viral satirical song, and response videos from Cubans in Italy.
Last Wednesday, during an official meeting with Díaz-Canel at the Palacio de Convenciones de La Habana, Galano stated: "Have our AKMs ready because just as we came here with medicine today, tomorrow we will come to retrieve our AKM if necessary."
In a live broadcast that same day, he also stated: "If the bombs were to come and I were to die here in my homeland, defending my homeland, death would be welcome," and added: "I too will join my people and I will also ask for my rifle."
Now, in his new post, Galano writes: "As the poet said, today I want to thank you because tomorrow it may be too late," and he describes his friends as "simply men and women of these times who live from their work, some more fortunate than others, but with one great trait that is almost extinct today... they remain human and have a big heart in their chest."
The message does not contain any reference to his statements regarding weapons nor does it provide any clarification or correction concerning the stirred controversy.
The rejection of their positions was immediate and widespread. Plácido Ferreiro Romero, a Cuban from Guantánamo now living in Miami, created a satirical song that garnered nearly 400,000 views on Facebook.
Anabel Hernández, a Cuban residing in Italy, published a video criticizing Galano for staying at a hotel with guaranteed electricity 24 hours a day —managed by GAESA, the Cuban military conglomerate— while her compatriots endure power outages of more than twenty hours daily, and she questioned the expenditure of over a thousand euros weekly on accommodation.
Galano participated in the convoy "Nuestra América", driven by the Progressive International, which brought together between 500 and 650 participants from about thirty countries —including Pablo Iglesias and Jeremy Corbyn— and carried more than twenty tons of humanitarian aid to Cuba.
The initiative was widely criticized for its political nature and for the contrast between the privileged treatment of its members and the severe crisis faced by the Cuban population, with power outages of up to twenty hours, food shortages, and a collapse of public transportation.
Galano's new post concludes with a dedication: "In these distant and strange lands, sometimes unfamiliar to us but that offer us hospitality, are my family, that family born from chance and called friends."
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