Gino Doné was the only European expeditionary member of the Granma yacht

Havana, Nov 24 (RHC) A delegation from the National Italy-Cuba Friendship Association (Anaic) will bring to Cuba the ashes of partisan Gino Doné, the only European expeditionary member of the Granma.

Marco Papacci, president of Anaic, indicated that in the coming days he will lead the group of members of that organization that will fulfill Doné's last wish, that his remains rest in Cuba.

According to Papacci, it is expected that on December 2, the date on which the anniversary of the landing of the Granma yacht is commemorated, the ashes of the Italian expeditionary will be laid in the Pantheon of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, in the Colón cemetery in Havana.

The Italian delegation will also be made up of the former president of Anaic, Irma Dioli, and other directors of the group, including Marco Fantechi and Alma Masé, as well as Gino Done's great-grandson, Ivan Cadamuro.

It will also include former senators Vito Petroccelli, from the 5 Star Movement and current president of the Italia-Brics Institute; Emanuele Dessi, of the Communist Party and head of the Association for the New International Order; and Mattia Crucioli, of the Alternative Party and leader of the Association United for the Constitution.

Doné, who was born in 1924 in Monastier and died in 2008 in the community of San Doná di Piave, in the province of Venice, fought as a partisan against Nazi-fascism during the Second World War. In the 1950s he moved to Cuba, where he joined the revolutionary struggle.

From the Cuban city of Trinidad, where he lived, he traveled to Mexico in 1956 to join the expeditionaries, as an envoy of the July 26 Movement, and transferred part of the money that was used to buy the Granma yacht.

On November 25 of that year, with the rank of lieutenant of the third platoon and under the command of Raúl Castro, the Italian fighter was part of the group of 82 men that left on that boat from the Mexican port of Tuxpan towards Cuba, where they disembarked on December 2.

After the battle of Alegría de Pío, on December 5, he moved to the city of Santa Clara, where he carried out various revolutionary actions, until in January 1957 when he received the order to go abroad to carry out other tasks.

Upon his return to Italy, he stood out as a defender of the Cuban Revolution and joined the Anaic circle in the city of Venice.

He traveled many times to Cuba. In 2005, during the July 26 event for the 52nd anniversary of the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, he held a meeting with Commander in Chief Fidel Castro. In December of the following year, he returned for the last time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Granma landing. (Source: PL)