Puerto Rico's first lady sent a single artisanal candle to mayors of areas across the island whose citizens are still waiting for electricity — and later apologized on Wednesday after she came under intense criticism.

Beatriz Rosselló’s apology came after the mayor of the eastern municipality of Yabucoa, Rafael Surillo, said on Monday that the gift came at “the least appropriate moment” given that 90% of his municipality is still in darkness.

“I'm not sure what the intention is, but this comes at the least appropriate moment given the situation that our people in Yabucoa are living with,” Surillo said during an interview Monday night on the Univision Puerto Rico program Jugando Pelota Dura .

On Wednesday morning, after local media picked up Surillo's comments, Rosselló said on Twitter that the gift was meant as a gesture of “unity and hope” and that she was “sorry the gesture had been misinterpreted.”

She said the scented candles were hand-made by a woman entrepreneur who “like so many others is fighting day after day to move forward” and that the candle holders were made from a tree on the grounds of the governor's mansion that fell during Hurricane Irma in September. The gifts bear the seal of La Fortaleza — the governor’s office.

She said each candle took “many hours of intense labor, working with the purpose of unity and hope.”