The Cuban influencer Samanta Espineira, based in Miami and with over a million followers on Instagram, posted an Instagram Story this Friday asking her audience to get to know Anna Bensi, the young Cuban activist who is 21 years old and is facing an escalation of repression from State Security.
The gesture from Espineira comes at one of the most critical moments for Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, the real name of the activist residing in Alamar, Havana.
Between Wednesday and this Friday, the regime interrogated her mother for two hours, placed her under house arrest with a threat of up to five years in prison, cut off internet access for both, and also threatened Bensi's father at his workplace.
Anna's mother, Caridad 'Cary' Silvente, was summoned on Wednesday to the Alamar police unit by State Security. She entered the interrogation at 14:02 and exited at 16:00.
She was accused of 'exposing a State Security agent' for having recorded an irregular summons delivered by agents in civilian clothes, and she is under a travel ban with an ongoing criminal process that could extend for years.
Anna Bensi responded firmly to the pressures. "They won't silence me, they can imprison people but not ideas.", declared the activist in the face of the increasing pressure from the Cuban regime.
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