Elmis Rivero Silvente, sister of the Cuban influencer Anna Bensi, arrived in Miami this Thursday with her two youngest children after undergoing an interrogation lasting over an hour by Cuban State Security agents, just hours before boarding her flight from Havana, reported Diario de Las Américas.
The citation was issued at 8:30 a.m. on the same day of his trip, signed by Major Merlín Hernández Estévez, in the Immigration unit of the Playa municipality, under the pretext of an "interview for immigration stay control."
The document warned of penalties for failure to appear, including fines and forcible transportation.
Rivero Silvente, a U.S. citizen along with her nine and three-year-old children, told Martí Noticias at Miami Airport that the agents told her the process would take only 15 minutes, but they detained her for over an hour.
"I wasn't allowed to leave," he declared, adding that they withheld my passport, they didn't want me to leave.
The agents did not limit themselves to immigration questions: they directly threatened her with her sister and mother.
According to his testimony, they told him: "You haven't seen the news, Trump is going to invade Cuba. The first missile will go to your house. Remember that your sister and your mom are alone here in Cuba, no one will support them."
She was also accused of having called for the visit of the head of the mission of the Embassy of the United States in Cuba, Mike Hammer, who visited Anna Bensi and her mother Caridad Silvente at their home in Alamar, Havana on that same day.
"They asked me if Mike Hammer was encouraging the youth to go out into the streets. I told them no, that it was a courtesy visit. And they said that if something was being planned, something against the country, they were going to defend the revolution above all else," Rivero Silvente recounted.
After fulfilling the requirement, Rivero Silvente traveled with his children to Terminal 3 of José Martí International Airport and boarded flight 838 of American Airlines.
The aircraft landed at 4:12 p.m. at Miami International Airport.
Rivero Silvente had traveled to Cuba for four days to visit his mother and meet with the lawyer handling Anna Bensi's legal case.
He also described a constant surveillance of his sister and mother: "Whenever my mom and sister leave the house, there are a few guys following them, all the time. There are 6 or 7 behind them all the time, listening to reggaeton music, loud music, laughing, commenting on things."
About the current state of Anna Bensi and Caridad Silvente, she was categorical: "They are, they continue to be very repressed. They are completely disconnected."
Elmis's case is part of a pattern of ongoing repression against Anna Bensi and her family environment.
On March 25, the influencer was charged under Article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code for "acts against personal and family privacy," with potential penalties of two to five years in prison, remaining under house arrest with her mother.
The criminal case originated from the dissemination of a video showing a sub-officer from MININT delivering a summons. Anna's mother had been interrogated and threatened since March 11.
The Embassy of the United States posted on X following Hammer's visit that Anna Bensi "has only expressed her ideas, her faith, and her aspirations as a Cuban who loves her homeland," additionally confirming that both she and her mother are under house arrest.
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