The young Cuban content creator Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known as Anna Bensi, reported this Monday that agents from the regime's counterintelligence attempted to recruit her during an interrogation at the Alamar police station in Havana, offering to promote her music career in exchange for her silence on public matters.
The interrogation was the result of a coordinated trap: Anna and her mother, Caridad Silvente, were summoned under the pretense of signing a document related to the case file against her mother, while David Espinosa and his wife Laidy García were simultaneously called to another police unit to leave them alone and without communication, with no phones.
After signing the documents in less than five minutes, the mother was taken outside the station, and Anna was held alone in an office by the instructor Eddie Cala, who told her, "she will stay for a moment."
Three counterintelligence agents entered —two women and a man— who never identified themselves and, as Anna recounted, played the "good cop, bad cop" game: the women tried to win his trust while the man took on a harsher tone.
The agents asked her about her aspirations and her future, and when she mentioned that music was her greatest passion —referring to her recent song "Mi Tierra"— they offered to help her develop her career.
"That dream can become a reality, Sofía. That dream is in your hands; it only depends on you. We can help you with that," he said.
According to his testimony, the proposal was contingent upon him abandoning his activism on social media.
They wanted me to be quiet, to take another path, he explained, making it clear that he did not accept.
"I will never work for a dictatorship," he stated.
During the interrogation, the agents also resorted to psychological pressure and subtle warnings.
They suggested to him that he could face prison if he continued with his posts and told him it would be "a shame" for him to spend his youth in jail.
Additionally, they tried to discredit her surroundings, claiming that no one outside could help her if the situation worsened.
Anna reported that the repression has not only targeted her but also her family.
He reported that days earlier, his sister, an American citizen, was deceived into going to a police station and subjected to interrogation in the presence of her children, a process he described as intimidating.
According to her, the authorities used that meeting to indirectly pressure her.
The young woman also reported that in recent weeks there has been an increase in surveillance and harassment, with follow-ups in public spaces and constant monitoring of her home.
"This is no longer just about me, it's about my family," he warned.
Despite the pressure, he insisted that he does not belong to any organization nor does he respond to external interests.
I am a young Cuban who expresses what I think. I am not a leader of anything nor am I calling for anything, she declared, rejecting the authorities' accusations.
The case, he added, remains open despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office archived the file against his mother, which —as he explained— allows it to be reactivated at any time.
It was all a trap to interrogate us and try to intimidate us, concluded the young woman in her live after leaving the station.
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