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The Cuban YouTuber and activist Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known as Anna Bensi, was released this Monday after undergoing a new interrogation at the police unit in Alamar, Havana.
The confirmation came through activist Lara Crofs (Yamilka Lafita), who posted on Facebook: "Band, thank you so much they have just released our friend Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente. She will tell you herself what happened. Thank you for your support. Once again, the pressure worked."
Previously, Crofs had warned: "Our Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente has been undergoing interrogation for over two hours, and the concern is growing. If she is not released within an hour, I will go in person with friends to demand her immediate freedom. Enough with the abuse."
The repression against Anna Bensi began on March 10, 2026, when she and her mother recorded and published the moment when the MININT officer Yoel Leodán Rabaza Ramos (badge 179542) handed them an irregular summons.
The authorities used that video as a pretext to accuse them of "acts against personal and family privacy, image, and voice," under the article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code, which includes penalties of two to five years in prison.
On March 25, both were charged and placed under house arrest with a ban on leaving the country and traveling between provinces.
Repression has extended to the entire family. On April 10, Anna's sister, Elmis Rivero Silvente, was interrogated and threatened by State Security just hours before boarding her flight to Miami. Agents told her that "Trump will invade Cuba and the first missile will hit home.", in a direct intimidation tactic.
The WhatsApp account of Anna Bensi has also been suspended with no possibility of recovery, cutting off one of her main channels of communication with the outside world.
On April 9, the American diplomat Mike Hammer, head of the U.S. Embassy mission in Cuba, visited Anna and her mother in Alamar. Hammer noted that "her only crime has been defending her beliefs, her faith".
The case of Anna Bensi is not isolated. Last Monday, the content creator David Espinosa and his wife Laidy García were also summoned by the MININT, in what activists describe as a systematic pattern of harassment against those who document and criticize the regime on social media.
Anna Bensi is 21 years old and is one of the youngest and most active voices of the Cuban dissent on digital platforms. Although she was released this Tuesday, the criminal charges against her and her mother remain in effect, with penalties that could reach five years in prison.
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