The Cuban activist and content creator Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known as Anna Bensi, posted a message of faith and resilience this Tuesday following an interrogation she underwent by counterintelligence agents in Cuba.
"Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life, but today I decided, once again, to entrust my life and that of my family to God. He will fight all my battles for me," wrote the young woman on Facebook.
Anna lives in Havana. On Monday, she and her mother Caridad Silvente were summoned to the Alamar police unit under the pretense of signing documents to archive her mother's criminal case.
What followed was a coordinated trap: while content creator David Espinosa and his wife Laidy García were summoned simultaneously to another unit, Anna and her mother were left isolated and without phones. The young woman was held alone by the instructor Eddie Cala.
Three counterintelligence agents —two women and a man who never identified themselves— questioned her for over two hours using the "good cop, bad cop" tactic.
The agents offered to advance her music career in exchange for her abandoning her activism on social media: "That dream can come true, Sofía. That dream is in your hands, it all depends on you. We can help you with that."
Anna categorically rejected the proposal: "I will never work for a dictatorship."
The activist Lara Crofs (Yamilka Lafita) confirmed the release of the young woman that same day and published: "Once again, the pressure worked". She was referring to the support that Anna and her family received on social media.
The repression against Anna Bensi began on March 10, when she and her mother recorded and published the moment when the MININT sub-officer Yoel Leodán Rabaza Ramos issued them an irregular summons.
Cuban authorities inverted the legal logic and accused them —not the official— of violating privacy, relying on Article 393 of the 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. Anna's sister, Elmis Rivero Silvente —a United States citizen— was interrogated and threatened by State Security hours before boarding her flight to Miami, with the warning that "Trump will invade Cuba and the first missile will hit home."
The case has gained international attention. On April 9, the American diplomat Mike Hammer, head of the U.S. Embassy mission in Cuba, visited Anna and her mother in Alamar and stated that her "only crime has been defending her beliefs, her faith."
In her post this Tuesday, Anna accompanied her message with a snippet from "My Land", the song she released with musician Dairon Gavilán on March 27 under the Plus Media Music label, whose lyrics proclaim: "I want my land to see the sun again, that it breaks the chains, frees its pain."
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