The Cuban activist Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known as Anna Bensi, reported this Tuesday that the Cuban regime left her and her mother completely cut off after hacking their WhatsApp accounts and simultaneously deactivating their ETECSA lines.
The repression is ongoing. The dictatorship has disabled our lines and we are completely cut off from communication. My WhatsApp account was hacked, and my mom's as well," wrote the 21-year-old in her Facebook posts.
Anna explained the deliberate mechanism behind the blockade: without an active phone line, neither she nor her mother Caridad Silvente can receive the verification code necessary to regain access to WhatsApp.
"With the lines deactivated, we cannot receive calls or messages, let alone connect. To recover the WhatsApp account, we need to have the line activated. In short… everything is very diabolical, as the Cuban dictatorship always tends to do," he denounced.
In the comments, the activist described the situation harshly: "We are both cut off from communication. Folks, they are truly making our lives unbearable. God have mercy. It's like this all the time. DOWN WITH THE CUBAN DICTATORSHIP."
Anna also directly pointed to the state telecommunications company as an active accomplice in the repression: "The dead line and they hacked my WhatsApp. ETECSA is the employee of the month when it comes to supporting the regime's repression against the people."
This episode represents a new escalation in a series of harassment that began on March 10, when Anna and her mother recorded and published a video of a sergeant from the MININT issuing them an irregular citation.
On March 25, both were charged as co-authors under Article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code, which defines "acts against personal and family privacy, one's own image and voice," with penalties ranging from two to five years in prison, and were placed under house arrest with a prohibition on leaving the country.
On April 9, Anna had already reported an initial suspension of her WhatsApp account, posting screenshots with the message: "Your session has been closed. Your phone number is no longer registered with WhatsApp on this phone."
On April 13 and 14, mother and daughter were summoned and interrogated for more than two hours at the Alamar police station by intelligence agents, who attempted to recruit Anna by offering to advance her music career in exchange for silencing her activism: "That dream can be realized, Sofía. We can help you," they told her.
The pattern of digital repression extends beyond the two women: the collective Fuera de la Caja Cuba, which supports Anna, also experienced the disabling of its members' phones on March 26, indicating a coordinated strategy by the regime to isolate its entire support network.
ETECSA operates under Decree-Law 35 of 2021, which grants it the authority to block internet services and suspend lines, a tool that the regime has systematically used against activists and independent journalists.
"I ask everyone to pray a lot for my mom and for me because the repression is constant," wrote Anna Bensi, whose case has reached international media and prompted the visit of the U.S. diplomat Mike Hammer, head of mission at the United States Embassy in Cuba, who stated that her only crime has been defending her beliefs, her faith".
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