Anna Bensi: "Silence is no longer an option" in Cuba

Anna Bensi posted on Facebook that in Cuba, neutrality amounts to supporting the dictatorship: "Silence is no longer an option. There is no time for gray areas."



Anna Sofía Benítez SilventePhoto © Facebook / Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente

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The Cuban activist and influencer Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente (Anna Bensi) delivered a direct message to the content creators on the Island: in today's Cuba, neutrality does not exist.

The post on Facebook, accompanied by an image with text on a black background, concludes with four slogans in uppercase: "SILENCE IS NO LONGER AN OPTION / THERE'S NO TIME FOR GREYS / BLACK OR WHITE / FREEDOM OR DICTATORSHIP".

"In the current situation in Cuba, not being 'defined' or 'avoiding the topic' means supporting one side. Spoiler: it's not the side of the people. Right now, there's no room for ambivalence," wrote Bensi, a 21-year-old resident of Alamar, Havana.

In the attached image, the young activist directly confronts the logic of official censorship: “Perhaps my videos haven’t solved anything or changed anything. Maybe no video discussing the reality of Cuba actually makes a practical difference beyond media noise. But if such videos are so useless, why does the Cuban dictatorship insist on eliminating them?”

Facebook Capture / Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente

The message arrives while Bensi remains under house arrest since March 25, 2026, along with her mother Caridad "Cary" Silvente, imposed by the Ministry of the Interior.

Both were charged under Article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code for "acts against personal and family privacy," with penalties that can range from two to five years in prison.

The origin of the process was the recording and dissemination on social media of the moment when a MININT agent delivered a summons at his home on March 10.

Rather than falling silent, Bensi has raised his tone in recent weeks.

On June 19, she denounced that "the Cuban dictatorship sells us backwardness as heroism," and on Wednesday she reflected on Cuban identity, separating the people from those who oppress them: “THE DICTATORSHIP IS NOT CUBA! Cuba is each one of us and everyone who dreams of seeing this Island FREE.”

The repression against her has been multidimensional. In April, intelligence agents attempted to recruit her by offering support for her music career in exchange for silence, to which she responded: "I will never work for a dictatorship."

During an interrogation at the Alamar police station, the officers warned him, "It would be a shame for you to spend your youth in a penitentiary."

She also reported the hacking of her WhatsApp and Telegram accounts, the deactivation of her ETECSA lines, and the disabling of phones belonging to young people who publicly supported her.

Your case has crossed borders. The U.S. special envoy for Cuba, Mike Hammer, visited her at her home in Alamar and described her as "brave," also conveying greetings from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The congressman Mario Díaz-Balart called her a "heroine," and Amnesty International documented her situation that same month, demanding an end to the repression.

According to data from the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press, April 2026 closed with 179 documented acts of aggression against informational freedoms in Cuba, a context that highlights the environment in which Bensi continues to publish.

Bensi is a member of the youth collective "Fuera de la Caja Cuba," founded in January of this year by four young people around 20 years old in the Cerro municipality of Havana, who promote libertarian thought through art, theater, and videos on social media.

"They can imprison people, but not ideas," the activist has stated on more than one occasion throughout this year.

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CiberCuba Editorial Team

A team of journalists committed to reporting on Cuban current affairs and topics of global interest. At CiberCuba, we work to deliver truthful news and critical analysis.

CiberCuba Editorial Team

A team of journalists committed to reporting on Cuban current affairs and topics of global interest. At CiberCuba, we work to deliver truthful news and critical analysis.