The Cuban activist Anna Bensi —under house arrest since March 25, 2026— responded on Facebook this Monday to the former spy Gerardo Hernández Nordelo with a question laced with irony: if his "lifestyle is quite capitalist," why does he defend communism?
The exchange began on Saturday when Hernández Nordelo posted a meme on his profile with the text “Communism isn’t that bad when you can live without working, because someone pays you to say that communism is bad...” accompanied by the phrase “Paradojas de la vida...” along with a screenshot of a news article in CiberCuba about Anna Bensi.
The activist, whose real name is Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, responded directly on Facebook, pointing out the contradiction between the socialist rhetoric of the national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and his involvement in private businesses.
“Will he want to arrange a spot for me at 'El Mercadito,' one of his small businesses?” Bensi asked, attaching images of the commercial establishment that, according to her, would be linked to the former spy.
Then she became more direct: "Would the spy achieve that with what they are paid to say that communism is good? I hope not... because their lifestyle is quite capitalist."
Bensi closed his post with a phrase that sums up the core of his critique: "I wish I were paid to speak the truth. However, many are paid to tell lies." He added the word "Doblemoral" and the hashtags #DownWithCastristDictatorship and #FreedomForAllPoliticalPrisoners.
The accusation of double standards against Hernández Nordelo is not new. The national coordinator of the CDR and deputy to the National Assembly has been repeatedly criticized for displaying luxury items that contradict his rhetoric: a Specialized brand bicycle in December 2021 and, in January 2026, a photo with a Rolex watch and a Soviet machine gun drew similar criticisms.
The exchange occurs just three days after Bensi published a reel from her confinement with the phrase “I don’t read it, I live it and I suffer it”, dismantling the theoretical defense of communism made by those who, according to her, have never experienced its real consequences.
Bensi, 21 years old, faces charges of "acts against personal and family privacy" alongside his mother, Caridad Silvente, for filming a MININT agent delivering a summons at their home. Article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code stipulates penalties of two to five years in prison for this offense.
Despite the confinement, the activist —a member of the group "Fuera de la Caja Cuba"— maintains an active presence on social media. Her case was documented by Amnesty International in April 2026 and garnered the attention of the head of mission of the United States Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, who visited her and conveyed greetings from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to data from Prisoners Defenders, Cuba recorded an all-time high of 1,281 political prisoners in May 2026, a figure that Bensi has referenced in previous posts to illustrate what, in his words, real communism means: "thinking differently and becoming one of the more than a thousand political prisoners that Cuba has today."
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