The tears of Anna Bensi, a powerful message to the conscience of the members of Minint

Yesterday, when I saw the young Christian Anna Sofía Benítez, known on social media as Anna Bensi, leave a police unit in tears after hours of interrogation, I felt pain, indignation, and my hope was further strengthened. Pain, because no one should endure such pressure for expressing their ideas, defending their faith, or claiming their rights. Indignation, because intimidation remains the tactic of a regime incapable of responding with reason and solutions to the many serious problems it has created. And hope, because once again, this state terrorism failed to silence her: surrounded by friends, her human fragility turned into a strong testimony of courage.

Reports indicate that this talented young woman attended a police summons and was held for hours to receive a supposed "official warning." Upon her release, she embraced those waiting for her in tears. We understand the weight of such an experience: uncertainty, interrogations, veiled or explicit threats, pressure on a decent young woman for daring to speak about the harrowing reality of Cuba.

That is not strength. No government demonstrates security when it feels the need to monitor, summon, harass, and intimidate a young woman for posting truthful videos. It reveals weakness. A regime that fears the words of an unarmed young woman whose only strength comes from the example of Christ is a frightened regime, one that is in a terminal phase. This makes it all the more dangerous. A wounded beast strikes out blindly.

As I indignantly watched Anna cry, I remembered a video that someone who identified themselves as a Cuban police officer had sent me a week ago, which I just posted on my social media. His message deserves attention for what it expresses: a call to his fellow officers not to suppress, to stand with the people, and to understand that the national situation has become unsustainable. He also addresses the dictator Raúl Castro and his puppet Miguel Díaz-Canel, with a clear invitation to relinquish power.

That message contains a truth that no propaganda machine can hide: those who make up the Revolutionary National Police, the Ministry of the Interior, and other structures of the regime are not a caste detached from the national reality. They are Cubans who have mothers, fathers, children, siblings, and neighbors; they endure extreme poverty, the deterioration of hospitals, scarcity, inflation, blackouts, and a lack of future. Many come from humble homes and are well aware of the suffering caused by the Castro-communist regime.

A uniform cannot erase the conscience of a good person, an order does not make the unjust just, and an endless interrogation remains cruel, regardless of being called an "interview." Monitoring, summoning, detaining, harassing, threatening, beating, or torturing a peaceful citizen is not defending Cuba. It is defending a power group that oppresses an entire people.

Those who today obey arbitrary orders still have time to stop. Their mission is to protect the people, not to repress them. Imagine how you would feel seeing your daughter, sister, or mother coming out of a police station in tears after hours of pressure and threats. Would you want your loved ones to receive the treatment that Anna Bensi and so many other decent Cubans endure?

A police officer can and should refuse to carry out arbitrary orders. They must not fabricate false accusations or lend their signature to carry out an injustice. Police officers must and can treat those in front of them with dignity. They can and should decide that they will not be the hand that tightens the noose around an already exhausted people.

Cuba needs public servants, not commissioners and political oppressors. It needs agents who protect the vulnerable, pursue real crime, and respect the law, not agents of a supremacist party's vengeance. It needs institutions that serve everyone, not mechanisms to punish those who think differently.

Anna Bensi's tears are a powerful denunciation, but also a question posed to each member of the repressive forces: how long will this go on? The answer is in their hands. Do not repress the people. Stand on the side of dignity, justice, and Cuba. Because when the inevitable time for change arrives, no one will be able to say they didn't have the opportunity to choose, to do what is right.