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The Cuban activist Anna Bensi firmly responded this Saturday to those who tried to use her tears to discredit her, making it clear that her emotional reaction upon leaving the Alamar police station was not a sign of weakness but a direct consequence of nearly 11 hours of psychological pressure.
In a tweet published this Saturday, the 21-year-old member of the collective "Fuera de la Caja Cuba" wrote: "My tears were of helplessness, of anger for so many hours of injustice. It was not weakness; on the contrary, all these things make my convictions stronger than ever."
With irony, Bensi pointed out that "the order to discredit has been given" and posed a direct question to his critics: "They criticize me for crying after 11 hours of psychological abuse, but the dictatorship has been considering for months that some 'videos' are a threat to their 'sovereignty.' Who is really crying out of weakness?"
The trigger was what happened on Thursday, July 3, when Bensi was summoned at 10:02 a.m. to the station of the National Revolutionary Police in Alamar, Havana, under the pretense of receiving an "official warning," and she was not released until 8:56 p.m., almost four times the legal limit of two hours established by Cuban law for this type of interview.
During that time, according to the activist herself after her release, agents demanded that she change the content of her videos, threatened her with imprisonment for "inciting public disorder," and forced her to sign a formal warning under Article 268 of the Penal Code, without providing her a copy of the document.
Upon her release, Bensi broke down in tears and was welcomed with applause from family, friends, and activists who were waiting for her outside.
The video of that moment quickly went viral and became a symbol of resistance, but it also unleashed a campaign of accounts aligned with the regime—known as "ciberclarias"—that tried to portray his reaction as a sign of weakness.
The response of solidarity was swift. The journalist Mónica Baró defended the young woman with a powerful statement: "You have to be very strong to come out of a detention lasting over ten hours at just 21 years old. The light belongs to Anna Sofía."
The activist Saily González added that the tears were "the reaction to having maintained her composure in the face of systematic torment."
The actor Erdwin Fernández Collado described the episode as "the true face of the dictatorship."
The harassment against Bensi did not start on Thursday. Since March 25, 2026, she and her mother, Caridad «Cary» Silvente, have been under house arrest, accused under Article 393 of the Penal Code for “acts against personal and family privacy,” with penalties ranging from two to five years in prison, after recording a MININT agent delivering an irregular summons at their home.
In April 2026, counterintelligence agents attempted to recruit her as an informant, offering support for her music career. Her response was definitive: "I will never work for a dictatorship."
In May 2026, the United States special envoy for Cuba, Mike Hammer, met with her in Havana and conveyed greetings from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which raised her international profile.
Amnesty International has drawn attention to Bensi's case for her defense of freedom of expression, while the Cuban regime continues to treat the videos of a 21-year-old woman as a threat to its "sovereignty."
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