Some encourage, others discourage. But we move forward!

The criminal communist regime that oppresses and represses the Cuban people has intensified its repressive and intimidating actions in recent days. It seeks to paralyze the growing demonstrations of a people weary of oppression and misery. A people that wants to live with rights, in freedom, in democracy, and with well-being. A people fed up with power outages, the health crisis, unsanitary conditions, shortages of food and water, the collapse of transportation, the deterioration of housing, and the lack of resources of all kinds.

Yesterday, the "Popular Municipal Court" of Havana del Este sentenced Ana Sofía Benítez Silvente, known as Anna Bensi, and her mother, Caridad Silvente Laffita, to two years of restricted freedom. They were found guilty of "acts against personal and family privacy" for recording and disseminating the visit of an agent from the Ministry of the Interior who came to their home in Alamar to deliver a summons from State Security. They did not wield a weapon. They held a phone to defend themselves from harassment for thinking and expressing opinions different from those of those who tyrannize the nation.

The sentence sought to intimidate those who express themselves with courage. However, it backfired. Dozens of Christians from various denominations gathered outside the court. The repressive force violently detained Pastor Rolando Pérez Lora, the Herald of Christ, as he was going to join them and held others back to prevent many from arriving. They did not succeed. It was a symbol of dignity to see those Christians praying in the street for Anna Sofía, for her mother, and for Cuba, and to hear that Cuba is for Christ. To say that is to say that Cuba is not for the diabolical work of the Castro family.

On the same day, the regime announced the prosecutor's request against the young people from Holguín involved in the El4tico project. The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Holguín is requesting eight years of imprisonment for Ernesto Ricardo Medina and ten years for Kamil Zayas Pérez, for propaganda against the constitutional order, defamation of institutions and the so-called heroes and martyrs, and instigation to commit crimes. The Provincial Court has ordered an oral trial. They have been in provisional detention for eight months, arrested since February 6, for expressing from a room what millions think but remain silent about.

The message is clear: either they remain silent and suffer in silence, or they end up in prison. And Cuban prisons are a hell, Nazi-style concentration camps in the twenty-first century. This too will lead to their failure. They arrest one, and ten raise their voices. They arrest ten, and a hundred speak out. One cannot live with dignity in silence when the regime allows our elderly to die of hunger and lack of medical attention, and imprisons those who ask for electricity, food, or water. Living on your knees in the face of injustice is immoral. It is disgraceful.

The regime knows this. In the fifth chapter of "The Art of War," Sun Tzu teaches that when an army has the momentum of force, even the timid become brave, and when that momentum is lost, even the brave can turn timid. This is why it is not enough for them to repress, condemn, and subject people to extreme hunger and all kinds of torture. To kill the momentum, they deploy their agents online to confuse, criticize, defame, slander, and dishearten. They undermine the merit of every worthy and brave action. They are already calling into question the legitimacy and dignity of Ana Sofía Benítez Silvente, as if raising one's voice were a flaw rather than a virtue.

Yesterday, while some were praying in Havana, a considerable number of Cubans made a tremendous effort and traveled all the way to Washington. They demonstrated in support of the U.S. administration's maximum pressure policy against the Castro regime and urged the President of the United States to take action to liberate Cuba, under the slogan "Do it, Trump, do it." They came from far and wide, on a weekday, despite the distance and their commitments. I greatly wished to be there, but I was in Mexico, and while the demonstration took place, I was flying to New Jersey. That is why I couldn't attend. Hundreds, thousands, would have liked to be there but couldn't. We were there in spirit and supported the hundreds who did make it through social media.

Those responsible for stifling the momentum are already saying it was a failure: whether there were four, ten, or a hundred. It doesn't matter if there were a hundred, two hundred, or five hundred. What matters is that there were people. What matters is that there are patriotic Cubans concerned about the crisis that Castro-communism has imposed on the people— a crisis that kills the elderly, women, children, and people of all ages: extreme hunger, infectious diseases, medication shortages, poor medical care, non-potable water, and various shortages, along with the lack of rights and brutal repression. That is a crime.

Those who focus on shortcomings and failures in everything, whether consciously or unconsciously, work for tyranny. They play into its hands. It is shameful that, when so many are dying and so many have been forced to leave their country, there are those who discourage and try to crush the necessary momentum for victory. It is even more disgraceful to see Cubans who left in search of freedom and a better life dedicating themselves to maliciously criticizing every effort for liberty, democracy, and the well-being of those who remain on the Island.

We must support all those who fight and sacrifice on the front lines. To the more than eight hundred forty political prisoners in jails and all those sanctioned for political reasons, totaling more than one thousand three hundred, to those from El4tico, to Anna Sofía and her mother, and to the Christians who went to support them. To Alexander Verdecia Rodríguez, imprisoned for the fourth time due to his activism. To Roilán Álvarez Rensoler, imprisoned again in Holguín. To Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, mother of five, sentenced to fourteen years for the events of July 11. To Félix Navarro, a symbol of Cuban resistance, and to his daughter Saylí Navarro. It is not about supporting some more than others. It is about supporting them all, with the greatest momentum, because solidarity is essential for any just cause to succeed.

We must support those who remain in the streets of Cuba, the peaceful opponents, the dissenters, the independent journalists, the mothers who bravely protest and block roads, the citizens who demonstrate and publish on social media. The key is to unite in a single, strong, and dynamic front that energetically confronts tyranny on all fronts.

To dedicate oneself to discouraging, discrediting, misinforming, and confusing those Cubans who seek a free, democratic, just, and prosperous Cuba is cowardly, infamous, and shameful. We must fight against it. We cannot allow these campaigns to kill enthusiasm and turn the brave into the timid. Some encourage. Others discourage. The regime bets on fear and confusion. The people bet on refusing to be silenced. That is why we move forward and we will triumph.