The Christian activist David Espinosa Martínez, known on social media as @DavidSiloetano, reported that ETECSA has kept his phone line blocked despite it being active and paid for.
Espinosa Martínez published a video on Facebook recorded in front of the company's multi-service center located at 17 between B and C, El Vedado, where he went to file the complaint.
"My service is still restricted, and I can't make or receive calls or SMS. (Not to mention the mobile data connection from my home.) I was told that, nationwide, the mobile network has 'conveniently' been down since yesterday, and they don't know when it will be restored," he reported.
"I don’t know what else to do. The idea of going out with a sign demanding that ETECSA restore the service I’m paying for is not an option," he specified.
According to the details provided, the official who assisted him said that he could not file his complaint until the mobile phone network in the country is fixed.
The 38-year-old activist detailed that, like him, their lines are blocked, including Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, his mother Cary Silvente, Pastor Rolando (Herald of Christ), and several other friends. "This is a criminal blockade," he concluded.
The service was cut off after Espinosa was detained while attempting to attend the trial of influencer Anna Bensi and her mother at the People's Municipal Court of East Havana, in Cojímar, and regime agents took him to the police unit in La Lisa to prevent him from arriving.
Since then, they have been unable to make or receive calls, send text messages, or use mobile data normally.
When his relatives attempted to contact him, they heard an automated message: "The mobile number you are calling is switched off or out of coverage area." From another number, the message changed to: "The number you are trying to reach is not reachable."
To refute ETECSA's claim—which attributed the problem to the physical device—Espinosa placed another SIM card in his phone and was able to make calls normally, while his personal number remained unreachable. "My line is not working properly," he concluded in front of the camera.
The situation also affected WhatsApp: most of its outgoing messages were stuck and not being sent.
"I can't call anyone, and no one can call me, neither by SMS nor by regular call," Espinosa stated, adding, "What I simply do is speak the truth on my social media."
He announced that he would go in person to the ETECSA offices to demand the restoration of the service: "I am not going to stay silent this time."
The Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP) reported the case and classified it as a "sustained and selective cutoff of services contracted that impacts their telephone and digital communications," noting that it reflects a pattern of restrictions directed against individuals linked to activism and independent journalism in Cuba.
This is not the first time Espinosa has faced such retaliation. During the night of April 22 to 23, 2026, ETECSA simultaneously deactivated the lines of Espinosa, his wife Laidy García, Anna Bensi, and his mother within a span of just three minutes.
On the same day, October 1st, the evangelical pastor Rolando Fidel Pérez Lora —known as the "Herald of Christ"— was arrested while heading to court to support Anna Bensi, marking his third arrest of the year.
On the same day, the court sentenced Anna Bensi and her mother to two years of restriction of freedom for recording and publishing the visit of a MININT officer to their home. Cubalex documented at least four arrests during the operation deployed around the trial.
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