Angie, the young Cuban who went viral for directly addressing the leader of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, has returned to social media after two weeks of silence to denounce threats from the Cuban regime against her father, who remains on the Island.
In a video posted on Instagram, Angie explains that she has received an avalanche of insults and intimidating messages following her confrontation with Roussel, which took place on September 9 on the television show «La Grande Confrontation» on the French network LCI.
"This demonstrates two things: that Cuba is a dictatorship and that the Cuban communist government considers anyone who is not with them to be a terrorist, and that you, the communists, have always been collaborators," he points out.
According to the account, some messages exceeded any reasonable limit because they were directed against his family.
"My father is in Cuba and has already received threats and intimidation directly from the Cuban communist government," claims Angie, showing screenshots of those messages. "He did nothing, he said nothing. His only crime is having a very curious daughter who carries his courage to confront tyranny."
The young woman, born in Havana and residing in France for over seven years, makes it clear: if anything happens to her family on the Island, the Cuban government will be solely responsible.
"And it does not announce any step back. 'I will not be silenced; it would be very cheeky of me to do so, because I am in France, the country of freedom and human rights,' he concludes. 'Even if I am afraid, I will always say: long live freedom and down with communism.'"
The episode that triggered the reprisals was her direct question to Roussel on camera: “Aren’t you embarrassed to support a dictator?”, referring to the French politician's public support for Miguel Díaz-Canel. Roussel refused to use the word “dictator” and referred to Díaz-Canel as the “President of the Cuban Republic,” to which Angie replied without hesitation: “He is a dictator; no one elected him.”
The video of the confrontation, shared by the program "Quotidien," amassed over 672,000 views on Facebook.
The journalist Jean-Michel Aphatie described Roussel's response as a "XXL lie" and emphasized the uniqueness of the moment: "I have never seen a leader of the Communist Party confronted by a Cuban woman who had fled her country because she was deprived of freedom."
After the clip went viral, Angie expressed her gratitude for the support received and promised to continue raising her voice. Her profile surpassed 19,800 followers, and she declared: "I am Cuban, and as long as I have a voice, I will continue to raise it for my people." However, the public exposure brought immediate consequences for her family in Cuba.
What Angie is denouncing is a common practice of the regime. According to a report by Prisoners Defenders based on 200 testimonies from Cubans living both in Cuba and in exile, 98.5% experienced threats, sanctions, detentions, or reprisals against their family members due to their digital activities.
The organization Cubalex described this mechanism as "repression by association": when the critical individual resides abroad, their family in Cuba becomes the primary target of pressure.
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