Angie, the young Cuban who went viral for directly confronting the leader of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, returned to social media after two weeks of silence to report threats from the Cuban regime against her father, who resides on the Island.
In a video posted on Instagram, Angie explained that she has received a barrage of insults and threatening messages following her confrontation with Roussel, which took place on September 9th during the television show «La Grande Confrontation» («The Great Confrontation» in English) on the French network LCI.
"This demonstrates two things: that Cuba is a dictatorship and that the Cuban communist government, as soon as you are not with them, considers you a terrorist, and that you, the communists, have always been collaborators," he pointed out.
According to his account, some messages crossed any reasonable boundaries, as they are against his family.
"My father is in Cuba and has already received threats and intimidation directly from the Cuban communist government," Angie stated, showing screenshots of those messages. "He did nothing, said nothing. His only crime is having a very curious daughter who has his courage to confront tyranny."
The young woman, who was born in Havana and has been living in France for more than seven years, made it clear: if anything happens to her family on the Island, the Cuban government will be the only one responsible.
Despite the attempts to intimidate her father, Angie will not back down. "I will not be silenced; it would be very shameless of me to do so, because I am in France, the country of freedom and human rights," she stated.
"Even if I am afraid, I will always say: long live freedom and down with communism," he concluded.
The incident that triggered the backlash was her direct question to Roussel in front of the cameras: “Are you not ashamed to support a dictator?”, referring to the French politician's public support for the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel. Roussel refused to use the word "dictator" and called Díaz-Canel "President of the Republic of Cuba," to which Angie responded without hesitation: "He is a dictator; no one elected him."
The video of the confrontation, shared by the program "Quotidien," garnered over 672,000 views on Facebook.
The journalist Jean-Michel Aphatie described Roussel's response as a "XXL lie" and emphasized the exceptional nature of the moment: "I have never seen a leader of the Communist Party confronted by a Cuban woman who had fled her country because her freedom was denied."
After the clip went viral, Angie thanked everyone for their support and promised to continue raising her voice. Her profile surpassed 19,800 followers, and she stated: "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 residing both in Cuba and in exile, 98.5% have suffered threats, sanctions, detentions, or retaliation against family members for 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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