The Cuban influencer and activist Anna Bensi published a video on Instagram this Tuesday, in which she harshly denounced the double standards of the Cuban regime, just two weeks after she and her mother were sentenced to two years of restricted freedom for recording the visit of an Interior Ministry agent to their home.
The video, set in the iconic room of El4tico, garnered over 61,000 "likes" and 3,400 comments in just a few hours. In it, the influencer addressed three recent events: her appearance on the state-run show Con Filo, the act of repudiation organized in front of her house during the visit of the U.S. diplomat Mike Hammer, and the arrest of the man who peacefully protested with a sign in front of the Capitol in Havana.
The irony that runs throughout the message is striking: Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente (Anna Bensi) was sentenced on October 1 for allegedly revealing the identity of a police officer, while the media and official profiles are free to respond to the call of power to attack her, defame her, and publicly ridicule her without any consequence.
“Where is the space on national television to respond to this type of discourse? Where is the microphone with the same official support to question and refute their defamations? Where is the true debate, without censorship, without filters?” asked the 21-year-old, directly referring to the program Con Filo — a segment of Cubavisión hosted by the lawyer Michel E. Torres Corona — which used her image to attack her.
"On national television, you have all the freedom in the world to say what the Communist Party permits you to," he mocked.
About the act of repudiation on October 6, when supporters of the regime gathered in front of his building in Alamar while the American diplomat Mike Hammer was visiting, Anna proposed a thought experiment: "What would happen if a group of Cubans organized and went to the home of a regime leader to shout slogans, harass them, record it, and then post it on Facebook to celebrate the feat? What do you think the Ministry of Justice would do?"
And he added: «Or do they suddenly remember that the law exists?»
The activist described the episode not as a display of strength, but of weakness: «A regime that needs to intimidate those who criticize and question it in their own homes is not demonstrating authority; it is demonstrating cowardice, showing that they are desperate and afraid of freedom».
The third focus of the video refers to the case of Ariel Limias Leyva, a painter and former Pentecostal pastor arrested on October 2 after displaying a sign with the phrases "Down with the dictatorship" and "Freedom" on the steps of the Capitol in Havana, and later taken to Villa Marista, the headquarters of State Security, where he faces charges of enemy propaganda against the constitutional order with penalties of up to 10 years.
A man, a sign, a phrase. And what was the regime's response? Political police and detention. Wow! What a strong regime! What bravery! They tremble at a little piece of cardboard, Bensi noted.
This Tuesday, the former cultural official Abel Prieto shared a caricature on Facebook depicting Bensi as a "mercenary" linked to Hammer, a post that sparked a wave of criticism against him in the comments.
Benítez Silvente and her mother, Caridad Silvente Laffita, have been under house arrest and prohibited from leaving Cuba since March 25. The People's Municipal Court of East Havana found them guilty under Article 393 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes acts against "personal and family privacy, personal image and voice, identity of other people and their data".
The dictatorship does not want citizens, it wants blind obedience, and since they do not know how to persuade, they resort to repression and deceit, but the lie will collapse under its own weight, and this weight will crush them. Freedom for Cuba, concluded the young activist.
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