The independent journalist Camila Acosta reported that agents of the Cuban State Security threatened to send her to prison for recording an official who prevented her from leaving her home. After being detained for more than eight hours on Tuesday, November 3, in Havana, she received a warning document and recovered her completely unusable mobile phone, according to her testimony.
The reporter from CubaNet and correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC provided details on Wednesday, November 4, during a broadcast of Buenos Días CubaNet. She explained that authorities invoked Article 393.1 of the Penal Code, concerning acts against personal and family privacy, a criminal figure related to the case for which Anna Bensi and her mother were convicted.
The video of a State Security agent, the source of the threats
Acosta reported that during the interrogation at the Playa police station, an officer who identified himself as a lieutenant colonel informed him that they would issue a warning report for filming a man dressed in civilian clothes who, on October 28, prohibited him from leaving his home without a court order or identification.
CiberCuba reported on the incident then and the video shared by CubaNet, in which the journalist questioned the man about his authority to restrict her freedom of movement.
According to Acosta, the interrogators told her that the official and his family had received threats after the images circulated on social media, and they intended to hold her accountable for any incident that might occur to them. She denied being responsible for those supposed threats and maintained that she recorded the agent as evidence of a restriction she deemed arbitrary.
"The warning notice they issued to me was for recording this video," she stated during the program. She added that they threatened her with legal action and imprisonment if she continued to document and identify the agents who were watching her.
More than eight hours detained, handcuffed, and unable to call her family
The journalist reported the arrest around 11:45 AM on Tuesday while she was heading to the veterinarian with a cat. She stated that two plainclothes officers and two uniformed police forcibly shoved her into a patrol car, handcuffed her with her hands behind her back, and took her to the Playa police station.
Acosta stated that she remained for about half an hour inside the patrol car parked under the sun, still handcuffed, and that she was later taken to a cell in poor hygienic conditions. She also claimed that during her detention, she was repeatedly denied the opportunity to call her family.
In his account, he described contradictions in the documents mentioned to him: he said that one note referred to "counter-revolutionary activities," while the detention record referred to "incitement to commit a crime." He clarified, however, that what they ultimately handed him was a warning notice, which he refused to sign.
Her arrest and subsequent release had already been reported by CiberCuba. Her husband, the writer Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, spent hours without knowing her whereabouts until the journalist was able to get in touch with him when she was released, around eight in the evening.
"That's how they returned my phone: completely useless."
One of the new elements of her complaint is the condition of the phone she had when she was arrested. Acosta claimed that the officers kept it during her detention and returned it to her non-functional. She stated that she tried to charge it overnight but was unable to turn it on.
In a Facebook post accompanied by photographs, she showed remnants of a greenish substance on parts of the device and wrote: "This is how my phone was returned to me: completely useless."
The journalist suspects that a liquid, possibly corrosive, was applied to harm him. Acosta believes the deterioration is a retaliation for using his mobile phone to document the actions of State Security.
What is the connection to the case of Anna Bensi?
Article 393.1 of the Cuban Penal Code (Law 151 of 2022) is the provision cited, according to Acosta, by the agents who interrogated her. The journalist stated that they threatened her with prison sentences, including up to five years for aggravated situations.
The similarity noted by the journalist is that Anna Bensi and her mother, Caridad Silvente, were sentenced on October 1 to two years of limited liberty in a case arising from the recording and dissemination of images of an agent from the Ministry of the Interior who came to their home.
In Acosta's case, so far it is just a warning and threats of a potential process, not a conviction or formal criminal charges that have been substantiated. The journalist insists that she will continue documenting the restrictions she considers illegal: "It's the only evidence I have for tomorrow if something happens to me."
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