The influencer reports threats against her sister and the blocking of her WhatsApp account
14ymedio, Havana, April 9, 2026 / Mike Hammer, head of the U.S. mission to Cuba, visited content creator Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known online as Anna Bensi, at her home in Alamar, Havana, on Tuesday. The meeting took place amid the ongoing criminal proceedings against the young woman and her mother, Caridad Silvente, and the continued harassment of her family by Cuban authorities.
“It was a great pleasure to finally meet Anna Sofía Benítez and her mamá. They told me about their situation and that they are under house arrest,” Hammer wrote after the meeting. The diplomat added that the young woman told him that “all she has done is express her ideas, her faith, and her aspirations as a Cuban who loves her country.” “She is a brave young woman who speaks her mind. She is admirable,” he concluded.
The pressure on her inner circle intensified just hours after the visit. This Thursday, her sister, Elmis Rivero Silvente, a U.S. citizen who has been visiting Cuba for several days, was summoned to the Immigration Unit in the Playa municipality under the pretext of an “interview for immigration control of her stay,” according to Cubanet. During the questioning, officers tried to determine if she had coordinated Hammer’s visit to the family home in Alamar.
According to the same media, the conversation quickly escalated into threats. Rivero stated that the agents warned him that both Anna Bensi and her mother could end up in prison and asked him to speak “especially” to his sister “to make her shut up, to stop denouncing the regime and speaking freely.” The officers also attempted to portray the diplomat’s visit as a provocation and even alluded to a supposed US invasion of Cuba, in another attempt to frame a case of political harassment within the regime’s defensive rhetoric.
Hammer arrived accompanied by Leslie Núñez Goodman, counselor of the Office of Education, Culture and Press of the diplomatic headquarters
Hammer has spent over a year traveling around Cuba, meeting with activists, religious leaders, independent journalists, and opposition members. His visit to Anna Bensi is part of this series of meetings with Cubans under surveillance, pressure, or persecution for political reasons.
The meeting on Tuesday also took place during a power outage. Hammer arrived accompanied by Leslie Núñez Goodman, counselor at the Office of Education, Culture, and Press of the diplomatic mission. Also present at the residence were the young woman’s mother, her sister Elmis Rivero Silvente, and Pastor Rolando Pérez, known as el Pregonero de Cristo [Herald of Christ].
Anna Bensi has become one of the most visible young voices on social media in Cuba. Through platforms like Instagram and TikTok, she has denounced abuses, expressed her religious convictions, and defended a vision of the country openly contrary to the official narrative. According to her own account, her exposure began to grow with a video in which she denounced the obstacles she faced in receiving her university degree after graduating. Later, she also ventured into music with “Mi Tierra” (My Land), a song dedicated to Cuba and Christ, which has already appeared on Billboard’s recommendation list.
The mother and daughter were reportedly prosecuted after recording and posting a video showing two men in civilian clothes delivering an official summons to Caridad Silvente. Authorities allege that one of the men, a non-commissioned officer from the Ministry of the Interior, felt “threatened” after his identity was revealed. The accusation, however, reinforces the impression that the case is not intended to protect individual rights, but rather to punish the public exposure of agents linked to the repressive apparatus.
The young woman said she felt “disgusted by this whole situation, by all the repression,” but stressed that her faith, her conviction, and her ideals “remain stronger than ever.”
Far from softening her discourse, Anna Bensi has responded with more directness. This Wednesday, she reported that her WhatsApp account had been suspended. “It won’t let me log in; when I request the code, it doesn’t arrive on my number. And when people message me, it appears as if I’ve delivered the messages,” she wrote. The young woman said she felt “disgusted by this whole situation, by all the repression,” but emphasized that her faith, her conviction, and her ideals “remain stronger than ever.”
During the meeting with Hammer, she insisted that she doesn’t believe she’s doing anything wrong. “I’m calm because I’m convinced I’m doing the right thing, that I’m on the right side,” she stated. She also expressed her desire for a Cuba where young people don’t have to emigrate to aspire to a decent life and where they can express themselves without fear of repression.
At the end of the visit, Hammer presented Anna Bensi with a small bell as a symbol of the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. The young woman, in turn, sang them a song in English. The gesture does not alter her legal status nor stop the harassment. But it leaves an image that will be difficult for the regime to neutralize: that of a 21-year-old woman, monitored and prosecuted for speaking out, receiving in her home, in the midst of a blackout, a foreign diplomat interested in hearing precisely what the regime is trying to silence.
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