Christian denominations express support for influencer and her mother

Four of the largest registered Protestant denominations in Cuba published separate statements on 30 September expressing solidarity with a social media content creator and her mother whose trial is scheduled for 1 October 2026. Both are facing criminal charges and possible imprisonment.

Written statements from the Assemblies of God, the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba (CBCO), The Evangelical League of Cuba and the Methodist Church of Cuba in support of 21-year old Christian influencer Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente and her mother Caridad Silvente Laffita were circulated on social media. The two women are facing a possible sentence of two years in prison for violating the ‘personal and family privacy’ of a government official after Ms Benítez Silvente, who goes by Anna Bensi online, recorded a Department of State Security (DSE) officer issuing her mother with a summons at their home on 10 March 2026.

Ms Benítez Silvente, who lives with her mother in the Alamar sector of Havana, was initially placed under house arrest and banned from leaving the country. The case against her and her mother was reopened in April after a heated online interaction with the national coordinator of the Committee in Defense of the Revolution (CDR). In July she obeyed a summons to the East Havana Police Station and was subjected to an interrogation by DSE officers that lasted over ten hours. A court hearing was scheduled for 17 September but was postponed.

The DSE officer who brought the case against her and her mother is demanding an apology from Ms Benítez Silvente, maintaining that she violated his right to privacy and that he feels threatened after he was identified on social media. His lawyer is requesting that they be given a two-year prison sentence.

In its statement, the governing board of the CBCO confirmed that Ms Benítez Silvente and her mother are both full members of the denomination and declared that they ‘…possess a powerful testimony of Christian life. They are not delinquents, attackers, drug dealers, terrorists or mercenaries … In the midst of so much crime [committed with] impunity in Cuba, it is not acceptable that they should be condemned to prison. Due to a basic sense of justice we cannot, do not want to and will not leave them on their own. On an island that is falling apart, characterised by hunger, illness, unhealthiness, by scarcity of water, electricity and medicine, apathy and a lack of protection from the police, the imprisonment of these two innocent and righteous women will be the drop that causes the cup to overflow.’

CSW’s Director of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘CSW stands in agreement with the Assemblies of God, the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, the Evangelical League of Cuba and the Methodist Church of Cuba, and in solidarity with Anna Benítez Silvente and Caridad Silvente Laffita. Anna Bensi and her mother are being targeted by the Cuban Communist Party for their efforts to peacefully exercise their fundamental right to freedom of expression. It is ridiculous to suggest that these two women should spend two years in prison because a State Security officer, who is part of an institution that has terrorised its own people for decades, claims he felt unsafe after he was recorded carrying out an act of government intimidation. The co-ordinated statements from four of the largest registered Christian denominations in Cuba on behalf of two individuals unjustly targeted by the government is unprecedented and not without risk. CSW calls on members of the international community to urge the Cuban government to drop all charges against Anna Bensi and her mother and to make it clear that any threats or other reprisals against those responsible for these statements are unacceptable.’