Anna Bensi Highlights Community Issues with Satirical Commentary: "The Trash Might Prosecute Me"

On Friday, Cuban activist Anna Bensi, whose full name is Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, shared a video on Facebook titled "Welcome to My Neighborhood." In this video, she takes viewers on a tour of the streets of Alamar, Havana, capturing the overwhelming trash accumulation.

In a politically charged jest, Anna quips that she needed permission from the trash before posting the video, "because I wouldn't want the trash to take offense and start legal proceedings against me when people comment on it."

This remark is not merely humorous; Bensi has been facing actual legal charges since March under Article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code, which threatens two to five years of imprisonment for "actions against personal and family privacy."

The charges stemmed from an incident involving Bensi and her mother, Caridad Silvente Laffita, who recorded a MININT officer delivering an unlawful summons at their home. Since March 25, 2026, both women have been under house arrest.

During the two-minute and twelve-second video, the 21-year-old Bensi describes the piles of waste as "beautiful sculptures of refuse that belong to the Cuban family," noting that "every 10 steps there's trash," and sometimes the heaps are so large you "have to take two steps back."

The Political Undertones of Trash

Toward the video's conclusion, Bensi delivers a stinging political metaphor: "Here, we've normalized that the trash is in charge. But ultimately, trash is trash and needs to be disposed of."

She further describes the locals' desperate measures, such as burning the garbage in the streets: "We light it up, a little flame here, a little flame there, to reduce the stench, but it's more smoke—and toxic smoke—than anything else."

When contacting authorities about waste collection, the excuse is consistently the same: a lack of fuel for the trucks, a point Bensi mockingly critiques with surgical precision.

Reality of Waste Crisis in Havana

The waste crisis Bensi illustrates is not an exaggeration. According to Infobae reports, only 44 out of Havana's 106 garbage trucks were operational in 2026 due to diesel shortages, leaving up to 23,814 m³ of waste uncollected daily.

Alamar itself became a protest site on July 8 when residents of Zones 9 and 11 resorted to burning trash in the streets.

The release of Bensi's video coincided with the reopening of her criminal case on July 6, which had been archived in April following a direct complaint from the MININT officer she recorded.

Three days prior, Bensi had been detained for nearly 12 hours at the Alamar police station—four times the legal limit—where officers pressured her to alter her videos.

Upon her release that night, she broke down in tears in front of waiting family and activists who greeted her with applause.

Reflecting on that moment, Bensi stated, "My tears were of frustration, of anger over so many hours of injustice. It wasn't weakness; quite the opposite, all these events have only strengthened my convictions."

As a member of the youth collective "Fuera de la Caja Cuba," Bensi's case has drawn attention from Amnesty International, U.S. Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, and the head of the U.S. Embassy mission in Havana, Mike Hammer.

In mid-July, Bensi urged Cubans to actively engage and overcome fear: "We all have a voice. And if you don't want to be a voice, be an arm or a leg."