International Nonviolence Day, Mohandas Gandhi, Cuba, and the Power of Truth

 International Nonviolence Day, Mohandas Gandhi, Cuba, and the Power of Truth

Cuban journalist Yeris Curbelo Aguilera

Today, October 2nd, is the International Day of Nonviolence that marks the 157th anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi’s birth. The 1999 documentary series “A Force More Powerful” explores the power of nonviolent resistance around the world over a sixty year time span. The first chapter embedded below begins in India with Gandhi’s movement for independence from British rule.

 

This CubaBrief seeks to demonstrate how this is related to the ongoing freedom struggle in Cuba.

 

 

A False Duality

There is a false duality in the argument about bringing change to Cuba: either you prefer a violent bloody war that precipitates swift political change or you favor a slow and incremental transition launched by the dictatorship. It is a false dichotomy because, since 1976, Cubans on the island have opted for a third option: nonviolent resistance from the bottom up through civil disobedience movements using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a shared reference point.

The decision to embrace the UDHR is not a haphazard decision but one rooted deep in Cuba’s democratic history. It was Cuban diplomats in the 1940s who led the successful effort to draft and ratify this document at the United Nations.

This is a long and painful struggle, and that should not be overlooked, nor should the fact that these courageous individuals refuse to be passive in the face of injustice, but instead actively confront it.

Protests underway in Cuba

The Anna Bensi affair

 

Gene Sharp’s framework in The Politics of Nonviolent Action groups 198 methods into protest and persuasion (largely symbolic communication of dissent), noncooperation (withdrawal of social, economic, or political compliance), and nonviolent intervention (direct disruption of normal activity). Gandhian satyagraha adds a principled layer: refusal to inflict harm (ahimsa), insistence on a publicly stated truth, and readiness to accept the costs of the action oneself rather than impose them on others. 

 

Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente (Anna Bensi), a 21-year-old Baptist content creator, and her mother, Caridad Silvente, went on trial on October 1, 2026 at the Municipal Popular Court of Havana del Este in Cojímar. They were charged under Article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code with “acts against personal and family privacy” for recording and posting a March 2026 video of a plainclothes Ministry of the Interior officer who came to their Alamar home to deliver a State Security summons. The court convicted both and imposed two years of restriction of liberty (a non-custodial sentence that includes limits on movement, a ban on leaving the country, and obligations to appear when summoned). 

 

In the hours and days immediately before the hearing, and outside the courthouse that morning, the visible action was organized accompaniment and public religious solidarity rather than a street blockade or cacerolazo. Catholic nun Sor Nadieska Almeida issued a statement (circulated by Father Alberto Reyes) calling the proceeding unjust and urging Christians to offer a “real presence”—to be there, support, and accompany the two women so that unity would be visible.