By insert a silence do you mean:
1a. break the audio, have silence then pick up the audio where you left off, making 2 audio regions with a gap between
1b. as 1a but still have 1 audio region
2a. silence a part of the audio file that currently has sound, but not affect the original audio file
2b. as 2a but save the silence in the audio file
1 and 2 need totally different methods, whereas the a and b of each require slightly extra work.
all can easily be done.