Havana Cuba. – “This is a core issue and extremely dangerous for Freemasonry. A tacit, serious, dangerous interference is uncovered, which can destroy Freemasonry. (…) We are at a critical moment in which we have to take certain attitudes”, assured this Sunday the Sovereign Grand Commander of Freemasonry in Cuba, José Ramón Viñas Alonso, when addressing the Freemasons in the Supreme Council of Cuba.
In this way, the Freemason leader responded to the recent tensions generated within the institution as a result of the resignation of the Grand Master, Francisco Javier Alfonso Vidal, due to pressure from Cuban State Security.
Alfonso Vidal revealed that the political police harassed him and pressured him to send Viñas Alonso to the Supreme Court of Masonic Justice and he was expelled from the Order; In this way, they tried to prevent his leadership within the institution from increasing. In addition, he asserted that the Sovereign had become a nuisance for the Cuban repressive organs as a result of his letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel, shortly after the 9/11 protests, in which he rejected the repression and sided with town side.
Regarding the resignation of the Grand Master and his exile in the United States, Viñas Alonso declared that he would not judge him, that he was somewhat “confused” about it, but that, since he has been linked to himself, he had to pronounce himself. Similarly, he explained that he understood that he may have been afraid of all the harassment he was subjected to, something he and his family have gone through as well.
Before the revelations ―which include both State Security agents and officials of the Grand Lodge of Cuba―, Viñas Alonso said that he had spoken with the current Grand Master, Fernando González (who took office on January 6) and He made it known that the Supreme Council remained “cautious, listening, observing.”
“The Supreme Council, at this time, is not prepared to make determinations regarding everything that is happening and does not judge anything, because we are all Freemasons and we are all interested in the proper functioning and that the situation that has been created is resolved satisfactorily. in the very respectable Grand Lodge of Cuba”, he assured.
He also added that, although what happened was not in the Supreme Council, it “has to do with all the brothers.”
The Grand Lodge governs the degrees from 1 to 3, called symbolic, and the Supreme Council, the degrees from 4 to 33, called philosophical.
The strong tensions could even jeopardize the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between both institutions, by which the Grand Lodge should not get involved in the affairs of the Supreme Court, and vice versa. In the same way, according to the Sovereign, the very existence of the Masonic Order in Cuba is in danger.
The sovereign explained the falsehood of the alleged Masonic crimes that they wanted to use as a pretext for their expulsion. And he assured that Poll, the same State Security officer who besieged Alfonso Vidal, tried to get close to him.
He also claimed to have been subjected to harassment by State Security, which has even extended to his family. Likewise, he reported that he prevented leave the country last year without any explanation, which has been interrogated on several occasions and that the political police have hindered the Freemasons from charitable activities such as a donation of toys to children in a hospital, on January 6, Three Kings Day; as well as hindered a pilgrimage for peace together with the Universal Peace Federation (UPF, for its acronym in English).
Finally, José Ramón Viñas made a call to unite to face the situation. “Freemasonry has a prestige and a history. The only thing we have to be is loyal, to the legacy and to our precepts”, he stated.
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