HAVANA, Cuba. – At least four Masonic lodges on the island were suspended by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, Mario Alberto Urquía Carreño, whom they do not recognize in that position and, therefore, they disobey.
CubaNet This information was confirmed by decrees issued by Urquía Carreño on July 27.
The lodges suspended are “Evolution”, from the province of Artemisa; and “General Guillermo Moncada”, “Luz de Marianao” and “Carlos Manuel de Céspedes”, from Havana.
According to Urquía Carreño, the agreement between the lodges would violate both the Legislation and the Masonic Constitution and the Ancient Limits of Freemasonry. Therefore, he decided to suspend them until the next session of the Upper House.
The sanction was imposed four days after the Massive protest of freemasons outside Urquía Carreño’s office, in the Grand Lodge of Cuba.
On Tuesday, July 23, around two hundred Masons gathered at the building of the Grand Lodge of Cuba to demand that the Grand Master step down from his post, as well as an end to interference by the Ministry of Justice (MINJUS) in their internal affairs.
Although Urquía Carreño was expelled from the Order at the end of January this year for “betraying” its principles, the MINJUS reinstated him in office at the beginning of June, alleging that violations had been committed in the process. More than a hundred Masonic lodges have rejected Urquía Carreño’s appointment.
Two days after the protest, at a meeting of the Supreme Councilthe Masons reiterated their rejection of the Grand Master, despite threats from State Security to some Masons.
“This is not a political situation, but rather a ‘Masonic’ one,” said the Sovereign Grand Commander (SGC), José Ramón Viñas Alonso, at the meeting.
State Security Intrusions
At the meeting, the SGC narrated that State Security agents had warned him during a recent interrogation that Mario Urquía Carreño would be around “for a while.” On the other hand, the writer, former political prisoner and high-ranking Mason Ángel Santiesteban Prats, who was arrested by the political police hours before the July 25 meeting, told CubaNet that the officers who arrested him assured him that they would allow the Masons to resolve their problems internally.
On the same day that Urquía Carreño issued sanctions to the lodges that agreed not to recognize him, the Grand Secretary, Juliannis Reinaldo Galano Gómez, circulated information among Masonic groups that they were preparing an extraordinary session of the Upper House (Legislative Branch).
“It is hereby reported that a request was submitted to the MINJUS to hold an extraordinary session on August 18 of this year, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, by MRGM IH Mario A. Urquia Carreño; it was unsuccessful. Instead, another request was submitted for the date of September 21, 2024, the Saturday before the ordinary session. The official call will be circulated when the MINJUS approves this request,” says the statement to which the MINJUS had access. CubaNet.
Several sources assured this newspaper that the call for August 18 did not proceed because the Eastern Masons “did not lend themselves to it.”
“It was the Upper House of the 24th of March that, in compliance with his expulsion from the Supreme Council, did not allow him to open the session. Now the MINJUS wants to force us to start a new process against him, but we did everything right; he is now expelled and there is no turning back. He has to go. We Masons will decide who represents us and, in no way, will it be that man,” said a Mason who chose to remain anonymous.
According to a notice from the Grand Lodge of Cuba, located on the information mural at the entrance to the National Masonic Building, this Thursday all the Venerable Masters (presidents of the lodges) are summoned to a meeting with Caridad Diego, head of the Office of Attention to Fraternal and Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, which will take place at the Government headquarters in Old Havana.
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