The Masonic writer Ángel Santiesteban Prats is besieged in his home, along with the journalist of ‘Cubanet’ Camila Acosta.
Miami, United States. – The repression against Cuban Freemason Cubanet with the condition of protecting your identity. This Friday, the sovereign Great Commander of the Supreme Council of Grade 33 in Cuba, José Ramón Viñas Alonso, was again cited to declare before the security of the State, at the Acosta Police Station and October ten.
“Repression against the Masons grows. At this time, the sovereign José Ramón Viñas Alonso is being questioned by the Political Police by building a file to remove it from the position, in revenge for the letter of the 11J of 2021, against the ‘Combat Order’ against the people,” said Santiesteban-Prats in A Facebook post this Friday.
The writer also reported to be under surveillance: “I am besieged by patrols and repressors so that it does not come to the call for support to the Masons at the police station. The information has arrived [de] They have created [un] I know about the SE POSITION.
A Masonic source confirmed to Cubanet That the new citation of Viñas Alonso is “to give a statement with his lawyer directly”, after, in a previous appearance, “he refused to continue declaring until his lawyer had, which is his right.”
The atmosphere around Acosta police station and October 10 is strong tension, according to the protected source consulted by this means. “Several Masons were meeting there, to show their support [a Viñas Alfonso]”Said.” There are more than 40 Masons there on the outskirts of the station, “he added.
Accusation for “Currency traffickingS “
The new citation occurs in the context of an open criminal case against Viñas Alonso, formally accused of the alleged crime of “currency traffic” after changing 100 dollars in the informal market. The accusation It was revealed by Cubanet Last Wednesdayand has been qualified by members of Freemasonry as a “political retaliation.”
The Masonic writer Sergio Rafael Vidal declared that this money was destined to the asylum Llansó, a Masonic philanthropic institution that serves vulnerable elderly. As he said, the funds “would have been used in a collegiate manner and with approval of the Board of Trustees, to maintain the essential services of the installation.”
The case is part of a series of repressive actions against the main Masonic leaders opposed to former Grand Master Mayker Filema Duarte, who was dismissed by majority on May 25, but continues to be recognized by the Ministry of Justice. Last Tuesday, It transcended That both Viñas Alonso and the great teacher Juan Alberto Kessel Linares were under precautionary measures imposed by state security.
In July 2021, after the historical protests of 11j, Viñas Alonso He sent a public letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel In the name of the Supreme Council, in which he rejected “his position and direction at the head of the country for convening, inciting and ordering a confrontation with violence against the Cuban people.”
The letter, which was not answered by the Government, also expressed: “The members of the Supreme Council of Grade 33 for the Republic of Cuba (…) We assume our historical responsibility of being on the side of the people who suffer.”
Since then, the pressures have increased. The journalist Camila Acosta said that “this has been, in the history of the last 62 years, the most frontal position that Masonry has had next to the people.” In his opinion, “a letter like this needed for people to trust the Masons again.”
