AREQUIPA, Peru – The Worshipful Master of the Knights of the Sun lodge, Angel Santiesteban-Prats, was arbitrarily detained before the meeting between Cuban Freemasons and Caridad Diego, head of the Office for Attention to Fraternal and Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Scheduled for 3:00 PM this Thursday, the meeting is to analyze the interference of the State in the internal affairs of the lodges on the Island, as well as resolve the expulsion of Mario Urquía, Grand Master imposed by the regime.
The journalist of CubanetCamila Acosta was preparing to cover the meeting in Havana when she was besieged by agents of the Castro dictatorship who prevented her from leaving her home.
From your Facebook profileThe independent reporter reported that “Angel Santiesteban-Prats must be at that meeting because he is the Worshipful Master of the Knights of the Sun lodge, the highest authority of his lodge.”
“Exactly one week ago, the repressive organs arrested him, without any court order, outside our home to ‘talk’ and warn him that they did not want a ‘scandal’ or for the Masons to resort to the independent press to expose their problems,” wrote Acosta.
According to the journalist, it is State Security the one that “gets its hands in”, tries to manipulate the Masons and impose a Grand Master that responds to its interests, which has turned the case into a political issue.
“The Venerable Masters summoned by Caridad Diego should not accept this meeting while one of their brothers remained kidnapped and whose whereabouts are unknown. It is the most honorable and dignified thing they could do,” he stressed.
A “Masonic” and not a political situation
This Wednesday, 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.
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