Havana Cuba. — The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba of AL and AM, Francisco Javier Alfonso Vidal, formally resigned this Tuesday from his investiture and announced that he was in the United States, where he and his wife requested political asylum due to the harassment of Cuban State Security in recent months with the aim of serving their interests, betraying a Freemason brother.
“Cuban Freemasons have the right to know that our Institution is under one of the biggest attacks it has received in recent years since January 1, 1959. (…) It is likely that another in my place would have taken a different exit, but this is mine. The situation has become more and more complex, ”he said through missive sent to Armando Guerra Lozano, Grand Master Pro Tempore, and made public on his Facebook profile.
Alfonso Vidal explained that there have been several events that led to his departure from the country and resignation, among them, the economic, social and political instability of the country, mainly since the protests of July 11 (July 11), 2021, when José Ramón Viñas Alonso, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Republic of Cuba (body that, together with the Grand Lodge, governs Freemasonry in Cuba), published a letter sent to the Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel, rejecting the repression of the protests. This prompted State Security to summon and question him. A month later, the then Grand Master, Ernesto Zamora Fernández, due to pressure from the Freemasons, refused to attend a meeting with Díaz-Canel to which the Sovereign had not been invited with the aim of humiliating him and dividing Freemasonry. on the island.
In this regard, Alfonso Vidal revealed that Zamora, who “sells the image of resistance,” apologized for that to the authorities of the Communist Party of Cuba and State Security and “cleansed himself by accusing Master Mason Brian before the Supreme Court Infante, from the Respectable Luz Caballero Lodge and resident in Spain, because he made politics against the government through social networks and, taking advantage of the fact that he mentioned Freemasonry, sacrificed him as proof of loyalty.
The pressures of State Security on the highest representatives of Freemasonry increased since 11J. In May of last year, Viñas Alonso was prevented from traveling to the United States to participate in a Masonic event, in order to avoid his possible participation in the Summit of the Americas that would take place a few days later. While the Cuban president called “surrenders and annexationists” those who remembered May 20, the day of the proclamation of the Republic of Cuba, a commemorative act was held in the Grand Lodge and, four months later, the High Chamber (legislative branch of the Grand Lodge) approves that a letter be sent to Díaz-Canel requesting that May 20 be taken as the official national date. As a climax to these confrontations, on December 5, 2022, through a public act held at the Grand Lodge of Cuba on the occasion of the celebration of the 163rd anniversary of the founding of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, the Grand Speaker, Luis Steve Ocaña, called on the freemasons to “do politics”.
the sinister plan
The Grand Master, invested as such in March 2022 after the elections, explained that Viñas Alonso “became a nuisance for the government” due to his pronouncements and the support he received on and off the Island. For this reason, the State Security constantly summoned him and even intercepted him on public roads in order to pressure him to expel him from the Order.
“(…) this Freemason who writes to you received more than 70 calls in a month made by an individual who calls himself Poll. (…) This character intercepted me several times on the street, which is why I took the step of walking with my wife, and on several occasions they summoned me to Calle E No.456 between 19 and 21 in Vedado. According to this State Security officer, he has been working in Freemasonry for 40 years and assures that there are Freemasons who work for them, which is a shame, ”he explained.
Regarding the complicity of Freemasons with State Security for his plans, he revealed several names, among them the current Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, Fernando González García, who intends to have him assume the Grand Master’s degree in the coming days; Ramón Gustavo Buelga Rivero, who was to replace the Sovereign once he was expelled; the Chief of Office of the Grand Lodge H. Lázaro Palancar; the Venerable Master of the Luz de Oriente lodge, Carlos Lorenzo Pérez, “who pretends to be a friend of the Sovereign and works for State Security”; and the Grand Secretary, Carlos Alberto Pirez Benítez, who “enjoys very good relations with the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.”
In the same way, the current Grand Treasurer, Ernesto Navarrete, “everyone in Freemasonry knows and says in the corridor that he is a policeman and he was the one who tried to probe the impact of the pressure they applied to me and he made a comment in my presence as if he knew that I was not going to return, which makes me think that the increase in intensity was well thought out to get me out of my senses and was well prepared. The Grand Treasurer was also informed by a worker from the Grand Treasury that he was taking money out of his salary”.
For this Freemason, “everything became more unbearable due to the constant pressure and my refusal to carry out this objective of State Security”, that of expelling the Sovereign Grand Commander from the Order.
Coup
This Monday the Grand Lodge of Cuba issued a special circular in which they notified that Alfonso Vidal had not returned to the country after an official trip to Mexico, that they had not been able to communicate with him and, therefore, declared that he “abandoned his mission.”
In this regard, Alfonso Vidal affirms in his letter that it is a “total contempt of Masonic Legislation” because, “with no further proof than not having contacted me in the last 14 days, in the middle of the year-end recess of Freemasonry in Cuba, a resignation not presented or signed by me is assumed, and it is intended in an incomprehensible way that a Deputy Grand Master without the power to do so removes from the position a Pro Tempore Grand Master appointed in accordance with the Law and that for the territory of Cuba right now is the one who exercises executive functions”.
Before his trip to Mexico, by decree, this Grand Master had designated as Grand Master, temporarily, the Grand Master of Ceremonies, Armando Guerra Lozano, a decree that remains in force.
Alfonso Vidal also states that “a Circular of any kind is a government instrument nor does it have legal force to go above a Decree, a document that also does not question whether I am safe, in some type of conflict situation or even lifeless As long as this is not demonstrated, or this resignation does not arrive, or a relevant time of work has elapsed, not even resigning the Grand Master designated by me, the Deputy Grand Master could take possession of the Grand Lodge because I would still be constitutionally in the position”.
For this reason, it considers that it is a “coup d’état” by officials of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, the same ones who, according to what he explained, collaborate with or are State Security agents, with the aim of putting the front of the Institution to Fernando González García, current Deputy Grand Master, someone related to his interests, capable of collaborating and betraying the precepts of the Order, instead of calling early elections.
“It remains in the hands of the authentic Cuban Freemasons not to allow any of this to happen and that once they know the increasingly growing influence that State Security seeks to exercise in our Institution, someone probably linked to these bodies is not allowed to reach the Market Stall. The Sovereign has resisted the harassment, I was pressured to betray and I am paying dearly, but much less than if I had done it and I take responsibility for my actions, it is up to history to judge my past and future actions in due measure, but My son and my family are left behind, who should not be reached by the weight of my actions and whoever collaborates, inquires about me to inform, or pressures them in any way is treasonous and worthless and I hold them fully responsible, and now the Masonic world knows it, I do not have to keep ways to men who sold their word and their character to the highest bidder in the most filthy way. Be careful, there are many hidden but I also trust all those good men who, although they think differently from each other, respect and love Freemasonry as one of the greatest things in their lives. From now on, you can have faith that we are not liked by those who rule in that country, ”he concluded.
Since 1960, when the Freemasons still enjoyed greater strength, something similar did not happen. The then Grand Master, Juan José Tarajano González, went into exile in the United States, from where he denounced the intimidation, terror and “the threats that weigh on those who repudiate the communist doctrine.” Tarajano was supported in his abandonment of the country by the Grand Secretary, Eduardo R. López Bobadilla, the Grand Hospitaller, Obdulio R. López Milián, and the Grand Treasurer, Manuel Cuesta López, a situation that was resolved with the call for early elections.
The current exile of the Grand Master demonstrates the interest of State Security in controlling the more than twenty thousand Cuban Freemasons active on the Island, the confrontations that are taking place between the Order and the political police and, above all, the questioning process that is taking place among the Freemasons regarding their role in a dictatorship like the Cuban one.
OPINION ARTICLE
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