Master Mason Francisco Javier Alfonso Vidal, leader until Tuesday of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, informed in a public letter of the reasons that led him to leave office and leave the country. Signed in the “Grand Orient” of the United States, a country where he and his wife have requested asylum, and addressed to his temporary replacement, Armando Guerra Lozano, the letter denounces the infiltration of State Security in the Cuban Masonic leadership and its intention , for several months, to remove him from his post.
This Tuesday, the Grand Lodge of Cuba published a circular in which it explained that Alfonso Vidal had not returned from Mexico, where he was as a guest of the Freemasons of Veracruz, and described his escape as an “unexpected and masonically lamentable” event.
From the United States, the former Grand Master defends himself against those who accuse him of “abandonment of his mission” and recalls that he was elected as a representative of Cuban Freemasonry in an “unquestionable” ceremony from a legal point of view, in addition to pointing out that in At no time did he violate the Masonic principles of succession, as they allege, the Masons infiltrated by State Security. He clarifies that he is retiring due to the impossibility of fulfilling his duty, as defined by the Masonic statutes, with the “total transparency, autonomy and necessary freedom”.
There is a faction related to the Government of Havana within the Grand Lodge, managed by counterintelligence officers, which intends to place a candidate favorable to the regime in office
The position of Grand Master, assumed for the moment by Armando Guerra Lozano -according to Decree 634, the last one signed by Alfonso Vidal-, entails the responsibility of remaining in the position until a partial election is held during an extraordinary session of the masonic directors.
However, Alfonso Vidal assures, there is a faction related to the Government of Havana within the Grand Lodge, managed by counterintelligence officers, which intends to place in office – in violation of the legislation, he argues – a candidate favorable to the regime. .
“I am aware that my removal from office was being orchestrated through an Extraordinary Session in order to achieve a fictitious circumstance (sic) so that Deputy Grand Master H: Fernando González García can illegally occupy the position,” he denounced. Alfonso Vidal in his letter.
González García, according to the circular of the Grand Lodge, was also abroad, but will return, they say, on January 5. The former Grandmaster suspects that his return is motivated by that goal.
Alfonso Vidal considers that the special circular of the institution –signed, in fact, by his substitute– was out of place and manifests a “total contempt of Masonic Legislation”, in addition to manipulating his decision not to return to Cuba and branding his “serious” attitude. Saying, moreover, that they had not communicated with him in the last two weeks is not a “coherent motivation” to assume his resignation without a document issued by the former Grand Master himself.
“What was the ‘serious total abandonment of the position and entrusted functions’ if all the witnesses can attest that I participated in every working day in our friendly power [la logia mexicana]? They don’t have an honest answer, I know,” she asserts.
“What was the ‘serious total abandonment of the position and entrusted functions’ if all the witnesses can attest that I participated in every working day in our friendly power [la logia mexicana]? They don’t have an honest answer, I know.”
The former leader of the Freemasons questions those who are trying to carry out what, in his opinion, is a “coup” with the intervention of the regime’s counterintelligence and agents “who claim to be Freemasons.” “Each and every one of those who will be seen signing, seeking support, trying to win the support of representatives, lodges, opinion leaders, who spent days trying to find me to convey an intimidating message to me, are all collaborators and authors of the treason against Freemasonry and they are going to pay,” he denounced in his letter.
The extensive document also describes in great detail the “attacks” received by Cuban Freemasonry in recent months, and relates them to the active work of several of its members in denouncing government repression during the July 11 protests. of 2021 and those of the summer of 2022.
He mentions, for example, the open letter to Díaz-Canel sent by the teacher José Ramón Viñas Alonso, in which he offered “his opinion on the call for confrontation between Cubans that he made when everything was worse,” which earned him pressure from part of State Security to achieve a retraction.
Another case is that of his predecessor as Grand Master, Ernesto Zamora, who refused to attend a meeting with Díaz-Canel from which they tried to exclude José Ramón Viñas Alonso, who shortly before the authorities had regulated, preventing him from traveling to the United States.
And finally, in December 2021, recalls Alfonso Vidal, the regime considered intolerable the intervention of the Great Speaker Luis Steve Ocaña in which he invited Cuban Freemasons to get involved in politics.
“When one is elected to Grand Master, it is not all that one imagines one has to live and beyond the pressure that being in charge of the fraternal destiny of more than twenty thousand brothers represents, obstacles appear that one has to overcome,” he defended himself. Alfonso Vidal.
The short-term intention, says Alfonso Vidal, was to force him, as Grand Master, to expel Viñas Alonso from the order “under some pretext”
“The fact that the Sovereign Grand Commander [José Ramón Viñas Alonso] become a nuisance for the Government of that country and the repressive organs and see that in many cases it received not only Masonic but profane signs of support [ajenas a la orden] he put State Security on the mission of how to get him out of the way,” he lamented.
The short-term intention, says Alfonso Vidal, was to force him, as Grand Master, to expel Viñas Alonso from the order “under some pretext.” He also said that he had referred this situation to Viñas Alonso on a trip they made together – once their ban was lifted – abroad, “because I did not consider it safe to do so inside Cuba.”
Faced with his refusal to accede to pressure from counterintelligence – an individual who identified himself as Poll made more than 70 intimidating phone calls in one day – Alfonso Vidal made the determination not to go out on the streets without company. In addition, he received several police summonses, in which an officer told him that for more than 40 years State Security has been working to Cuban Freemasonry with its infiltrators.
Fernando González García, the current Deputy Grand Master who will return to Cuba on January 5 “running to carry out orders” is one of those agents, in the opinion of the former dignitary. Other members of the Masonic leadership are part of the “conspiracy” against José Ramón Viñas Alonso, he affirms: Ernesto Zamora, whom he accuses of having apologized to the Communist Party for his opposition to Díaz-Canel, and the current treasurer of the Grand Lodge , Ernesto Navarrete, who “is a policeman”, who suggests that he manages the Masonic funds irregularly.
Taking advantage of a work trip to a Veracruz lodge, he and his wife decided to request political asylum in the US, alleging that they have suffered systematic harassment by State Security in their “Masonic hunt.” His daughter, however, remains in Cuba. For his part, says Alfonso Vidal, José Ramón Viñas Alonso – the main objective of counterintelligence – is “resisting harassment.”
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