José Ramón Viñas Alonso took over as lieutenant grand commander, equivalent to the vice presidency within the Order
14ymedio, Havana, September 28, 2026 – The writer, former political prisoner and Cuban opponent of the regime Ángel Santiesteban Prats was elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Republic of Cuba. According to CubaNet, the vote took place last Saturday, September 26, during an extraordinary session held in Havana, and ended with 19 votes in favor and one against.
Santiesteban replaces José Ramón Viñas Alonso, who had headed the Supreme Council since 2015. Following the election, Viñas took over as lieutenant grand commander, a position equivalent to the vice presidency within the Order, and was also declared “sovereign grand commander ad vitam of honor and dignity,” according to CubaNet.
Less than two months ago, Santiesteban was at the center of the dispute with the Ministry of Justice over Viñas’s continued tenure. As grand chancellor of the Supreme Council, he was the one who reported on August 6 that an official from the agency intended to impose a replacement decided by the authorities and called on Freemasons to appear the following day at the headquarters in Centro Habana.
Less than two months ago, Santiesteban was at the center of the dispute with the Ministry of Justice over Viñas’s continued tenure
About a hundred people went to the headquarters of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree in Centro Habana to support Viñas, and the replacement was never carried out. “For the authorities I am not the Sovereign; for my brothers I am,” the leader responded to the Justice official at the time. State Security agents remained in the vicinity of the building.
The confrontation escalated on August 19, when Viñas was summoned to a police station in Havana on charges of “disobedience.” He had refused to hand over the keys to his office and maintained that his position depended exclusively on internal elections. A source close to him told 14ymedio that the police tried to have him detained, although his lawyer managed to prevent it.
The offensive against Viñas dated back to 2025. In May of that year, the Ministry of Justice attempted to recognize Lázaro Cuesta Valdés as head of the Supreme Council and threatened to freeze the institution’s bank accounts if it did not accept the decision. Santiesteban attributed the maneuver to State Security at the time.
In April 2025, Santiesteban was expelled from the symbolic degrees of the Order, but retained degrees 4 through 33, the highest rank of the Scottish Rite. This allowed him to remain within the Supreme Council, from where he continued to denounce the infiltration of State Security into the fraternity.
The clash between Viñas and the regime also has a political precedent. Following the Island-wide 11 July 2021 protests, Viñas endorsed a letter addressed to Miguel Díaz-Canel in which the Supreme Council rejected the “combat order” issued by the president to repress the demonstrators. Since then, members of the Supreme Council have denounced pressure and interrogations against Viñas, as well as attempts to remove him from the institution’s leadership.
Santiesteban, a persistent critic of the Cuban regime, wrote the screenplay for the film Plantados, an approach to the situation of political prisoners following Fidel Castro’s rise to power in January 1959. He has also received the Václav Havel Foundation Award for Creative Dissent.
Translated by Regina Anavy
See also Santiesteban’s blog: https://blogloshijosquenadiequiso.wordpress.com/
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