Gustavo Pardo regrets the “inability of the brotherhood to solve its internal problems”
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 2 August 2024 — The Communist Party refrained from making decisions this Thursday during the meeting that the head of Religious Affairs of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP), Caridad Diego, held with a group of Freemasons from the capital. Grand Master Mario Urquía Carreño, protagonist of the schism that divides the brotherhood, did not participate in the meeting. Caridad Diego limited herself to declaring that she “did not know anything about what was happening” before a public that had been stripped of their cell phones. She said that the fate of Freemasonry is the responsibility of the Registry of Associations, which depends on the Ministry of Justice.
In contact with several of the participants in the meeting, historian and Freemason Gustavo Pardo informed 14ymedio that the Party and the Ministry of Justice will make decisions about the Freemasons, but from now on “they will follow the guidelines provided by Caridad Diego.” For their part, the Freemasons have scheduled an extraordinary session for next September 21 in the Great Masonic National Temple, located on Reina Street in Havana, with a thorough agenda signed by the secretary of the Grand Lodge, Juliannis Reinaldo Galano.
Among the 54 points to be addressed will be a series of “motions outside the day’s agenda” that could, in Pardo’s opinion, address the heart of the crisis: the authority of Urquía Carreño, accused of the theft of $19,000 from his office and whose successive expulsions and rehabilitations have led to an unprecedented Masonic crisis.
“On the point related to motions outside the day’s agenda, several measures can be presented that can put Urquía Carreño in an awkward position,” Pardo said in an article published this Friday. He also noted that whatever decision is made by the Registry of Associations, it is up to the Supreme Council of Degree 33 and the Grand Lodge of Cuba – the main Masonic authorities of the Island – to be “governed by their respective laws” instead of blindly complying with the “frank and blatant intervention of the CCP Central Committee.”
With the prohibition on cell phones in the meeting, the Government assured that the disseminated version of what happened is “at the discretion of the state agencies”
For Pardo, who says that the meeting with Diego was carried out “as planned,” the Cuban Freemasons “evidenced their inability to solve their internal problems by applying their own laws” by asking Diego to “solve the problem.” In addition, he points out, with the ban on cell phones in the meeting, the Government assured that the disseminated version of what happened is “at the discretion of the State.”
José Ramón Viñas – leader of the Supreme Council of Degree 33 and accuser of Urquía Carreño – was also not present at this Thursday’s meeting. In addition to this absence, apparently voluntary, the writer Ángel Santiesteban and the independent journalist Camila Acosta, arrested by the Police, did not attend, as they denounced on their social networks.
The extraordinary session scheduled for the end of September serves as a repetition of the one held last March, which the Ministry of Justice declared illegal after the Freemasons tried to remove Urquía Carreño from his position of Grand Master. The state agency then asked that the process be held again, something that Diego highlighted this Thursday when she “made it very clear that the Supreme Council violated the law by not summoning Urquía Carreño to defend himself,” and the Grand Lodge did the same thing with Viñas, said Pardo.
According to the historian, “both judicial processes must be initiated again, with the exception that if the High Chamber” – in charge of the judicial process – “approves the decree that suspends the Treaty (of Friendship and Mutual Recognition between the Grand Lodge and the Supreme Council), Viñas will be facing a very serious event.”
If both Masonic bodies lose their bond, the Supreme Council, led by Viñas, would automatically become an irregular lodge
As Pardo explained to 14ymedio on a previous occasion, if both Masonic bodies lose their bond, the Supreme Council, led by Viñas, would automatically become an irregular lodge. “They don’t even own the place where their offices are located,” he clarified at the time.
“Urquía Carreño is the Grand Master with all the powers granted to him by the Masonic Constitution,” says Pardo. Until his departure from the post is achieved through legal channels, he has the right to stay there. The intervention of the Government, which so far has been on behalf of the Grand Master, does not augur anything good for the Freemasons.
Last week, at least 200 Freemasons from several provinces asked the Grand Master to leave his office and face those who asked for his resignation peacefully. Urquía Carreño’s response was to decree the suspension of three lodges in Havana and another in Artemisa. If the scales tilt in favor of the Grand Master, Pardo fears that the brotherhood on the Island will lose many members. Something similar to what happened in 2010, when it was learned that Grand Master Manuel Collera Vento was actually an infiltrator of State Security.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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