“We have no concerns,” say Viñas Alonso and Kessel Linares.
14ymedio, Havana, 30 July 2025 — After attending a summons that turned into a police interrogation, the Sovereign Grand Commander of Freemasonry, José Ramón Viñas Alonso, and the elected Grand Master, Alberto Kessel Linares, were released with pending criminal proceedings. According to the former’s social media post after returning to his home, they were also “placed under restraint” as a precautionary measure and were subject to a movement restriction that allows them to leave their homes only to go to work.
According to Viñas, during his interrogation at the Costa and Diez de Octubre police station in Havana, authorities questioned his “many” trips abroad and asked him where he got his money. Ultimately, a criminal case was opened against him for “currency trafficking.”
“They are trying to tie me to a non-personal agreement, but one that the Board of Trustees unanimously agreed upon due to the need to cover various expenses in local currency at the care home and the lack of this currency. The exchange was agreed upon twice this year (with this exchange being carried out among the members of the Board of Trustees), where $100 was exchanged for local currency,” he explained. The authorities consider this to be trafficking, as the exchange was made on the “black market,” at 1 dollar for 370 pesos—as the institution did—and not in a bank at the exchange rate of 1 dollar for 120 pesos.
He also said that State Security informed him that this crime could result in a prison sentence of between two and five years.
“We have no concerns,” he said, referring to both his own and Kessel’s situations, “because as citizens, we don’t even have a single traffic ticket, and we know what’s being attempted with all of this. It will be what it will be, but I declare our innocence to my brothers,” Viñas concluded.
State Security informed him that for this crime he could be punished with between two and five years in prison.
Under threat of freezing the organization’s bank accounts, Cuban authorities rejected Viñas’s reelection as leader of the Supreme Council and appointed babalawo Lázaro Cuesta as the candidate for the position. So far, the Supreme Council has shown no signs of experiencing a leadership crisis similar to the one the Grand Lodge is experiencing.
Few details are available regarding Kessel’s case, but they were shared by an anonymous source close to the Grand Lodge: he was also summoned to Picota station and accused of allegedly violating his movement restriction for having “passed near the Grand Lodge on Sunday, July 6 , when the Freemasons protested there.”
According to the independent media outlet, both Freemasons are prohibited from holding meetings at the Grand Lodge or the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree. “All proceedings are being handled by State Security,” the source added.
Writer and Freemason Ángel Santiesteban denounced the summons to Kessel and Viñas on social media, and attributed the police investigations to another attempt by the Ministry of Justice and the regime to intervene in the fraternity’s affairs, something that Justice Minister Oscar Silvera had previously asserted was not happening.
The most recent Masonic crisis—the brotherhood has been the subject of heated controversy since at least 2023, with the departure of its Grand Master to Mexico—occurred at the beginning of July, when several members gathered at the Grand Lodge’s entrance to protest the decision to hold a session of its High Chamber, which they considered illegitimate.
The meeting had been called by Mayker Filema Duarte, who was removed from his position as Grand Master
The meeting had been called by Mayker Filema Duarte, who was “irrevocably” removed from his position as Grand Master in May, but under the protection of the Ministry of Justice he refuses to relinquish his leadership of the order.
“All the brothers who are here know that the spurious Upper House meeting will be held today, and we are here, once again, to let you know that what we did on May 25th is irrevocable,” said one of the Masons who made up the group, addressing the rest, in front of the doors of the Grand Lodge and referring to the last session of the body in May, where the decision was made to remove Filema.
The protest escalated when those inside the lodge tried to block the entry of the Masons, who forced their way in, claiming the lodge belonged to them.
The day before, Kessel, who was elected by the Masons to the position of Grand Master, and Victor Bravo Cabañas, elected Grand Secretary, had been summoned by the police to the Picota station for an interview, from which they emerged with warnings for having called on members of the fraternity to protest against the assembly of the Upper House.
A few days later, despite the arrests and warnings, the Ministry of Justice assured that it maintains a “historical relationship of closeness and respect” with the fraternity and that it does not interfere in its affairs.
Calls for Mayker Filema Duarte’s resignation have been frequent since he assumed the position of Grand Master following the departure of his predecessor, Mario Urquía Carreño, who was accused of stealing $19,000 from the Grand Lodge.
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