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Mario Alberto Urquía Carreño, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, issued a statement regarding the recent theft of $19,000 that was under his custody, belonging to the National Masonic Asylum Llansó.
In the extensive document outlining the timeline of events, he ruled out the possibility of resigning from his position and expressed his discontent with the procedures followed during the extraordinary meeting of the Board where the issue was discussed.
Urquía Carreño confirmed that on January 5, he detected the theft from his office, specifically of 12,340 euros and 6,660 USD, totaling 19,000 in convertible currency, which he described as a "disgraceful incident."
He admitted that he remained silent until January 9, when, upon being asked for the amount of 1,000 USD by the Sovereign Grand Commander (SGC), he initially made an excuse and said he would take it personally.
Once he informed the SGC about what had happened, he expressed his willingness to reimburse the 1,000 USD from his personal funds, not out of a sense of guilt, but rather due to a "moral commitment" since the money was under his care when it was stolen.
In an extraordinary meeting on January 10 with the Board, he stated that initially, most of the siblings understood that the theft of the money was a regrettable incident beyond their control, and he committed to reimbursing the funds.
Mario Alberto Urquía, however, was reluctant to report the incident to the police, believing that such a significant amount "should not be out of the bank," and also because public awareness of what happened would mean a "discredit for the institution."
Despite this, the collective agreement was to issue a public statement informing about the events and to file the corresponding complaint with the PNR.
Urquía Carreño complains that while he was filing the report at the Zanja unit alongside Grand Treasurer VH. Ángel Santisteban Prats and Antonio Fernández Pérez, he received the news that the statement had already been drafted in his absence, which he described as a "blatant violation of what had been agreed upon."
Mario Alberto Urquía also complains that the document revealing the case had a clear bias against him, asserting that it was never discussed while he was present at the meeting, which he believes further violated "what was agreed upon."
During the police report, Ángel Santisteban Prats asked the police if it could be a case of self-theft, to which the officer replied that it would be investigated, but everything seemed to suggest that it was indeed the case, and that "it must have been someone from inside the building."
Mario Alberto Urquía Carreño believes that the events related to the theft of the money were handled with "suspicion and intent" to generate a negative opinion against him.
In the final section of the lengthy document, the Grand Master clarified how the money came to be under his custody.
"I accepted that the money would be deposited into the Grand Lodge of Cuba at the suggestion of VH. Ángel Santisteban Prats, and I hoped that the Board would agree to deposit it in the bank as the laws stipulate, since neither the National Asylum nor the Supreme Council have accounts in foreign currency," he explained.
He added that the Grand Lodge of Cuba, for its part, requested "Banking Validity from the relevant authorities due to the election of the Grand Treasurer in September, and it was granted in the final days of December."
"We went to the BFI, and the executive delivered the documentation, but as of today, the BFI has still not responded, despite our follow-up," he concluded.
He also explained why he didn't file a police report as soon as he noticed the money was missing.
"I did not report to the PNR when I discovered that the safe had been stolen from the office because that would have meant exposing the internal agreements of the Patronato to the authorities, which could be questioned and deemed illegal under established laws. This, in turn, could lead to a state audit of the National Masonic Asylum, and from there, no one can assess the legal consequences for the Asylum and the brothers who might become involved," he pointed out.
In light of recent developments and under pressure from the members of the Board, Mario Alberto Urquía has decided not to fulfill previously made international commitments and to remain in the country to face any situation that may arise.
In January of last year, the then Grand Master of the Lodge of Cuba, Francisco Javier Alfonso Vidal, traveled to Mexico and remained there. He had gone to that country to attend an event, and after announcing that he had left the delegation, he resigned from his position and reported experiencing harassment from State Security.
"This situation, despite being an unexpected and lamentable act in Masonic terms, will not affect the work of the Grand Lodge of Cuba," stated the Cuban Masons at that time.
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