Mario Alberto Urquía Carreño, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, issued a statement regarding the recent theft of 19,000 dollars, while the money was under his custody, belonging to the Masonic National Asylum Llansó.
In the extensive document in which he detailed the chronology of the events, he ruled out resigning from his position and expressed his dissatisfaction with the procedure followed in the extraordinary meeting of the Board of Trustees where the issue was addressed.
Urquía Carreño confirmed that on January 5th, she detected the theft from her office, specifically of 12,340 euros and 6,660 USD, totaling 19,000 in convertible currency, which she described as a "painful incident."
He admitted that he remained silent until January 9th when, upon being requested the sum of 1,000 USD by the Sovereign Grand Commander (SGC), initially he made an excuse and told him that he would personally deliver it.
Once he informed the SGC of what happened, he said he was willing to replace the 1,000 USD from his personal wealth, not out of a sense of guilt but of "moral commitment" because the money was under his custody when it was stolen.
In an extraordinary meeting on January 10 with the Board of Trustees, he states that initially, the majority of the brothers understood that the theft of the money was a despicable act and beyond their will, and he committed to reimbursing the money.
Mario Alberto Urquía, however, was reluctant to report the incident to the police because he believed that such a significant amount "should not be outside the bank," and also because public knowledge of what happened would be "discrediting to the institution".
Despite this, the collective agreement was to issue a public statement informing about what happened and to make the corresponding report to the PNR.
Urquía Carreño complains that while he was filing the report at the Zanja unit with the Grand Treasurer, VH. Ángel Santisteban Prats, and Antonio Fernández Pérez, he received the news that a statement had already been drafted in his absence, which he described as a "clear violation of what was agreed upon."
Mario Alberto Urquía also complains that the document that revealed the case had a clear bias against him, claiming that it was never handled while he was present at the meeting, something that he believes once again violated "what was agreed upon."
During the police report, Ángel Santisteban Prats asked the police if it could be a self-theft, to which the officer replied that it would be investigated but everything seemed to indicate that it was, that "it must have been someone from inside the building."
Mario Alberto Urquía Carreño believes that the events related to the theft of money were handled with "suspicion and intentionality" in order to create an unfavorable opinion against him.
In the final segment of the extensive document, the Grand Master clarified how the money came to be under his custody.
"I agreed to have said money 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 established by law, since neither the National Asylum nor the Supreme Council have foreign currency accounts," he explained.
He added that the Grand Lodge of Cuba, on its part, due to the election of the Grand Treasurer in September, requested the "Banking Validity to the relevant bodies and it was delivered to them in the final days of December."
We went to the BFI, handed in the documentation, and to this day, the BFI has not responded despite being aware of the situation," he concluded.
He also argued why he did not report to the police as soon as he noticed the money was missing.
I did not report the incident to the PNR immediately upon discovering that the safe in the office had been stolen because that could have meant exposing the internal agreements of the Patronato that could be questioned and considered illegal according to established laws. This, in turn, could lead to a state audit of the National Masonic Asylum, and from there on, no one can assess the legal consequences for the Asylum and the brothers who could be involved," he noted.
Due to the course of events and pressure from the Board members, Mario Alberto Urquía has decided not to fulfill previously assumed international commitments and to remain in the country to deal with any situation that may arise.
In January of last year, the then Grand Master of the Lodge of Cuba, Francisco Javier Alfonso Vidal, traveled and stayed in Mexico. He had traveled to that country to attend an event, and after the announcement that he had left the delegation, he resigned from his position and complained of suffering harassment from State Security.
"This situation, despite being an unexpected and masonically regrettable act, will not affect the work of the Grand Lodge of Cuba," the Cuban Freemasons stated on that occasion.
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