A investigation by CubaNet has shaken the Cuban Freemasonry with the publication of two letters from the Grand Lodge of Cuba that would show that the former grand master, Mayker Filema Duarte, and the former grand secretary, Juliannis Galano Gómez, provided internal information of the fraternity to the regime's political police.
Filema categorically denies the authenticity of the letters and brands them as forgeries; Galano did not respond when contacted.
The two letters that implicate the former leaders
According to the investigation, the first letter, dated August 15, 2025, is addressed to Major René Aranguren Menéndez, identified as the first instructor of the Criminal Investigation Body - Crimes against State Security.
The document answers questions from that official related to a complaint made by Miriam Martha García Mariño, director of Associations at the Ministry of Justice, against Juan Alberto Kessel Linares, who had publicly accused her of complicity with Filema.
In that letter, the signatories point out alleged Masonic violations by Kessel and Víctor Bravo Cabañas: "disobedience to the figure and authority of the grand master, betrayal of the oaths of their office, and usurping functions not authorized to them."
The document concludes with a particularly striking phrase in the context of communication with a State Security officer: “In anticipation of being favored with your attention, we remain fraternally”.
The second document, dated just five days later, is significantly more compromising.
According to the copy provided to CubaNet, the signatories accept a “suggestion for collaboration” and declare their “best willingness to provide you with any information you request about any member of the Grand Lodge”, including data on former affiliates.
"In our passive files, we have a lot of information about those who are no longer affiliated," along with addresses and family data, the document also states.
Masons consulted by CubaNet identify Aranguren Menéndez as a member of the Soles de Martí lodge and as one of the officials who detained and interrogated Kessel and Bravo in July 2025.
Filema denies everything
Contacted by the press on the day of the publication, Filema emphatically rejected the documents: “That is completely false. I would rather die than have any association with this government.”
"I don't know who took them out, I don't know who invented them, but that is a big lie," he added; and he stated: "At no point have I had any collaboration with State Security; nor do I have, nor will I ever have."
In subsequent WhatsApp messages, he spoke about "the great dishonor they are committing," and insisted that the only way to prove his innocence would be "by going to the authorities and accusing Kessel, Manuel, and the GS [Juliannis Galano]."
He attributed the publication to "Masonic issues."
A crisis that has been brewing for a long time
The letters emerge after more than two years of turmoil in the Grand Lodge.
Filema assumed leadership in August 2024, but the Grand Masonic Chamber removed him from office in May 2025 for refusing to call elections.
The Ministry of Justice continued to recognize him for weeks, which his opponents interpreted as state interference.
On July 5, 2025, State Security arrested Kessel and Bravo.
A day later, more than a hundred masons forced their way into the headquarters of the Grand Lodge in Havana, singing the National Anthem to prevent a session they deemed illegitimate.
In June of this year, the Masonic Supreme Court expelled eight members —including Filema— for treason, fraud, abuse, and embezzlement.
State infiltration suspicions in the Cuban masonry have precedents. In March 2011, state television revealed that José Manuel Collera Vento, grand master from 2000 to 2003, had collaborated for decades with the political police under the aliases "Duarte" and "Gerardo".
The political context surrounding the scandal
The publication coincides with a moment of particular focus on brotherhood.
On the same day that CubaNet published the documents, the U.S. diplomat Mike Hammer met with Ángel Santiesteban Prats, newly elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, to explore the Masonic participation in the distribution of U.S. humanitarian aid.
The following day, the official website Razones de Cuba published a lengthy article about the risks of Freemasonry serving "external agendas," without mentioning at any point the letters that attribute to former leaders of the institution an active collaboration with the political police.
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