A Havana court convicted four members of the Cuban Freemasonry this Thursday for alleged illegal currency trafficking, in a process that legal organizations describe as a politically motivated persecution disguised as a criminal case. Among those convicted is the writer and former political prisoner, Ángel Santiesteban Prats, who is currently the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree.
The Criminal Section of the People's Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre issued a ruling in Case 26E of 2026 and imposed sentences ranging from two to four years of restricted liberty on José Ramón Viñas Alonso, Fernando Marcos García, Ángel Lázaro Santiesteban Prats, and Osvaldo Ernesto Villegas Digat.
Viñas Alonso, who served as the Most Powerful Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Republic of Cuba and presided over the Board of the National Masonic Asylum "Llansó", received the harshest penalty: four years of restricted freedom and a fine of 500 installments of 50 pesos each.
The accountant of the asylum, Fernando Marcos García, was sentenced to three years of restricted freedom and a fine of 500 installments of 40 pesos each.
Santiesteban Prats and Villegas Digat each received a two-year limitation of liberty and the same fine of 500 installments of 40 pesos.
As additional sanctions, the court imposed on the four convicted individuals the deprivation of rights, a ban on leaving the national territory, and disqualification from holding their positions or occupations.
"Everything that threatened State Security has come to pass. They said, either you step aside or we will remove you. I have not acknowledged the crime," said Santiesteban Prats to the independent media CubaNet. According to that source, the officials offered to let them leave the country if they stepped aside. Otherwise, they warned: "We will take you to trial, and you know we will punish you."
"I said it there, that I did not understand why, after all those hours they had kept us there, it could not be proven in the trial that I had committed a crime. The investigator lied, he said things that were not in my statement," added the former political prisoner.
The facts that led to the accusation involve two currency exchange transactions carried out with funds from the asylum: in September 2023, Viñas Alonso authorized Santiesteban Prats to exchange 49,600 Cuban pesos for 200 dollars belonging to the institution; in June 2025, he authorized Villegas Digat to exchange 37,500 pesos for another 100 dollars from the asylum. The total amount under investigation was 300 dollars over nearly two years, using the exchange rate of the informal market that is utilized by most of the Cuban population.
According to the defense, the money was intended to purchase powdered milk and basic supplies for the elderly residents of the nursing home, an institution founded in 1918 that currently serves around 90 seniors.
The legal organization Cubalex questioned the process in an analysis published the day before the trial, noting that both transactions were formally recorded in the accounting books of the asylum, which rules out any clandestine activity. “The internal conversion of 300 USD over two years for the maintenance of a nonprofit nursing home does not constitute a disturbance to the socioeconomic or monetary order of the State,” it stated.
Cubalex also warned that the case was handled by the Specialized Body for Criminal Investigation of Crimes Against State Security of MININT, and described that decision as evidence of political motivation: "Assigning the investigation of a $300 accounting adjustment in a charity to the State's Intelligence and Security apparatus demonstrates a clear political persecution and government interference in the autonomy of Cuban Freemasonry."
According to Cubalex, the most revealing aspect of the process is the treatment that the Prosecutor's Office gave to Santiesteban Prats, an independent writer and journalist with decades of documented repression. The indictment included that the accused "openly expresses opposition to the revolutionary process prevailing in Cuba" and "does not engage in any socially useful activities," ideologically charged assessments that Cubalex deemed a violation of the principle of equality before the law.
Santiesteban Prats was elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree on September 26, 2026, just weeks before the trial, replacing Viñas Alonso in the position.
This case is part of a broader state offensive against Cuban masonry that intensified since 2024, involving the freezing of bank accounts, annulment of internal decisions of the organization, and imposition of leaders aligned with the regime.
Against the ruling, both the convicted individuals and the prosecutor have the right to file an appeal once they are notified in writing, and this appeal will be resolved by the appropriate chamber of the Provincial People's Court of Havana.
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