The writer and sovereign grand commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, Ángel Santiesteban Prats, reported that the sentence imposed on four Masonic leaders on November 5 is part of a political persecution orchestrated by the regime to displace the independent leadership of Cuban masonry.
In a post on his Facebook profile, he was emphatic: "The trial is political. No one should have any doubt about this. At the end of the trial, when they asked if I had anything to add, I said: in all the hours I have been here, it has not been proven that I committed a crime. The judge nodded, agreeing with me."
The People's Municipal Tribunal of Diez de Octubre, in Havana, convicted four masons for alleged illegal currency trafficking: José Ramón Viñas Alonso, former sovereign grand commander, received four years of restricted freedom and a fine of 25,000 Cuban pesos; accountant Fernando Marcos García received three years and 20,000 pesos; and Santiesteban Prats along with Osvaldo Ernesto Villegas Digat received two years each and a fine of 20,000 pesos. All four were also given a prohibition on leaving the country and disqualification from holding positions.
The case is based on 300 dollars in total, converted at informal rates in two transactions made in 2023 and 2025 to cover the needs of the Llansó Masonic National Asylum, a nursing home that cares for approximately 90 elderly individuals and relies on donations.
Santiesteban Prats rejected the claim that these transactions constituted a crime. He explained that the 200 dollars were a donation sent from Miami by a Masonic brother who traveled to Cuba and claimed his own money to handle the purchase. Regarding the remaining 100 dollars, Villegas Digat used them to buy medication for his son, who had just undergone surgery: "That's not exchanging money in an illegal or black market. It's like if you exchanged 100 dollars with your brother at home and he gave you CUP in return. Is that illegal?"
The legal organization Cubalex questioned the legitimacy of the process stating that both transactions were recorded in the accounting books of the asylum and that the investigation was assigned to the Specialized Body for Crimes Against State Security of MININT, which is unusual for a currency exchange case. "Assigning the investigation of a 300 USD accounting adjustment in a charitable entity to the State Intelligence and Security apparatus is clear evidence of political persecution," concluded Cubalex.
The accusation document also included ideological assessments of Santiesteban Prats, stating that he "expresses himself openly against the revolutionary process" and "does not engage in any socially useful activities."
Santiesteban Prats also reported that the court leaked the sentence to the official media Razones de Cuba before the judge finished reading it in the courtroom. The magistrate who presided over the trial, Zamira Marrero Morgado, is the same one who condemned content creator Anna Bensi and her mother in October.
The offensive against independent Freemasonry intensified after July 11, 2021, when the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree published a letter rejecting Díaz-Canel's call to confront the demonstrators violently. Since then, the regime has deployed interrogations, surprise audits, and account freezes. In August 2026, the Ministry of Justice attempted to appoint as interim a man who had been removed from the Order by the High Chamber itself, but a mobilization of Freemasons in Havana thwarted the attempt. Faced with the exhaustion of legal avenues, the High Chamber elected Santiesteban Prats as the new Sovereign Grand Commander in September 2026. Weeks later, the condemnations followed.
Santiesteban Prats, who was already a political prisoner in 2013 in a process that international organizations labeled as politically motivated, recalled that a lieutenant colonel from State Security identified as "Kenia" had warned them: "Either you remove yourselves or we will remove you." He concluded with a statement directed at the approximately 28,000 members of Cuban masonry: "They are testing the Masons. We will see what we are made of."
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