The Cuban broadcaster Laritza Camacho posted on her Facebook profile a reflection in which she expresses admiration and pride for the civic behavior of Cuban Freemasons, just days after the regime condemned four figures from the organization in a process that legal organizations described as political persecution.
“Also, I feel proud of today's Freemasons in my land, of their civic stature and their intelligence to stay united. I do not see in them disrespect or careless words, but rather transparency and that brave integrity that does not hide and which we have always referred to as manliness,” Camacho wrote on Facebook.
The presenter, known for her work on Radio Ciudad de La Habana and the television program "Mediodía en TV," recalled that an uncle of hers and a brother of her grandmother were Freemasons: men she describes as "upright, discreet, with impeccable conduct, good and kind to their families." She also reminisced that great figures in Cuban history were part of that fraternity.
“The Cuba that relies on the dollars coming from abroad through any act of solidarity, bought and sold to the highest bidder (who is never the State). The Cuba that was said would not dollarize. The Cuba that barely survives, not knowing how each family will start or end the day, needed to see them in their actions. I am certain of this,” she pointed out.
“I believe it is appropriate at this moment to express my opinion and what I feel when I see them,” she added.
Laritza Camacho's opinion comes after the sentences handed down on November 5 against José Ramón Viñas Alonso, Fernando Marcos García, Ángel Santiesteban Prats, and Osvaldo Ernesto Villegas Digat by the People's Municipal Tribunal of Diez de Octubre in Havana. The sentences, which range from two to four years of restricted freedom, are based on only 300 dollars exchanged at an informal rate in two transactions to meet the needs of the Llansó National Masonic Shelter, which serves around 90 elderly individuals.
The regime's offensive against independent freemasonry intensified after July 11, 2021, when the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree rejected Díaz-Canel's call to violently confront the protesters. Since then, interrogations, audits, and account freezes have been deployed.
In August 2026, more than 100 Freemasons gathered in Havana to thwart an attempt by the Ministry of Justice to install an interim leader aligned with the regime. Weeks later, the Grand Chamber elected Santiesteban Prats as the new Sovereign Grand Commander, and the regime responded with judicial condemnations.
The legal organization Cubalex pointed out that both currency exchange operations 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, an unusual mechanism for a currency exchange case. "Assigning the investigation of an accounting adjustment of 300 USD in a charitable entity to the State's Intelligence and Security apparatus clearly demonstrates political persecution and government interference in the autonomy of Cuban Freemasonry," the organization concluded.
Santiesteban Prats, for his part, denounced that the court leaked the ruling to the state-run media Razones de Cuba before the judge finished reading it in court, and he recalled the warning that a lieutenant colonel from State Security identified as "Kenia" had previously given them: "Either you leave or we will remove you."
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