News · Rights
A Havana court will try four Freemasons on Thursday over exchanging 300 dollars at the informal rate
The Diez de Octubre municipal court set the trial for November 5. Prosecutors are seeking two to four years of restricted liberty and fines of up to 25,000 pesos, according to the court order obtained by CubaNet.
The Diez de Octubre municipal people's court in Havana has set Thursday, November 5, at 9:00 in the morning for the trial of four Cuban Freemasons charged with "illegal trafficking in national currency, foreign currency, metals and precious stones," according to an evidence admission order dated October 29, 2026, obtained by CubaNet and reported by CiberCuba.
The defendants are José Ramón Viñas Alonso, former sovereign grand commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree; Fernando Marcos García, accountant of the Llansó National Masonic Home; Ángel Santiesteban Prats, the current sovereign grand commander, a writer and former political prisoner; and Osvaldo Ernesto Villegas Digat. All four are under house arrest and barred from leaving the country.
The case rests on two currency exchanges at the informal market rate totaling 300 dollars. Prosecutors say that on September 14, 2023, Viñas Alonso authorized handing over 49,600 Cuban pesos in exchange for 200 dollars belonging to the home and that, on June 13, 2025, he authorized exchanging 37,500 pesos for another 100 dollars of the institution's money.
The Attorney General's Office is seeking between two and four years of restricted liberty for each defendant, plus fines of 20,000 or 25,000 pesos, with the heaviest penalty, four years and 25,000 pesos, for Viñas Alonso. Restricted liberty limits the convicted person's movement but does not mean imprisonment. Defense lawyer Roberto Ortega Ortiz is asking for all four to be acquitted: he argues the exchanges took place inside the institution and that the money went to charity, powdered milk for the elderly residents of the home and medicine for the son of one of the defendants.
Although the charge falls under economic crimes, the case file was prepared by the Interior Ministry unit specialized in investigating crimes against state security, and the trial will be held in a chamber that shares premises with the state security court, according to CiberCuba. Sources close to the case who asked not to be named told CubaNet that the political police have been installing cameras around the courthouse.
Pressure on Cuban Freemasonry intensified after the protests of July 11, 2021, when Viñas Alonso signed a public letter condemning Díaz-Canel's call to confront demonstrators. In April 2024 the Justice Ministry froze the bank accounts of the Grand Lodge of Cuba and of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree. Santiesteban Prats, sentenced in 2013 to five years in prison in a case international organizations called arbitrary, was elected sovereign grand commander on September 26, 2026, with 19 votes in favor, weeks before the trial date was set.
Sources: CiberCuba · Cubanet
Data updated: 2026-11-03T04:15:00.000Z