Four Cuban Freemasons to stand trial over 300-dollar currency exchange in Havana
The Popular Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre has set the trial for 5 November. The prosecution is seeking between two and four years of restricted liberty.
Trial against Freemasons in Havana over 300-dollar currency exchange operations
The Popular Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, in Havana, has set for Thursday 5 November at 9:00 in the morning the oral trial against four Cuban Freemasons accused of "illegal trafficking in national currency, foreign exchange, metals and precious stones". According to cibercuba.com, the date was set in an order admitting evidence dated 29 October 2026, which CubaNet obtained access to.
The four defendants are José Ramón Viñas Alonso, former sovereign grand commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree; Fernando Marcos García, accountant of the National Masonic Asylum Llansó; Ángel Santiesteban Prats, current sovereign grand commander and writer and former political prisoner; and Osvaldo Ernesto Villegas Digat. All four remain under house arrest and prohibited from leaving the country.
The operations that led to the case
The case centres on two currency exchanges conducted at informal market rates totalling 300 dollars. The prosecution contends that on 14 September 2023, Viñas Alonso authorised Santiesteban Prats to hand over 49,600 Cuban pesos in exchange for 200 dollars belonging to the asylum. Nearly two years later, on 13 June 2025, he authorised Villegas Digat to exchange 37,500 pesos for another 100 dollars from the institution.
The General Prosecutor's Office requested sentences of between two and four years of restricted liberty for each defendant, plus fines of 20,000 or 25,000 Cuban pesos. For Viñas Alonso it is seeking the most severe penalty: four years and 25,000 pesos. For Marcos García, three years and 20,000 pesos. For Santiesteban Prats and Villegas Digat, two years and 20,000 pesos each. Restricted liberty restricts the movement of the convicted person but does not involve imprisonment.
The order is signed by judges Irene Asunción Macía Mondéjar, Isabel Moreno Salazar and judge Máximo Puentes Cruz. Macía Mondéjar will preside over the court, a detail that corrects previous information stating that Zamira Marrero Morgado held that position.
The defence seeks acquittal
Defence lawyer Roberto Ortega Ortiz is requesting the acquittal of all four defendants. In his provisional conclusions of 9 October 2026, he argues that the exchanges were carried out within the institution itself and among members of the Board, and that the funds were used for charitable purposes: the 200 dollars were used to buy powdered milk for the elderly at the asylum, whilst the 100 dollars corresponded to personal money belonging to Villegas Digat, which he used to purchase medication for his son.
"The currency exchanges carried out represented no personal benefit for any of those involved, but rather were done to benefit the lives of the elderly who live in the National Masonic Asylum 'Llansó', which represents a charitable work by Freemasonry," wrote the lawyer.
Political background and presence of security apparatus
The case was investigated by the Specialised Body for the Investigation of Criminal Offences against State Security, dependent on MININT, despite the alleged offence falling within the realm of offences against economic order. The trial will take place in the Second Criminal Chamber, which shares premises with the Chamber for Offences against State Security.
Sources close to the case, who requested anonymity, informed CubaNet that since last week political police have been installing security cameras in the vicinity of the court, in a deployment described as "similar to when they held the trials of 11 July".
Pressure on Cuban Freemasonry intensified following the protests of 11 July 2021, when Viñas Alonso signed a public letter condemning Díaz-Canel's call to confront protesters violently. In April 2024, the Ministry of Justice froze the bank accounts of the Grand Lodge of Cuba and the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, and attempted to take control of the institution in the months that followed.
Santiesteban Prats, who was sentenced in 2013 to five years in prison in a process described as arbitrary by international organisations, was elected sovereign grand commander on 26 September 2026 with 19 votes in favour, just weeks before the trial date was set.
Source: Google News CU — Crime