Gustavo Pardo regrets the “inability of the brotherhood to solve its internal problems”
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 2 August 2024 — The Communist Party refrained from making decisions this Thursday during the meeting that the head of Religious Affairs of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP), Caridad Diego, held with a group of Freemasons from the capital. Grand Master Mario Urquía Carreño, protagonist of the schism that divides the brotherhood, did not participate in the meeting. Caridad Diego limited herself to declaring that she “did not know anything about what was happening” before a public that had been stripped of their cell phones. She said that the fate of Freemasonry is the responsibility of the Registry of Associations, which depends on the Ministry of Justice.
In contact with several of the participants in the meeting, historian and Freemason Gustavo Pardo informed 14ymedio that the Party and the Ministry of Justice will make decisions about the Freemasons, but from now on “they will follow the guidelines provided by Caridad Diego.” For their part, the Freemasons have scheduled an extraordinary session for next September 21 in the Great Masonic National Temple, located on Reina Street in Havana, with a thorough agenda signed by the secretary of the Grand Lodge, Juliannis Reinaldo Galano.
Among the 54 points to be addressed will be a series of “motions outside the day’s agenda” that could, in Pardo’s opinion, address the heart of the crisis: the authority of Urquía Carreño, accused of the theft of $19,000 from his office and whose successive expulsions and rehabilitations have led to an unprecedented Masonic crisis.
“On the point related to motions outside the day’s agenda, several measures can be presented that can put Urquía Carreño in an awkward position,” Pardo said in an article published this Friday. He also noted that whatever decision is made by the Registry of Associations, it is up to the Supreme Council of Degree 33 and the Grand Lodge of Cuba – the main Masonic authorities of the Island –
