April 2011

Friday 29 April 2011

Freemasonry and the coverage of the royal wedding of Prince William


The Wedding of the nephew of the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England will begin in about an hour announces the Masonic Press Agency of Romania. The ceremony will take place in Westminster Cathedral, the work of the Operative Freemasons. The event will not only be attended by profanes but also Brethren Masons worldwide, as political leaders, friends of the British Royal Family and heads of state. At the event will also attend the Royal Family of Romania.






Wednesday 27 April 2011

King Michael I of Romania meets with Sir Gavyn Arthur, Master of the Guild of Freemen of the Citz of London



APMR reports that tonight, in London, will take place the official dinner given in honor of His Majesty King Michael I of Romania by Sir Gavyn Arthur (the 675th Lord Mayor of London). At the official dinner will also take part representatives of the Guild of Freemen of the Citz of London.

His Majesty Michael I of Romania


Starting with May 1st, 2011, Sir Gavyn Arthur, Master of the Guild of Freemen of the Citz of London will be visiting for 12 days Romania. The delegation headed by Sir Gavyn Arthur will visit Bucharest, Braşov, Bran etc. Also, the British delegation will visit several cultural and tourist attractions in the Carpathians: Bran Castle (built by Mircea the Elder), the village where Prince Charles of Wales owns a property, turning back to Bucharest before its departure to London.

The Masonic Lodge of the Buckingham Palace



Members of the British Royal Household are Freemasons. They are gathering in a special Masonic Lodge called the Royal Household Lodge as it was reported by Daily Mail on March 8th, 2008. We are talking about the staff that provides protection and service to the British Royal Family.


Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England - Prince William's uncle



Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick was born on born October 9th, 1935), is a member of the British Royal Family and grandchild of George V. He has held the title of Duke of Kent since 1942.The Duke of Kent carries out royal duties on behalf of his first cousin, Queen Elizabeth II. He is perhaps best known as President of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, presenting the trophies to the Wimbledon winner and runner-up. He also served as the United Kingdom's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, retiring in 2001. He is also the President of the Scout Association, the President of the Royal United Services Institute, the President of the Royal Institution of Great Britain and the Grand Master of the Freemasons in England & Wales.At the time of his birth, Prince Edward was 7th in the line of succession to his grandfather King George V, behind his 3 uncles, his cousins Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, and his father. As of the birth of Savannah Phillips in 2010, he is in 28th position.


Prince Edward was born on October 9th, 1935, at No. 3 Belgrave Square, London. His father was Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George V and Mary of Teck. His mother was Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (née Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark), the daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, and Grand Duchess Helen Vladimirovna of Russia. As a grandson of a British sovereign in the male line, he was styled as a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with the prefix, His Royal Highness, styled HRH Prince Edward of Kent.


The Prince was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on 20 November 1935 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Lang and his godparents were: King George V and Queen Mary (his paternal grandparents); the Prince of Wales (his paternal uncle); the Princess Royal, Countess of Harewood (his paternal aunt); the Duke of Connaught (his great-granduncle, whose son, Prince Arthur of Connaught, stood proxy); the Duchess of Argyll (his great-grandaunt); and the Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (his maternal grandfather).

On 25 August 1942 Prince Edward's father, the Duke of Kent, was killed when his plane crashed in bad weather in Caithness. Prince Edward, then aged 6, succeeded his father as Duke of Kent, Earl of St Andrews and Baron Downpatrick. He later took his seat in the House of Lords in 1959.

As a royal duke, he was destined for royal duties at an early age. At the age of 16 he walked behind the coffin of his uncle, George VI, at his state funeral in 1952. In 1953, he attended the coronation of his cousin, Elizabeth II, paying homage at her throne after her crowning (following the Dukes of Edinburgh and Gloucester).


The Duke is the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, the governing body of Freemasonry in England and Wales. Prince Edward has served in that office since 1967.


Prince William, the Royal family and Freemasonry



Lately many people are talking about Prince William's relation with Freemasonry. Almost since the beginning of the Grand Lodge of London and after the foundation of the United Grand Lodge of London, many members of the Royal family adhered to the Masonic Lodges in the country.

Freemasonry played an important role in the history of the British Empire and of the Royal family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) also known in the 20th century as the House of Windsor.



The House of Windsor is the current royal house of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V by royal proclamation on the 17 July 1917, when he changed the name of his family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English "Windsor". Currently, the most prominent member of the House of Windsor is Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms.

Many of them were Grand Masters of the Craft: kings, dukes etc. The last Grand Master and also the one who rules the United Grand Lodge of England is HRH Duke of Kent, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and uncle of Prince William, future Crown Prince.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick; born 9 October 1935), is a member of the British Royal Family and grandchild of King George V. He has held the title of Duke of Kent since 1942.


Westminster Abbey - the history of a Masonic cathedral



The Westminster Abbey was built by operative Freemasons, being now part of UNESCO's World Heritage. According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, the Abbey was first founded in the time of Mellitus (d. 624), Bishop of London, on the present site, then known as Thorn Ey (Thorn Island); based on a late tradition that a fisherman called Aldrich on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the gifts of salmon from Thames fishermen that the Abbey received in later years. In the present era, the Fishmonger's Company still gives a salmon every year.

The proven origins are that in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, installed a community of Benedictine monks here. A stone abbey was built around 1045–1050 by King Edward the Confessor as part of his palace there and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before the Confessor's death and subsequent funeral and burial. It was the site of the last coronation prior to the Norman conquest of England, that of his successor Harold II. From 1245 it was rebuilt by Henry III who had selected the site for his burial.

The only extant depiction of the original abbey, in the Romanesque style that is called Norman in England, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry. Increased endowments supported a community increased from a dozen monks in Dunstan's original foundation, to about eighty monks.


The abbot and learned monks, in close proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the seat of government from the later twelfth century, became a powerful force in the centuries after the Norman Conquest: the abbot often was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. Released from the burdens of spiritual leadership, which passed to the reformed Cluniac movement after the mid-tenth century, and occupied with the administration of great landed properties, some of which lay far from Westminster, "the Benedictines achieved a remarkable degree of identification with the secular life of their times, and particularly with upper-class life", Barbara Harvey concludes, to the extent that her depiction of daily life provides a wider view of the concerns of the English gentry in the High and Late Middle Ages.

The proximity of the Palace of Westminster did not extend to providing monks or abbots with high royal connections; in social origin the Benedictines of Westminster were as modest as most of the order.

The abbot remained Lord of the Manor of Westminster as a town of two to three thousand persons grew around it: as a consumer and employer on a grand scale the monastery helped fuel the town economy, and relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising charter was issued during the Middle Ages. The Abbey built shops and dwellings on the west side, encroaching upon the sanctuary.

The Abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings, but none were buried there until Henry III, intensely devoted to the cult of the Confessor, rebuilt the Abbey in Anglo-French Gothic style as a shrine to honour Saint Edward the Confessor and as a suitably regal setting for Henry's own tomb, under the highest Gothic nave in England. The Confessor's shrine subsequently played a great part in his canonisation. The work continued between 1245 and 1517 and was largely finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of Richard II. Henry VII added a Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503 (known as the Henry VII Chapel). Much of the stone came from Caen, in France (Caen stone), the Isle of Portland (Portland stone) and the Loire Valley region of France (tuffeau limestone).

In 1535, the Abbey's annual income of £2400–2800[citation needed] (£980,000 to £1,140,000 as of 2011), during the assessment attendant on the Dissolution of the Monasteries rendered it second in wealth only to Glastonbury Abbey. Henry VIII had assumed direct royal control in 1539 and granted the Abbey cathedral status by charter in 1540, simultaneously issuing letters patent establishing the Diocese of Westminster. By granting the Abbey cathedral status Henry VIII gained an excuse to spare it from the destruction or dissolution which he inflicted on most English abbeys during this period. Westminster was a cathedral only until 1550. The expression "robbing Peter to pay Paul" may arise from this period when money meant for the Abbey, which
is dedicated to Saint Peter, was diverted to the treasury of St Paul's Cathedral.


The Abbey was restored to the Benedictines under the Roman Catholic Mary I of England, but they were again ejected under Elizabeth I in 1559. In 1579, Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the Sovereign, rather than to a diocesan bishop—and made it the Collegiate Church of St Peter (that is, a church with an attached chapter of canons, headed by a dean). The last Abbot was made the first Dean. It suffered damage during the turbulent 1640s, when it was attacked by Puritan iconoclasts, but was again protected by its close ties to the state during the Commonwealth period. Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a nearby gibbet.

The Abbey's two western towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from Portland stone to an early example of a Gothic Revival design. Purbeck marble was used for the walls and the floors of Westminster Abbey, even though the various tombstones are made of different types of marble. Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in the 19th century under Sir George Gilbert Scott. A narthex (a portico or entrance hall) for the west front was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the mid 20th century but was not executed. Images of the Abbey prior to the construction of the towers are scarce, though the Abbey's official website states that the building was without towers following Yevele's renovation, with just the lower segments beneath the roof level of the Nave completed.

Until the 19th century, Westminster was the third seat of learning in England, after Oxford and Cambridge. It was here that the first third of the King James Bible Old Testament and the last half of the New Testament were translated. The New English Bible was also put together here in the 20th century. Westminster suffered minor damage during the Blitz on November 15th, 1940.

In the 1990s two icons by Russian icon painter Sergei Fyodorov were hung in the Abbey. On September 17th, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to set foot in Westminster Abbey.


The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, England (UK), located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English, later British and later still (and currently) monarchs of the Commonwealth Realms. The abbey is a Royal Peculiar and briefly held the status of a cathedral from 1546 to 1556.

Westminster Abbey is a collegiate church governed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, as established by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1560, which created it as the Collegiate Church of St Peter Westminster and a Royal Peculiar under the personal jurisdiction of the Sovereign. The members of the Chapter are the Dean and four residentiary Canons, assisted by the Receiver General and Chapter Clerk.

One of the Canons is also Rector of St Margaret's Church, Westminster, and often holds also the post of Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. In addition to the Dean and Canons, there are at present two full-time minor canons, one precentor, the other succentor. The office of Priest Vicar was created in the 1970s for those who assist the minor canons. Together with the Clergy and Receiver General and Chapter Clerk, various Lay Officers constitute the College, including the Organist and Master of the Choristers, the Registrar, the Auditor, the Legal Secretary, the Surveyor of the Fabric, the Head Master of the Choir School, the Keeper of the Muniments and the Clerk of the Works, as well as twelve Lay Vicars and ten of the choristers and the High Steward and High Bailiff.

There are also forty Queen's Scholars who are pupils at Westminster School (the School has its own Governing Body). Those who are most directly concerned with liturgical and ceremonial matters are the two Minor Canons and the Organist and Master of the Choristers.


Freemasonry and the wedding of Prince William



UGLE's activity will not be affected by the wedding of Prince William with Kate Middleton, according to Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes as he informed at the last Quarterly Communication of the United Grand Lodge of England, on December 8th, 2010.


Prince William, son of the Crown Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will marry Kate Middleton on April 29th, 2011 (29+4=33) in the Westminster Abbey an ancient cathedral built by the operative Freemasons.


Friday 22 April 2011

Monday 18 April 2011

Saturday 16 April 2011

François Stifani has resigned as Grand Master of GLNF (Grande Loge Nationale Française)



A few hours ago the Masonic Press Agency of Romania (APMR) announced that François Stifani has resigned as Grand Master of the regular Grand Lodge in France: "The Grand Master of the French National Grand Lodge resigned after the biggest and most acid Masonic scandal that shook French Freemasonry in recent years."


Stifani's resignation is unprecedented in the history of French Freemasonry. The letter signed by Stifani, in which he announced his resignation, was addressed toall GLNF leaders. Stifani is accused of having diverted GLNF's funds worth of 30 million euros.


Dies the oldest Freemason in the world



Brethren Walter Breuning 33° died at the age of 114 years in a hospital of Montana. Our Brethren, born on September 21st, 1896, was one of the directors of the Order of Shriners, until the age of 99 years. Walter Breuning (with 85 years of Masonic life) was initiated into Freemasonry in 1925 and was a member of Scottish Rite for 73 years. He was founding member of several Masonic Lodges, Worshipful Master and Secretary for 25 consecutive years. He was crowned Sovereign Grand Inspector General (33°) on January 11th, 1958.

Thursday 14 April 2011

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Humberto Moreira - the Freemason who could become president of Mexico


Mexican Freemasonry is recognized worldwide as a country founded on the principles of Universal Freemasonry and fraternal spirit. Mexico is a country that has often been led by illustrious Brother Masons, from the most famous of them, Benito Juarez Garcia. After a long absence from the presidential chair of the Mexican national Freemasonry in Mexico is likely to have again a a Freemason president. We are talking about Humberto Moreira says the Masonic Press Agency of Romania (APMR).

Humberto Moreira Valdés (born in Saltillo, Coahuila, on July 28th, 1966) is a young politician and leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Born into a family of teachers, Moreira is a graduate of the Ibero-American University and of the National Institute of Public Administration.

In 1988 he began working for the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico City, leading, over time, several departments. In 1994, returns to his native city of Saltillo where he was a delegate of CONAFE (Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo) and of INEA (Instituto Nacional para la Educación de los Adultos). Since 1999 he is appointed Secretary of Public Education in Coahuila, a position held until 2002.

In 2002 he is elected Mayor of Saltillo, and in 2005 he became the PRI candidate for governor of Coahuila state. Moreira win elections that year, having the highest number of votes in history. On January 4th, 2011, after completed his mandate as governor of the state, he become president of the PRI historical party, a liberal party, highly welcomed by the National Masonic Community in Mexico. From this position, Moreira is seen as a potential future president of Mexico in the presidential elections that are to follow.

On today's edition of Masonic news, APMR dedicated a hole article to Brother Moreira, an AASR member in Mexico. Grandson of a Freemason, Moreira has dedicated his entire life to education and he is confident that education will shape the future prosperity of Mexico. As any Brother Freemason, Moreira continued his strong improvement in the most powerful Masonic rite of Mexico: the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

On April 25th, 2008, Moreira was crowned Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Supreme Council for Mexico (Lucerna #56). In his speech he paid tribute to his grandfather, Brother Rubén Moreira Cobos (crowned Sovereign Grand Inspector General on February 10th, 1940), a man who also has dedicated his life to education.

In the speech, our Brother remembered about the ideals for which Freemasonry and Freemasons must fight and defend them, he spoke of brotherly unity and of our obligations as citizens and Freemasons of a country. Moreira pointed out that the unification of the Mexican Lodges is important for achieving a platform of peace, unity and fraternal communication.

Since the beginning of this year his ideas were embraced by most of the Masonic leaders of Mexico and Moreira proposed education reform will find support in the bosom of the Mexican Confederation of Regular Grand Lodges.


Tuesday 5 April 2011

The contribution from the Freemasonry of San Marino


The Serenissima Gran Loggia della Repubblica di San Marino cannot feel stranger to the fervour of our Italian Brethren of Grande Oriente d’Italia as they are celebrating the hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the Unification of their motherland, a country so close and “embracing” that we will never feel as stranger.

On this occasion, I could extensively speak about the citizens of San Marino and how they felt united to the Italian patriots, offering them shelter and solidarity, support and encouragement in many difficult moments of their history. Garibaldi himself, just to make an extraordinarily fitting example, could find at least for some time, a safe home within our borders, we he was forced to escape because hunted by the papal troops and the Austrian garrisons.

It would be too easy to celebrate the civil virtues of this small and peaceful Republic, that never turned his head away when true help was needed by someone suffering. This happened again during World War II and during the anti-Semitic persecutions, within a historical context much more dangerous for our own neutrality.

We cannot forget, also, the natural prudence of our “Polis” that entered into modernity on tiptoe, with no clamors or particular upheavals; our “Polis” always rejected actions of conquest or territorial expansion, like the ones offered by Napoleon. Our “Polis” essentially followed a sense of measure that can be explained and defined by the expression used by Horace for his home: parva sed apta mihi. On the other hand, many historical and geographical reasons explain the inevitable dialectic established between the history of Italy and the history of San Marino; the great events of the Italian Risorgimento and the following republican history obviously had a great importance on our independent and autonomous character – we want to underline it.

For this reason, we feel directly affected by the issue of Civil Religion, evoked a few days ago during the Grand Lodge of Grande Oriente d’Italia, that is to say the complex set of rituals, values, principles and behaviours that substantiate and establish the democratic life of a truly modern society.

The dimensions of our small Republic do not decrease or reduce its importance; in the world where we live we can observe more clearly all phenomena and problems related to post-modernity or, if you prefer, this new phase in the history of the West which is sometimes referred to as fluid or liquid, due to its elusiveness. The small States, particularly in Europe, are a particular problem since they have been involved, even recently, in issues related to major legal and economic processes which have sometimes marked their image and role. Our life and our subsistence were erroneously identified with a kind of “economic and fiscal paradise” and that was very harmful to us. Such an assessment, with all its implications, reflects on the Masonic identity itself; in general, in the history of the Western world, the association between Freemasonry and the business world has been a very common topos and we must take this into account without too much pretense. One of the most important aims of the same constitution and installation of our Grand Lodge was to cover an area where others could try to root and operate in the name of Freemasonry; as we all are aware, the name of Freemasonry is not protected by copyrights, so that it could be misused for illicit purposes by anybody, thus generating an evident damage not only for the Brethren of the very near Italy, but also for the image of our Institution all over Europe and all over the world. Let me underline once more that we have constituted our Grand Lodge in accordance with the institutional regularity to protect the civil and moral character of its members.

For this reason, under our sovereignty and in cooperation with the Grande Oriente d’Italia, we are working to underline the historical and cultural importance granted by the millenary continuity of our small Republic, highlighting the civil and moral values kept under Mount Titano. Such values are the protection and preservation of peace, of democracy and of dialogue, such values have existed for centuries and were not discovered years or decades ago. Universal Freemasonry spiritually and practically defends these values and feels able to guarantee them.

In this frame, the public and transparent Masonic identity reiterates our choice of ethical identity and profession of values; in our Republic, we will always demonstrate and prove that Freemasons are “free men of good morals” and not latent fixers devoted to obscure plots and illegal operations on their own or in league with others.

A duly constituted and installed Grand Lodge, no matter how big or small, puts it in an international circuit and creates bonds of reciprocity and responsibility towards its own country and the countries of all other Brethren. Our task may seem small, but a reality like ours with all its complex and delicate implications requires a greater sense of responsibility and the obligation to follow a strict rectitude in moral and spiritual conduct.

All our efforts are directed, inside our institution, to cement the values of initiation of the Universal Freemasonry; at the same time, we communicate to the outside world that membership is a further guarantee for civil society that can take advantage of the constructive presence of an “ethic agency” made up of men chosen for their qualities and their profile and standing as defenders of constitutional values and laws.

The Civil Religion is a secular space of sociability, sharing, unity and universal brotherhood, closely linked to the very Masonic ideals; this is our true flag, waving every time that we, as individuals and of course even more as an institution operate for the common good of society and the State.
In this way, we believe we can contribute to a common process of expansion of the Masonic principles in Europe and in all countries where Freemasonry is present; together, we give life to a spiritual laboratory capable of forging and shaping new true builders of masterly works.


Bro.'. Italo Casali
Grand Master
Serenissima Gran Loggia della Repubblica di San Marino


Gustavo Pardo Valdes - speaker of democracy



The Freemason

Gustavo Pardo Valdes was initiated in Freemasonry in 1984, the La Luz de Occidente Lodge, where he served as Secretary of the Lodge. In 1986, he is transferred to Havana Lodge, where he held the following positions: Worshipful Master, Senior Warden, Secretary, Representative to the High Chamber of the Grand Lodge of Cuba and Spiritual Father.

From 1991 he was Secretary of the Library Commission, and in 1994 he was elected Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Library. In the year 2000 is elected President of Public Relations Committee. The year 2006 brings him the "Masonic Merit Award." Brethren Gustavo Pardo Valdes is an honorary member of 10 Masonic Lodges and guarantor of friendship of 12 Masonic Lodges.

Gustavo Pardo Valdes
candidate to Grand Master of Cuba

Also he had an important activity in the Masonic Academy for Advanced Studies. In 1997 enters the symbolism section, in 1998 became Secretary of the Section of symbolism, and in 2005 was elected President of the Masonic Academy for Advanced Studies.

In 1985 enters the Galileo Lodge of Perfection #28, and in 1986 enters the Galileo Chapter #81. In 1987 became a Knight Kadosh, and in 1988 enters in the Santiago Consistory #1.

He is crowned Sovereign Grand Inspector General in 1999 and in 2001 became an active member of the Supreme Council for Cuba. Gustavo Pardo Valdes was elected Grand Chancellor and Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Cuba.


Gustavo Pardo Valdes - The profane

Born in 1946 in Havana, in his profane life Brethren Gustavo is a geotechnical specialist and author of several books on Freemasonry. It was noted as a powerful speaker of democracy in the castrist Cuban system and for his democratic beliefs, he was arrested by the Cuban government, being therefore a political prisoner. After he got out of prison, our Brethren continued to speak in favor of democracy, assuming the risk under a regime of which many nations labeled as totalitarian.


Saturday 2 April 2011

Jose Manuel Collera Vento - Cuba's communist secret agent betrays the Grand Lodge of Cuba



Cuban Freemasonry goes through a difficult period, announces the Masonic Press Agency of Romania (APMR). Jose Manuel Collera Vento (former Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba) was a secret agent of the communist regime of Castro. Following this, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, Brethren José Ramón González Díaz issued a statement in which he denies Collera's membership and condemns all his subversive actions against Freemasonry and against the Grand Lodge announced APMR a few moments ago.


Collera, praised by the so-called "liberal" Freemasonry in Latin America* and supported vigorously by them when he was expelled from the Grand Lodge, it appears today to be just a puppet of a totalitarian regime that not only tarnish the reputation of Universal Freemasonry, but also that of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, an historic Masonic institution of over 150 years old.

For his subversive actions, on April 1st, 2011, Collera received the highest distinction of the Popular Assembly of Cuba: the Escudo Pinareño. Although the regime in Havana has violated the internal laws of the Grand Lodge, it continues to interfere in its internal affairs, calling the Grand Lodge of Cuba to accept Collera as an active member of its Lodge. The Cuban Justice Minister said: "He acted as a patriot infiltrated in the dissidence." The communist regime in Havana called Solano Ramos Lodge members (in Pinar del Río) to readmit Collera. Ministry leaders have been interrogated members of that Lodge, asking them to reintegrate "agent Gerardo" (Collera's codename).

Jose Manuel Collera Vento was part of a program of the communists in Cuba that attempted to form a pro communist "parallel Freemasonry". Basically, it wanted the division of the historical Freemasonry of Cuba.

According to an article published not long ago by Diario Masonico (a notorious virtual Masonic publication in Latin America), it was said that about Collera that he only brings bad memories and that this "hero of the people" was expelled from the Grand Lodge for attempting to destabilize the institution. On the other side, Collera accuses various of its Masonic Brothers of being part of an international conspiracy against the totalitarian regime of Cuba, led now by Fidel's brother Raul.

*There are various Masonic organizations and Grand Lodges in Latin America (so-called liberal) that supported Collera's national and international activities. Some of those organizations are in Colombia and Peru. One can say that we could talk about communist cells in those countries, especially in Colombia where FARC's leaders are acting against democracy and freedom.