By Esteban Oria – December 8, 2022, El Nacional
The essay «Origins of Freemasonry in Venezuela» by Luis Capecchi addresses the phases of Freemasonry during the different political stages, from the 18th, 19th and much of the 20th centuries. It is an academic descriptive work of extremely useful political interest, given that it allows us to understand the behavior of the Grand Lodge of Venezuela and what was the role played by political interests in the institutional bodies of Freemasonry in their respective times.
It is known that the independence of Venezuela and the rest of the colonies was led by Freemasons, in the case of Francisco de Miranda, Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, O’Higgins. In Venezuela, 19th century Freemasonry had its first Grand Master in Diego Bautista Urbaneja, from its first president José Antonio Páez to Ignacio Andrade they were Freemasons, it was President Antonio Guzmán Blanco who finished the Great Temple located from Jesuits to Maturín. It is said that a good part of the government projects were carried out in the lodges. It was with the fall of the period known as yellow liberalism that the presence of Freemasonry in spaces of power diminished, ending up disappearing with the arrival of General Joaquín Crespo.
Freemasonry in the time of Gómez
The loss of Masonic influence continued with General Gómez in power. What Capecchi says of the Benemérito regime is that “Gomecismo never persecuted Freemasonry. He preferred to ignore her.»
I found it interesting to share with you the transcript of the conversation between Grand Master Jacobo Bendhan Chocrón and Juan Vicente Gómez. According to Capecchi, «Dr. Bendhan trembled thinking about La Rotunda and other things that were going through his head,» but the dialogue was short and friendly:
«So you are the head of Freemasonry?» Gómez asked him.
“Yes, I am the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Venezuela, my general.
«And what do you do in Freemasonry?»
―We met peacefully to talk about the importance of virtues and morality. We also instill love for work, respect for the country and the practice of good customs.
«Aha, I do like that.» As long as they preach love for work, respect for the country and the practice of good customs, they will never be bothered.
«And is it true that the Liberator Bolívar was a Freemason?»
“Yes, Your Excellency. The Liberator Bolívar was a member of Freemasonry.
«Aha, very good, they already told me that.»
Capecchi concludes that this level of institutional recognition of Freemasonry to the Benemérito regime allowed them to function in times of dictatorship. He says in the essay: «The dictator’s spies and some Freemasons who were in high positions or were his partners, constantly informed him about what was done in the Masonic Confederation, where the meetings were harmless and did not represent any danger to the regime» .
Once Gómez died, he was succeeded by General Eleazar López Contreras, who made profound changes in the government, starting with the release of political prisoners and allowing the return of exiles, including a group of important political leaders who are also Freemasons.
Capecchi points out that there were frictions between factions from Gomez that opposed the changes, one of the most bitter being that led by General León Jurado, a prominent Freemason. About him it is said that his toughness and cruelty was famous, but he also distinguished himself for his gifts of humanity, freeing political prisoners every year. The truth was that López Contreras removed him from office along with other furious gomecistas and replaced them with prominent democrats Rómulo Gallegos, Alberto Adriani, Alberto Smith, and others.
Freemasons present in 1948
With the coming to power of Division General Isaías Medina Angarita as a result of a second-degree election in the National Congress, his government legalized political parties, allowed unions to function, implemented salary fixing, and promulgated the social security law. compulsory, and many social advances; however, he did not support the constitutional reform to allow the direct, universal and secret election of the President of the Republic that the political parties were requesting. This determined his overthrow on October 18, 1945 by a civic-military coup carried out by the military, grouped in the Military Patriotic Union, in partnership with leaders of the Democratic Action party, among which its leader Rómulo Betacncourt stands out.
The period is called the adeco triennium, it is the period that inaugurates the model of representative democracy with universal suffrage in Venezuela. The elected president is Rómulo Gallegos, some of the members of his government were members of Freemasonry (…) Alejandro Oropeza Castillo (Freemason), Raúl Leoni (Freemason), Valmore Rodríguez (Freemason) and Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa (Freemason).
In the case of the Freemason Luis Beltrán Prieto, his work as Minister of Education of the Betancourt government stands out, a period that institutionalized the secular program of Venezuelan education. Prieto was co-author of the first draft of the Education Law in 1948, he said at that time: «Every responsible State with real authority assumes the general orientation of education as its function. This orientation expresses his political doctrine and consequently, shapes the conscience of citizens.
For Capecchi, the Grand Lodge of Venezuela did not play a notable role throughout this transition, given that it had a history of cooperation with the Gómez government from which it could not separate itself.
During the Gómez regime, figures who later stood out in the Gallegos government and who were Freemasons were kept in prison: Alejandro Oropeza, sent as a prisoner to the castle of Puerto Cabello in 1928 and Valmore Rodríguez, imprisoned in the castle of San Carlos.
In the case of Raúl Leoni, who was another prominent Freemason, the tyranny of Gómez kept him in exile until he was able to return in 1941 through the process of opening and legalizing parties that took place in the government of Isaías Medina Angarita. The freemason Raúl Leoni served as Minister of Labor in the Gallegos government.
Another prominent Freemason was Andrés Eloy Blanco, who in 1946 was elected president of the National Constituent Assembly called for the reform of the Constitution, which establishes universal, direct and secret suffrage. In the Gallegos government he held the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. He started in Freemasonry in 1925, in the Respectable Candor Lodge No. 27, in San Fernando de Apure, working in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
During the period of the adeco triennium, a commission was created to investigate alleged torture of political detainees, the investigations concluded that there were cases of human rights violations. The revolutionary government junta proceeds to remove those responsible from their posts. On January 11, 1947, the government released all the political prisoners who claimed to have been tortured.
Infighting between militants from the Acción Democrática and Copei parties provide excuses for a military junta to remove Gallegos from power, sending them into exile. The coup was led by Marcos Pérez Jiménez, along with Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, who established a military dictatorship.
Raúl Leoni along with other prominent democratic leaders tried to restore the republic by installing a new provisional government, but he was captured and imprisoned for 8 months, later he would also be expelled into exile.
According to Capecchi’s essay, during the Pérez Jiménez dictatorship, Freemasonry institutionalized in the Grand Lodge once again played the same role as in the days of Gómez.
Capecchi’s essay highlights that of the three soldiers who participated in the overthrow of the government of Rómulo Betancourt, one was a Freemason, it was Felipe Llovera Páez.
In the essay, he is credited with good relations with the authorities of the Grand Lodge: «He was benevolent with some Freemasons taken to prison for participating in subversive activities, the same can be said of the famous Bachiller Castro, right-hand man of Pedro Estrada, head of the National security. Many claim that Bachiller Castro saved many opponents who they identified as Freemasons from torture and other atrocities.”
In the time of Pérez Jiménez
Apparently, in a certain way, the connection of the high Masonic level with the heads of the dictatorial repression was useful, Capecchi refers that “during the Pérez Jiménez dictatorship, the rarefied political atmosphere, suspicion and distrust that prevailed at all levels, produced three camps of clearly differentiated Freemasons: the democrats and progressives located in the resistance, the supporters of the government and foreign contractors who took advantage of the advantages that the regime granted them, and the indifferent ones who were only concerned with living their lives without running any type of risks”, very similar to the current reality with Maduro.
Regarding the Grand Master of the times of Pérez Jiménez, Capecchi says that «Among his personal plans, he had a project to have the Great Masonic Temple demolished for the construction of a building, a plan that was frustrated when the company with which he planned to carry out the The work did not offer the necessary guarantees.
The period of democracy
According to Capecchi’s essay, with the arrival of democracy in 1958 and the recovery of institutionality, democratic governments ignored Venezuelan institutional Freemasonry, apparently it could not get rid of its reputation linked to dictatorships; In this regard, the phrase of the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has a good place: «If you are neutral in situations of injustice, it means that you have chosen the oppressive side.»
With the advent of democracy after the fall of the Marcos Pérez Jiménez dictatorship, the freemason Raúl Leoni returned to Venezuela becoming the first president of the Senate and Congress of the Republic between 1959 and 1963, and the second President of Venezuela from 1964 to 1969.
Capecchi says that the order lost influence in a significant way, “none of its historical credentials was enough to attract the attention of the rulers of the past century and what is going on in this one. The mistaken policy of systematic isolation, marginalized it from the great movements of opinion, where a meritorious institution, such as Freemasonry, with skilful leaders could have obtained resounding prestige and power”. Sentence Capecchi, «all these years of the Venezuelan democratic era, should have been the propitious framework for the aggrandizement of Freemasonry, but we repeat the lack of leadership, imagination, sense of opportunity, modern organization and intelligent use of human resources, They prevented the Order from achieving a development in tune with the credentials that it knew how to accumulate through history”.
Currently, the Grand Lodge maintains institutional recognition from the Maduro government and it is suspected that during some facets, the authorities have collaborated in investigations of the three main police offices of the regime in the persecution of Freemasons opposed to the regime, these police are the DGCIM known as the Directorate of Military Counter-Intelligence, SEBIN, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, and the CICPC Criminal and Criminal Scientific Investigation Corps.
The Maduro regime is considered by the international community to be repressive and a systematic violator of human rights. Organizations such as the United Nations have denounced him and his reports are part of the evidence dossier kept by the prosecution of the International Criminal Court, where an investigation has been opened into the Maduro regime for crimes considered against humanity. Among the cases being investigated are extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of Masons.
In what we have read of Capecchi’s essay, it stands out that the conduct of political neutrality assumed by the Grand Lodge of Venezuela against totalitarian regimes such as those of Gómez and Pérez Jiménez, has taken its toll on it to the point that it has been ignored in the democratic period.
With the arrival of Chávez to power there was a gradual rapprochement, but it was consolidated during the Maduro regime with the mandate of the Grand Master Ubaldo Jiménez Silva. It was during the administration of José Bericotte that the Grand Lodge decreed three days of mourning in all the lodges of its jurisdiction on the death of Hugo Chávez. In their recital they stated that the physical disappearance of Chávez «affects in a superlative degree both the national feeling and the patriotic commitment of the Venezuelan name.»
The Grand Lodge hostage to Maduro
The story about the freemasons murdered by Maduro is known by the community, it is about the former officials Oscar Pérez and José Pimentel, affiliated with the lodge Santiago Mariño N 208. When the freemason Oscar Pérez rebelled against Maduro, on June 27, 2017 , a series of events were triggered in parallel in the Grand Lodge of Venezuela.
Three hours have not elapsed since the transmission of the video of Oscar announcing his civil disobedience through the application of article 350 of the constitution, when the venerable master of his lodge, the venerable master Rubén Rodríguez, was summoning the members of the workshop for a held or meeting for the purpose of prosecuting him.
I remember being one of those who received that call, given that I was part of the same workshop as Oscar Pérez. Naturally we were all worried, it took us by surprise, it was one of our own who had made the decision to confront the tyrant, knowing the Maduro character, fundamentally the criminal reputation of his police apparatus, the least we could expect were consequences for all of us who knew Oscar.
During the telephone conversation I had with Rodríguez, he told me that the trial was the idea of the Grand Lodge authorities, specifically the Grand Prosecutor.
During the days prior to the trial, a document allegedly signed by Ubaldo Jiménez and Alfredo Tovar as secretary of the Grand Lodge circulated, in which they charged Oscar with the crime of «traitor to the homeland.» I got to read that pamphlet, and it seemed like a joke to me, but unfortunately the crime is typified in the Statute of Prosecution of the Grand Lodge, brother Tovar justified himself that he did not sign that document and that it is false.
In my opinion, declaring a traitor to the country is the responsibility of a Government, Freemasonry should not get involved or obey this type of legislation, the circumstances regarding the qualification of traitor are subjective and it depends on who argues or points it out, in the case of the regime of Maduro, for them a traitor to the country is anyone who disagrees, for this alleged crime many Venezuelans have been sentenced to terrible prison terms, others have been persecuted, disappeared and even murdered.
Regarding this document, I am going to share part of that text that circulated on social networks:
The Very Resp:. Grand Master of the Very respectable Grand Lodge of the Republic of Venezuela R:.H:. JUAN UBALDO JIMENEZ SILVA, by virtue of the Powers with which he is vested and by the Authority of Law on behalf of the Masonic High Chamber of Justice, I fulfill the duty to issue this statement,
CONSIDERING
- The constitution of the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Venezuela in its articles 4, title IV, of the rite of freemasons that expresses «All men regularly initiated in one of the Lodges of the Jurisdiction of the Republic of Venezuela are freemasons , or in any other workshop in the jurisdiction of a regular Masonic Power» and article 16 «Every Freemason, even if he is not affiliated, is subject to the government of the fraternity and can be tried and punished by any of the Lodges of the jurisdiction where he resides. ”.
- That Article 18 of the aforementioned title specifies “The duties of Freemasons are: 1) To ensure the Integrity of the Homeland, 2) Obey the laws of the country where they live, and 3) Respect the honor and property of others. In the same way, Article 20 mentions “The quality of Freemason is lost: 1) for treason against the country, 2) For a dishonorable action; and that whose loss of said quality takes place in a final sentence pronounced in a Masonic Trial in accordance with article 21 of our constitution.
3 that one of the attributions as a Grand Master in accordance with the provisions of the Positive Legal Order is to act as Judge and preside over the court to the Masonic Trial Statute.
AGREEMENT AND TERM
- Hold trial against Q:.H:. Oscar Alberto Pérez, Identity Card N 15943499, after evaluating the conduct in the different events where the Q:.H:. Oscar Alberto.
I did not go to Oscar’s alleged lack of affiliation, as a political scientist I understand what was coming as a purge and even at that moment I feared political persecution, I practically went underground.
The Masonic trial that Oscar Pérez won
A witness of the event tells me that there was no Masonic trial against Oscar in strictly legal terms, instead the venerable master set up a round table, where each brother gave his opinion on keeping or dismissing Oscar Pérez and José Pimentel, according to In the version I have, most of those present were in favor of not irradiating the brothers Oscar Pérez and José Pimentel.
Despite this position, the venerable master together with three dignities made executive decisions that in practice implied that Oscar Pérez had been irradiated.
One of these controversial decisions was denying entry to the workshop to Oscar Pérez and José Pimentel at the end of July 2017, when they visited it after the act of rebellion.
A witness let me know that the venerable teacher Ruben Rodríguez together with three dignities of the workshop, these were the public prosecutor and the expert brother, out of respect for one of them to whom I became a great friend I will not mention him, the other brother is deceased , the three of them made the decision to deny Oscar Pérez access, undoubtedly a shameful and reprehensible act; being carried away by their fanaticism for Chávez probably contributed notably to leading the workshop in this senseless direction. A fourth brother, the venerable master in office in 2018 Jesús Betancourt, is allegedly responsible for collecting signatures to support the document issued by the Grand Lodge in the Grand Master’s degree of Colonel Jiménez Silva, a document that I have denounced for in principle evading responsibilities as institution towards its members of the Grand Lodge, for openly and shamelessly instructing the lodges to cooperate with the Maduro regime, I understand that during the Betancourt administration, an attempt was made to file a Masonic file against me, I thank the secretary of the Lodge for preventing such a audacity, injustice and irrationality.
On the subject of rebellions against the state carried out by Freemasons, the constitutions of the Freemasons of 1723 cite the following:
Of the duties of a Freemason. Chapter II Of the head of state and his subordinates.
“…So, if a brother rebels against the State, he should not be supported in his rebellion, even if he is pitied for such misfortune; and if he is not convicted of any crime, even if the loyal Fraternity should condemn the rebellion and not give the Government the slightest reason for suspicion or even the slightest foundation on the matter, they will not be able to expel him from the Lodge and his relationship with it remains unbroken.
This law is more than two hundred years old, by the time it was drafted it constituted a significant advance, it was about the recognition of the right of conscience in a period governed by absolute monarchies, but since its drafting there have been significant changes in constitutional law, as well that in order to have an adequate interpretation of these boundaries it is necessary to reconcile them with the present, this explains the participation of Freemasons in the elaboration of important documents in favor of human rights, in particular it is worth highlighting the work of Henry Laugier, Deputy Secretary General of the UN, affiliated with the French Gram Orient, who played a fundamental role in the process that led to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948. Faithful friend of René Cassin and close to Éléonore Roosevelt, wife of the Freemason Franklin Delano Roosevelt, both promoters of the universal declaration of human rights.
During the meeting of 50 nations at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, Laugier addressed the delegates in these terms » The mission of the Commission on Human Rights consists in continuing, during peace, the struggle that free peoples led during the war, defending the rights and dignity of man from all attacks and drawing up an international declaration of human rights that, due to its effectiveness, can triumph over all obstacles”.
That is what Freemasonry is all about, the training of leaders with the ability to understand the present in order to lead processes of profound change in favor of humanity. It is clear that the brothers who adopted the position of disaffiliating Oscar did so by interpreting the laws under their own prism, without considering the consequences.
Public Prosecutor admits trial against Oscar
A communication that was sent to me at the time by the tax speaker tries to justify his decisions based on the legal system in force in Venezuela. Undoubtedly making the terrible mistake of not understanding the scope of international humanitarian law. Everything he argues can be denied by the facts.
The brother speaker argues and I quote:
Anywhere on the planet, a person who steals a helicopter and starts firing automatic weapons of war and dropping bombs on an open city is accused of being a TERRORIST (…) 3) Brother Oscar was never irradiated from the Order by the Lodge . I remind you that Article 16 of the Constitution of Venezuela reads as follows: Every Freemason, even if unaffiliated, is subject to the government of the fraternity and can be tried and punished by any of the lodges of the jurisdiction (…) Article 18 of the duties of the Freemasons are: (…) 2.- Obey the laws of the country 3.- Consecrate the principles of the inviolability of life, the equality of all men before the law and combat tyranny, intolerance, fanaticism and superstitions in all their forms (…) Preserve, even at the cost of sacrifices on their part, the harmony and fraternity that must reign among all the members of the great Masonic family and use all the means at their disposal to avoid any harm to the order, his brothers or his sympathizers. Brother Oscar Pérez was tried for violation of these articles. Brother (referring to me) you are a political scientist, I am greatly surprised by your attitude and your ignorance of what a dictatorship is. This government is not to my liking, but you and I know that this government (the Maduro regime) is not even similar to that of Pinochet in Chile, that of Franco in Spain (…) in those dictatorships there was no freedom of the press and You know that here you can say and publish what you want, the repression of the opposition guarimbas was not such, it was containment, in another country and especially in the USA in the first guarimbas they would have been repressed with force, with deaths and injuries and detainees imprisoned for at least 15 years.
It is enough information to understand that the speaker brother is anchored in his vision of the country, therefore, I can understand that he is practically immovable in his position, like many supporters and officials of the Maduro regime, who I presume live within the Grand Lodge, which in my opinion can explain the alleged omissions and collaborations that occurred in the framework of the persecution against Oscar Pérez.
What infuriates me the most when reading your version of events is the lack of acknowledgment of flagrant violations of human rights, especially when they were allegedly committed flagrantly before your very eyes, in the case of the summonses that were issued to five of the members of the lodge (the names of those affected are Yhonny Calderón, Rubén Rodríguez, Galian Sánchez, Jameson Jiménez and Marcial Jiménez), who were held in the offices of the Cicpc -Scientific Police- for more than 11 hours, according to a complaint issued in press conference by Mrs. Portillo, wife of one of the affected Freemasons Jameson Jiménez. But this would be the first of the outrages against Freemasons, at the beginning of January 2018 the kidnapping of Jameson Jiménez took place and his subsequent arrest and the search and capture of Yhonny Calderón, a third Freemason had already been arrested in July 2017, it was about by Ramón Delgado.
In a Grand Lodge whose administration is considered respectful of human rights, all these events constitute, in themselves, enough evidence to be able to denounce them before competent organizations in the field of human rights, as well as to provide defense lawyers for the Masons affected; However, none of this happened, rather the opposite, they silenced and denied, they used the means at their disposal to make up in order to distort the truth, it is so excessive that they even issued guidelines to the affiliated lodges in order to allow access to the information from their files to support the investigations of the repressors in the figure of police forces in the state of Maduro.
Military court sentences Freemason
As I have already told you, in July 2017, the Maduro regime had arrested the freemason Ramon Delgado, an apprentice member of the Santiago Mariño Lodge N 208, who supposedly days before had met with Oscar Pérez at his home.
His statement before the military court that prosecuted him was published on the website of the Supreme Court of Justice, and may give a clue to the nature of the persecution initiated by the Maduro regime against the Freemasons.
When questioned by the judge, Major Claudia Carolina Pérez Mogollón, the alleged defendant Ramón Delgado replied: «I deny the charges against me, I was in Santa Fe, in the house of Oscar Pérez, for the Freemasonry Group. I invite him to a skao group, for movie activities, we have been gathering books and ideas, we have exchanged to ascend to the next grade. They were meeting on June 25, 2017, in Santa Fe, he invites me to ride in the helicopter and then to shoot. It’s when I answer «are you crazy?».
«Consequently, the citizen Military Judge granted the right to speak to citizen Freddy Jesús Velásquez in his capacity as private defender of the citizen in order for him to ask the questions that he had to ask the accused citizen and consequently replied: Yes, I wish ask the defendant questions. Say your relationship with citizen Oscar Pérez? He replied: He had 3 months of Masonic Relationship. Illustrious to the Tribunal on Freemasonry? He replied: It is for the inner being and the well-being of all people. What topics are covered there? He replied: We talked about the work that is going to be done. For what? He replied: With movements to ascend to the higher grade. That’s all…»
The court ordered custodial measures for the crime of rebellion. The record appears signed on July 16, 2017. It is striking that the defendant’s statement mentioned Freemasonry on several occasions in the context of a military trial of the Maduro regime. We know that historically totalitarian regimes have looked for excuses to persecute Freemasons.
Maduro’s witch hunt
Maduro had begun his persecution against the Freemasons precisely in the month of July with the police summonses, Oscar’s presumed executive non-affiliation at the end of July and beginning of August, I made the decision to leave the country at the end of July and bought the ticket on August 1 with departure on August 18.
The regime’s action against the Freemasons was focused on the Santiago Marino N 208 lodge, but once they achieved their goal of assassinating Oscar Pérez, they continued their search for Oscar’s allies in other lodges within the country and in other eastern areas, news which was widely covered by the media.
Maduro police were able to trace Oscar Pérez’s refuge to a chalet in a popular area of Caracas known as El Junquito, where he was surrounded by more than 500 public forces agents.
Despite having surrendered, he was extrajudicially assassinated by Maduro officials. All the events were broadcast online through social networks from Oscar Pérez’s phone.
Grand Lodges condemn Maduro’s crimes
This crime gained worldwide notoriety due to the fact that most of the world’s news agencies gave extensive coverage to the events. I personally took it upon myself to inform some Grand Lodges about Oscar Pérez’s status as a Freemason, since they were unaware of it.
In particular, I communicated with the authorities of the Grand Lodge of Ecuador and it was precisely they, in the figure of their Grand Master Humberto Plaza, who issued the first of the communiqués condemning the Maduro regime for this horrendous crime committed against two members of the Venezuelan Freemasonry. .
Condemnations continued in the Masonic powers of the continent, among which I remember were The Grand Lodge of Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, the manifesto made by the Inter-American Masonic Confederation was also quite striking. emphasizing a call to attention to the Grand Lodge of Venezuela for its role in that historical context, this is what the statement said and I quote:
«It has also been known that the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Venezuela has issued Communiqué No. 02, dated January 9, where he informs of the Masonic prosecution and the expulsion of the Order of the aforementioned Brother, arguing the legal figures of «treason against the homeland and common crimes».
During the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Inter-American Masonic Confederation, in April 2017, the Letter of Asunción was issued, where one of the outstanding points was the call for attention to the situation that the Republic of Venezuela is experiencing under the current dictatorial regime and urging “the members of the regular Venezuelan Freemasonry to remain firm in the principles of the Masonic ideology, calmly but firmly fighting for the inexcusable respect for the National Constitution and the values of the democratic system.
The concept of freedom is something for which many Masons and non-Masons have sacrificed their lives. Therefore, universal Freemasonry places that precious value in the highest social; For this reason, Inter-American Freemasonry has among its objectives the defense of freedom, human rights and justice. And for this reason, it is not possible to remain silent in the face of an aberrational situation like the one at hand.
What for some is categorized as treason, for others it is seen as a fight for freedom and as the only possible way to recover the rights lost due to ignorance, indifference, abuse of power and other evils. that eat away at the foundations and the very structure of those Latin American countries that still fly the flag of a perverse and failed populism”.
The truth was that all the grand lodges spoke out condemning the Maduro regime, with the sole exception of the Grand Lodge of Venezuela. They did the opposite, their authorities in a letter issued as document 01, issued a directive to the affiliated lodges of their east to «appear before these bodies», in reference to the DGCIM, the FAES and the SEBIN, organizations that have been accused of execute Oscar Pérez and his group.
The statement in question cites that «since there is nothing to hide, it is recommended that the members of the lodges collaborate with the investigation carried out by the State security forces (…) telling the truth in relation to the matters that are dealt with in our outfits and, in general, as they deem convenient and necessary”.
To understand the context of the decisions that emerged in the Grand Lodge in the context of the actions of the Freemason Oscar Pérez, it is necessary to know who the Grand Master was, Colonel Ubaldo Jiménez Silva.
He is a colonel of the National Guard who had been secretary of the National Experimental University of the Armed Forces, a position of trust in the Maduro regime. About him it is known that he had been favored by a judicial measure issued by the Supreme Court of Justice, a ruling of the Criminal Cassation Chamber issued on July 11, 2000, which in one of its paragraphs refers to the «annulment of a questioned sentence”, where allegedly in 1999 the “Martial Court had sentenced him to 11 years in prison for the commission of the crimes of theft of funds belonging to the Armed Forces, committed continuously and abuse of authority”.
After the assassination against the freemasons Oscar Pérez and José Díaz Pimentel, the Maduro regime, through its courts, issued precautionary measures for the release of the arrested freemasons Jameson Jiménez, Yohny Calderón and Ramon Delgado. I understand that some of them were under presentation measures that were later removed, in the case of the Freemason Jameson Jiménez, he was able to escape from Venezuela and received political asylum in Spain.
Endry Méndez denounces the disappearance of Freemasons of the Grand Lodge
In mid-2018, while the memory of the murders of Oscar Pérez and Pimentel was fresh, the disappearance of two other Freemasons affiliated with lodges attached to the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Venezuela was known, their relatives went to the Grand Lodge to request help to help clarify their whereabouts.
I received the information from a complaint shared with me by the Freemason and detective Cicpc Endry Méndez. According to his testimony, it was the secretary of the Grand Lodge, Alfredo Tovar, who asked him to attend to the wives of the disappeared Masons and to initiate a private investigation.
The disappeared were Wilmer Muñoz, commissioner of the Bolivarian Military Intelligence Service, known by the acronym Sebin, and Lieutenant Colonel Juan Antonio Hurtado Campo, commander attached to the weapons park of the Presidential Honor Guard.
The detective tells me that he was able to obtain the location of Commissioner Muñoz’s last contact through call tracking in the windward region known as El Guapo. While investigating the case, he resorted to various sources to gather data, in the same way he requested support from his own investigation unit at the CICPC, however, he obtained refusals that led him to confront the directive of the police force headed by the figure of its director Douglas Rico, director of the Criminal and Forensic Scientific Investigation Corps.
The detective suspects that Commissioner Muñoz may have been in Oscar Pérez’s telephone contacts, and has the theory that he was the object of some retaliation or promoted on an alleged elimination list by regime officials.
The investigation carried out by Detective Endry on Lieutenant Colonel Juan Hurtado also lacked support from the competent bodies, but even raised suspicions against him within the state security organs.
Regarding Hurtado, I learned from a source that the lieutenant colonel was allegedly linked to the disappearance of weapons in his custody, which they later managed to find. The source confirmed that the complaint had been filed with the competent human rights agencies in the United States. This is the reason that her disappearance is reviewed and denounced by the United Nations human rights office, appearing in the Bachelet report of November 21, 2021.
The detective comments that he received a call from a senior military member to warn him that as a result of his inquiry he was being monitored by military counterintelligence and therefore it was best to stop the investigation.
Regarding the cause of the disappearance of Lieutenant Colonel Hurtado, Detective Endry Méndez reached the same conclusion, that both Masons were on Oscar’s contact list and could have been confused and victims of the forced disappearance practices of the counterintelligence agencies of Maduro of which so much is mentioned in human rights reports.
Detective Méndez had notified Alfredo Tovar and Ubaldo Jiménez about the situation, he also requested their protection because he believed that his investigation exposed him to the Maduro regime, therefore his life was in danger, the response he obtained was abandonment to his own luck.
The investigation carried out by detective Endry Méndez at the request of the gfran Lodge ended up costing him exile in Paraguay, where he was injured while driving a taxi in an alleged vehicle theft; the bullet grazed his heart. Endry has been cared for by Paraguayan medicine and was supported by the fraternity of Freemasons, who have helped him recover and settle in Paraguayan society.
At present, the testimony of Endry Méndez is part of the compendium that is helping the international justice system to clarify the facts of human rights violations in Venezuela.
Referring to this case, in a display of cynicism, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López published a ministry poster declaring Lieutenant Colonel Juan Hurtado a deserter for failing to report to his duties at the command.
That’s what the Maduro regime is about, they make people disappear and then make it clear that they don’t have anything to do with it. They are also skilled in reaching the relatives of the victims to coerce them to change their versions or stop looking for their relatives.
Freemasons constituted in an ad hoc group International Masonic Human Rights Commission have notified both disappearances both to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission and to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Another situation that gained notoriety in Maduro’s persecution of the Freemasons was the complaint filed by criminal lawyer William Jiménez against regime officials. The lawyer was a visiting member of the Santiago Mariño Lodge No. 208, the same one to which Oscar Pérez was affiliated. He was present in his capacity as coordinator of the National Service of Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Senamecf, while the autopsy was performed on the bodies of Oscar Pérez, José Pimentel and the rest of the companions, and he was able to witness a series of serious irregularities.
The lawyer Jiménez denounced the attempt to cremate the bodies of the victims by officials under the orders of Diosdado Cabello. He was also the first to denounce the cause of the execution of the victims of the massacre since he was able to be present at the autopsy.
In one of my most recent articles I interviewed him and I mention the chain of command present during the autopsy. William Jiménez shared with me the report made by the prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz that was presented in the International Criminal Court, and I had the opportunity to read the report of the experts and experts as well as the more than 300 images, being shocked with the harshness and severity of damage to the bodies, I was also able to read about the execution evidence, which leaves no doubt that Maduro and his officials committed a crime against humanity.
All these denunciations have been duly published in my opinion column in El Nacional, which I have provided coverage for more than three years in accordance with the follow-up I have done on the Oscar Pérez case.
These works have served to document the abuses to which we Freemasons in Venezuela have been exposed, the alleged irregularities of officials of the Maduro regime have been shown, but also the faults committed by members of Freemasonry to the detriment of his own brothers.
Freemason Ángel Fajardo receives international protection
I recently had the opportunity to talk with Ángel Fajardo, a member of the Santiago Marino N 208 lodge, who received political asylum in France, who recognized the role played by the press and favored him in his case, by being able to demonstrate through notitia criminis that his life He was in danger because he was part of the same workshop as the opposition member Oscar Pérez.
The human rights court judge was able to read the documentation and the press releases, being impressed by the crudeness of the images, as well as the violence exercised by the regime against the Venezuelan Masons.
Brother Ángel could not go to the Venezuelan Freemasonry to serve as a witness, given that it is suspected that it is infiltrated by Maduro. There is no official documentation from the Grand Lodge that denounces the aforementioned human rights violations. It can be presumed that if some of the victims still remain in Venezuelan territory, it may be because they have reached some kind of agreement with the regime to remain in the country.
The asylum case of the Freemason Ángel Fajardo had its drawbacks, when he was denied in the first instance at the migration office. Apparently the migration officer did not understand the danger his life was running for having been part of the same lodge where Oscar Pérez attended; However, he appealed the decision before the Court of Human Rights, his defense lawyer used the press reports that had been published about the persecution of Freemasons and shared them with the judge, so that he had a much broader and more complete vision of the situation of Freemasonry in Venezuela. Thus, the verdict was in favor of political asylum, becoming the first Venezuelan Freemason in history to receive asylum for political persecution of a lodge.
What the judge’s minutes said is that the applicants «ask the court to annul the decision of June 19, 2018 by which the director general of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) rejected their application for asylum and recognize her as a refugee or, failing that, grant her the benefit of subsidiary protection”.
This request for subsidiary protection was not a political asylum, brother Ángel was only asking France to recognize his vulnerability and at least extend the time period, but the Judge went much further.
I am going to share with you what the Judge wrote of his statement so that you understand the seriousness of what Nicolas did and in particular for the deniers within the Grand Lodge:
(…) Mr. FAJARDO GONZALEZ was a member of Freemasonry. Since April 2017, he has been attending the Santiago Lodge. Marino, who was officially incorporated on September 2, where he met Óscar Pérez, an opponent of the Nicolás Maduro regime. Upon learning that the latter had fled, he told one of his lodge members that he could help the fugitive reach the Colombian border. His proposal, however, went unanswered. He also wrote an article relating to the notions of liberty, equality, fraternity and democracy that was broadcast within his lodge.
On December 6, 2017, he and his wife left their country to visit their daughter. In France, where they learned that on January 15, 2018, Oscar Pérez had been assassinated by the Venezuelan authorities, who are currently looking for accomplices or sympathizers of the latter, considered a terrorist. They also learned that Freemasonry was subject to reprisals for having exposed this murder, they cannot return without fear to their country, which is mired in insecurity and one of their sons has just fled.
- From his private statements it appears that he is a member of Freemasonry, the applicant joined the Santiago Marino lodge in 2017 whose opponent to the regime Óscar Pérez was a member. He was also able to evoke the context in which he finds himself. Several times in his lodge he met with the latter whose ideas he shared.
He also evoked in spontaneous terms his own opposition to the regime of Nicolás Maduro. In addition, available public sources, including press articles, expose that the death of Óscar Pérez has been condemned by the Masonic lodges in Latin America and the Nicolas Maduro regime has retaliated against people related to the latter (Oscar Perez), including masons. Articles from the Venezuelan newspaper TalCual and from the El Pitazo website, dated January 2018, point in particular to an investigation carried out by the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence of Venezuela against potential allies of Óscar Pérez within the Masonic lodges. Thus, it follows from what precedes that, in the particular circumstances of the case, Mr. Fajardo González was rightly feared, in the sense of the aforementioned provisions of the Geneva Convention.
The general principles of law applicable to refugees, resulting in particular from the provisions of the Geneva Convention, impose, with a view to fully guaranteeing the refugee the protection provided for by the aforementioned convention, that the same status be recognized for the person of the same nationality. who was married to a refugee on the date the latter applied for refugee status or had a sufficiently stable and continuous relationship with him to form a family with him,
HE DECIDED:
Article 15: — The decisions of the General Director of OFPRA of June 19, 2018 are annulled
Article 2: Refugee status is recognized for Mr. Ángel Ricardo FAJARDO GONZALEZ and Mrs. XXXXXXXX XXXXXX.
Article 3: This decision will be notified to Mr. Angel Ricardo FAJARDO GONZALEZ, to Mrs. XXXXXXXXXXXX and to the General Director of OFPRA.
Deliberated after the hearing on November 22, 2018, in which the following met:
– Mr Rouvière, President; . .
– Ms. Morillon, designee of the United Nations High Commissioner for
refugees; to
– Ms. Fathi, a person appointed by the Vice President of the Council of State.
This is what it is about when the truth is communicated. When I contacted the Grand Master of Ecuador Humberto Plaza, I did it in good faith, with the idea that by sharing information with him, he would speak with his Grand Lodge about the crimes of the brothers Oscar Pérez and Pimentel, and indeed, the great lodges pronounced themselves condemned Maduro.
I am proud that my contribution has become a means to help save lives, because it has been those sentences made by the Grand Lodges against Maduro that have given credibility to the cases of political persecution against Freemasons.
Of course, he was aware of the historical error that the Grand Lodge of Venezuela and its authorities were committing, because of them no one would have found out and our brothers were in danger of death . Without a doubt, I have received threats from Maduro officials, even from Freemasons, very unfortunate.
The Netherlands grants political asylum to the freemason William Jiménez
Another piece of news that I am pleased to announce is the granting of political asylum by the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Freemason William Jiménez. It is a case that we fight side by side, like brother Ángel Fajardo, who was also denied asylum in the first instance. I understand that you were unable to obtain adequate legal representation, therefore you were unable to communicate the status of your credible fear situation to the immigration officer. William had a flight to Spain but with a stop in Holland, in Madrid he was expected by a group of Masonic brothers; however, because both countries belong to the same Schengen area, he was forced to apply for asylum in the Netherlands as it was his first stop.
When they denied him his asylum, what happened was that William appealed the sentence, he found a new lawyer, from a law firm of professionals in the field of humanitarian law who took an interest in his case, he shared all the press reports with the published denunciations. about the persecution of Freemasons in Venezuela, as well as videos with testimonials of their situation. It was in this way that the immigration justice of the Netherlands granted him a refugee passport and therefore political asylum.
I was recently able to chat via Zoom with both William and Ángel, both of whom recognized the fundamental role that the media played in approving their cases, particularly the work that has been done from my column in the newspaper El Nacional. Frankly, I am quite satisfied that our work saves lives.
William Jiménez had the support and is part of the ad hoc group International Masonic Human Rights Commission.
Juan Guaidó demands to take Oscar Pérez to the National Pantheon
In March 2020, the president in charge of Venezuela Juan Guaido shared on his twitter account the desire to take the remains of Oscar Pérez to the National Pantheon, where the most prestigious public figures in Venezuela rest.
Juan Guaidó is a member of the Venezuelan Freemasonry who was recognized as such by the most important regular Grand Lodges of the continent, he had a state reception during his visit to Brazil where he visited the temple of the Grand Lodge of Brazil where he was awarded the Order of of the Masonic Friendship, «for the services rendered for the good of Humanity, the Order and the Fatherland»
The Grand Orient of Brazil showed its «unconditional support» to the interim president of Venezuela. «It is the duty of every Freemason to take a position against those who injure the human dignity and the ideals of freedom of a people,» says the Grand Orient, which asks its members to «within the principles of democracy and peace, within their political capacities and social, work for political stability in Venezuela and support our brother Guaidó”. During the period in which Juan Guaidó enjoyed international recognition, he was never received by the Grand Lodge of Venezuela. As far as I know, there was no protocol channel to receive him either, unlike the relations they have maintained with the Maduro regime, with whom they maintain institutional recognition.
Regarding Guaidó’s proposal, it makes sense if we read the legacy of Oscar Pérez as a precursor figure of freedom in Venezuela from the tyranny of the Chávez-Maduro regime. Its place in the National Pantheon is a totally logical scenario, next to the tombs of 139 illustrious Venezuelans, including 39 Freemasons. The Freemasons in the Pantheon are:
Lisandro Alvarado Marchena, Raimundo Andueza Palacio, Francisco Aranda, Juan Bautista Arismendi Subero, Francisco de Paula Avendaño López, Andrés Bello López (cenotaph), José Francisco Bermúdez Figuera, Andrés Eloy Blanco Iturbe, Rufino Blanco Fombona, José Félix Blanco, Simón Bolívar Palacios , Luis Brión Detrois, Manuel Ezequiel Bruzual, Juan José Conde, Lino de Clemente Palacios, Manuel María Echeandía, Juan Crisóstomo Falcón Zavarce, Antonio Leocadio Guzmán Agueda, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, Tomás Lander Acala, Francisco Linares Alcántara, Santiago Mariño Carige, Francisco de Miranda Rodríguez (cenotaph), José Gregorio Monagas Burgos, José Tadeo Monagas Burgos, Juan de Dios Monzón, Daniel Florencio O’Leary Burke, José Antonio Páez Herrera, Juan Antonio Pérez Bonalde, Judas Tadeo Piñango Mellado, Luis Razetti Martínez, José Félix Ribas Herrera , Simón Rodríguez, José Tomás Sanabria Meleán, José Laurencio Silva Flores, Carlos Soublette Jerez, Antonio José de Sucre Alcalá (cenotaph), Diego Bautista Urbaneja Sturdyl José María Vargas Ponce.
Maduro and his obsession with Masonic symbols
I did not want to dismiss this article without telling you what was missing in Maduro. He has given free rein to his obsession, in this case, it is about doing the same as other dictators but using other means. If you’ve read my article on «Totalitarianism and the Unknown Holocaust,» you know that I referenced the traveling exhibits of Hitler and Mussolini with their own version of a Masonic lodge, setting up dark-robed skeletons to serve as dignities. The idea of all this propaganda was to ridicule and sow hatred towards the Freemasons. In the case of Maduro, making use of technologies, he made a comic where he has been drawn as a hero: Superbigote, who fights against clearly distinguishable villains in the Venezuelan opposition, calling attention to the biggest villain that they locate in the United States, with factions similar to the Trump and displaying on his chest a logo clearly identified with the Freemasons. It is the all-seeing eye. Very bad for Maduro, advocating hatred against the order, what seems harmless is particularly harmful.
On what I think of Freemasonry in Venezuela
The historical legacy of the Freemasons is irreplaceable and inalienable. Only the list of great men who rest in the National Pantheon gives a dimension of their historical contribution; In addition, we must add those who more recently fought from the trenches to improve our society by bringing democracy to Venezuela. Among the most prominent figures in recent politics, the names of Prieto Figueroa, Valmore Rodríguez, Raúl Leoni (Venezuelan president), Jaime Lusinchi (Venezuelan president), Octavio Lepage (Venezuelan president), Andrés Eloy Blanco and finally Juan Guaidó (president of Venezuela) stand out. in charge of Venezuela).
My opinion about the institutional Freemasonry represented in the Grand Lodge of Venezuela is that they have failed, just as their predecessors did during the times of the Gómez and Pérez Jiménez dictatorships.
However, I do believe that this Freemasonry can be reconciled with the values of universal Freemasonry, in principle declaring its commitment to the values of freedom, denouncing, as other institutions have done, including the Catholic Church, the Maduro dictatorship. .
It is important that this institution leaves an irrefutable public precedent, beginning by condemning the crimes committed against Masons by the Maduro regime, in particular referring to the cases of the Masons Oscar Pérez and José Pimentel. In addition, the Grand Lodge should accompany the families of the victims in their requests for justice, request a formal investigation before international organizations about the disappeared Masons, request reparations for the victims of the dictatorship, those who suffered cruel treatment, who were tortured, move the data files of the Masons to another country, put that information in safekeeping.
I have no doubt that Maduro’s hunt for freemasons is still active, paranoidly seeking what they call coup plotters, all arbitrariness of the regime must be denounced.
Finally, I would like to inform you that all the aforementioned complaints have been duly sent and officially received by both the International Criminal Court and the office of the United Nations Independent Mission, their prompt processing is expected for the purposes that we are summoned. to give testimony and that includes all parties including all those mentioned in the framework of the presumption. To learn more about the process that the prosecution of the International Criminal Court is carrying out, I leave this link. They have provided a link for this purpose: https://www.icc-cpi.int/court-record/icc-02/18-21? s=09 .
Below I share the video with a conversation with the two Venezuelans to whom Europe recognized political protection for their status as Freemasons in the Oscar Pérez case.
We have finished this post, without a doubt quite complete, we will read it on a next occasion in El Nacional.
@estebanoria
