The shuttered Cuban embassy in San José, Costa Rica. Photo: Cubaminrex.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba reported this Wednesday that Costa Rica, under pressure from the United States, limited its relations with Havana to the consular sphere. Cuba’s ministry described the decision of the government of Costa Rica as “arbitrary.”
“On March 17, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an official of the Republic of Costa Rica informed our Foreign Ministry, through a diplomatic note and without offering any argument whatsoever, of the unilateral decision to close that country’s embassy in Cuba,” stated Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an official statement.
Havana’s Foreign Ministry specified that “without any kind of justification and invoking a presumed and unfounded reciprocity,” the Costa Rican government requested that Cuba “withdraw the diplomatic staff from its embassy in San José, noting that this does not include consular and administrative personnel, who may remain carrying out their functions.”
Additionally, Costa Rica notified that as of April 1, the government will maintain relations with Cuba at the consular level. In response, the Cuban Foreign Ministry stressed that “this is an arbitrary decision, evidently adopted under pressure and without taking into consideration the national interests and those of brotherly people.”
Cuban authorities emphasized that with this step, “the Costa Rican government, which displays a history of subordination to United States policy against Cuba, once again joins the offensive of the US government in its renewed attempts to isolate our country from the nations of Our America and becomes a participant in its aggressive escalation against the Cuban Revolution, rejected by the international community.”
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry recalled the history of unity between the peoples of both nations: “Nothing will be able to distance the peoples of Cuba and Costa Rica, united by indissoluble ties of a common history, nurtured by great heroes of Cuban independence such as Martí and Maceo.”
Featured image: The shuttered Cuban embassy in San José, Costa Rica. Photo: Cubaminrex.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/CB/SL
Cameron Baillie is an award-winning journalist, editor, and researcher. He won and was shortlisted for awards across Britain and Ireland. He is Editor-in-Chief of New Sociological Perspectives graduate journal and Commissioning Editor at The Student Intifada newsletter. He spent the first half of 2025 living, working, and writing in Ecuador. He does news translation and proofreading work with The Orinoco Tribune.
