Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves ordered the closure of the country’s embassy in Havana on Wednesday (18 March), saying he didn’t recognise Cuba’s government.
Speaking at an event in San José attended by the U.S. ambassador, Chaves said the decision was a protest against Havana’s treatment of the Cuban people.
“Costa Rica does not recognise the legitimacy of Cuba’s communist regime, given the mistreatment, repression and undignified conditions endured by the inhabitants of that beautiful island,” he said.
“We must cleanse the hemisphere of communists,” Chaves added.
Cuba said it “strongly rejected” Chaves’s accusations, branding the embassy closure an "arbitrary decision,” taken “under pressure” from the U.S.
Chaves had “crudely manipulated the history and reality of Cuba and scandalously ignored the direct responsibility that the United States blockade policy has had in the worsening of the economic situation and the deterioration of the living conditions of the Cuban people”, Havana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.
Costa Rica’s move comes just weeks after Ecuador ordered the expulsion of Cuban diplomats from the country, prompting Cuba to shut down its embassy in Quito.
The right-wing administrations in Costa Rica and Ecuador have aligned themselves with U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently signalled he may intervene on the island.
“I do believe I’ll have the honour of taking Cuba,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday (16 March).
Cuba’s government has blamed a longstanding U.S. economic embargo for an ongoing crisis that has driven more than one million people to leave the country.
Most recently, the Trump administration’s oil blockade on the island has contributed to widespread blackouts, cutting power to homes, hospitals and businesses.
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The U.S. has arrested Adys Lastres Morera, the sister of the head of GAESA, a military-run business group which owns Cuba’s most profitable enterprises, including the island’s five-star hotels, and its largest port.
Russia pledged support for Cuba on Thursday after the U.S. indicted former Cuban president Raúl Castro on murder charges linked to the 1996 downing of exile planes, escalating tensions between Washington and Havana.
The Trump administration plans to announce criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro next Wednesday, according to a U.S. Justice Department official, in a move that would escalate the pressure campaign against the island's communist government.
Widespread protests erupted across Havana on Wednesday evening as Cuba faced its worst rolling blackouts in decades after the government announced it had run out of diesel and fuel oil amid a tightening U.S. blockade.
India is investigating a data breach at Tata Electronics that exposed sensitive documents linked to Apple's unreleased iPhone 18 Pro, marking the government's first public comments on the incident.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has raised its forecast for the rapid emergence of a strong El Niño, warning the climate pattern is likely to drive higher global temperatures and intensify extreme weather in the months ahead.
Iran and the U.S. have concluded indirect talks in Doha without a major breakthrough, with discussions focused on maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and frozen Iranian funds. Both sides are expected to meet again after the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
International politicians and religious leaders have paid respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei throughout the day, ahead of his six day funeral ceremony which begins on Saturday. His casket is currently on display at the Iman Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran.
Eight Buddhist monks were killed and more than 20 others injured after an 11-year-old boy driving his parents' pickup truck ploughed into a religious procession in north-eastern Thailand, police said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated U.S. President Donald Trump on the 250th anniversary of American independence, saying Russia and the United States share a special responsibility for maintaining global security as the world's two largest nuclear powers.
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