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.
Pakistan has warned that any attempt by India to block or significantly reduce river flows under the Indus Waters Treaty could have “far-reaching consequences”, after India's water minister said New Delhi was working to ensure that “not a single drop” of water reaches Pakistan in the coming years.
SpaceX made a historic entrance into the Nasdaq on Friday, surging over 20% in its first day of trading and lifting its valuation to more than $2 trillion. Investors flocked to the world’s largest IPO, betting on Elon Musk’s sprawling empire spanning rockets, AI and beyond.
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Japan’s birth rate and fertility levels have fallen to their lowest levels on record, highlighting the country’s worsening demographic crisis as fewer people marry and have children.
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European museums are increasingly returning cultural artefacts to countries in Africa and the Middle East, as pressure grows to address the legacy of colonialism and disputed ownership.
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