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.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said Belarus will not be dragged into the war in Ukraine, while also stressing that Minsk and Moscow would jointly respond to any aggression against them.
Fighting in the Russia–Ukraine war has intensified sharply, with both sides launching significant strikes far beyond the front lines as the conflict enters its 1,549th day.
As the 13th edition of the World Urban Forum ended, Azerbaijan's Pavilion showcased reconstruction efforts in its liberated territories and foregrounded the importance of mine removal in resettlement efforts.
NATO fighter jets were activated on Thursday (21 May) after at least one drone entered Latvian airspace, according to Latvia’s armed forces, marking the latest in a series of security incidents across the Baltic region linked to the war in Ukraine.
A French appeals court has found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 Rio–Paris crash, marking a major development in a case that has stretched on for 17 years.
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