US cancels tourist visas for board members of top Costa Rica newspaper | Costa Rica
The US State Department has tourist visas canceled For more than half of the board members of Costa Rica’s leading national newspaper, La Nación, are a critical voice against the country’s president, Rodrigo Chaves, an ally of Donald Trump.
During Chaves’ 2022 presidential campaign, La Nación published several articles documenting sexual harassment allegations that alienated him from his job at the World Bank. The newspaper also reported: allegations of illegal campaign financingWhich Chaves rejected.
Since Chaves took office extremely critical He accused La Nación of being a “vile press” and “political assassins”. He also targeted the newspaper financially by retracting a statement. cleaning permit For an event space operated by the organization’s parent company.
At the same time, Chaves became a close ally of the US president. Last month, it agreed that Costa Rica would accept up to 25 deported immigrants a week from the United States. Chaves also attended Trump’s Inter-American Shield event peak and close Costa Rican Embassy in Havana.
Now, ties between the two governments appear to have led to La Nación’s board members being banned from entering the United States.
“This is completely unprecedented,” La Nación executive chairman Pedro Abreu said via email. “We see this as an indirect attack on press freedom because of the impact it could have on an independent media outlet and those who have the institutional responsibility to protect it.”
Abreu said five of the newspaper’s seven board members had their visas revoked, while the other two held passports from countries that do not require visas to enter the United States.
Analysts say Washington’s move could have an immediate deterrent effect in Costa Rica. “The situation is extremely serious,” said Felipe Alpízar, coordinator of the Observatory of American Politics at the University of Costa Rica. “It is the United States that is eroding the foundations of political debate, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press in Costa Rica.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
La Nacion’s board members are the latest in a long list of Costa Ricans targeted by Washington. Former Costa Rican communications minister Mauricio Herrera said: “This did not happen in a vacuum; there is a persistent pattern. There have been a number of people whose visas were revoked because they were political opponents or critics of the government.”
Among them is Óscar Arias, two-time president of Costa Rica and Nobel peace prize winner. Washington also banned Rodrigo, Arias’ brother, the speaker of the legislature and a Supreme Court justice.
Visa restrictions, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visited Costa Rica Last year he praised Chaves for a decree that blocked Chinese companies from rolling out Costa Rica’s 5G network.
Rubio told Chaves: “We will try to work collaboratively with you. To pay a price to those who use their positions of authority within the country to undermine the interests of the Costa Rican people.”
Weeks later, opposition members who criticized Chaves’ decree saw their visas revoked.
Chaves will resign at the end of this week and will be replaced by his hand-picked successor, Laura Fernández. Analysts fear that attacks on the opposition will increase further during his presidency.
“I’m afraid that in the near future the visas of opposition MPs and state university rectors will be canceled. I would like to think that this will stop, but there is nothing to indicate that it will stop,” Herrera said.
