The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba learned today, September 18, through media reports, of the surprising statement made by Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar Rivera to the Miami Herald that “diplomatic relations have been severed” with Cuba, a fact that has never been formally notified to the Cuban government by the authorities of that country.
As previously reported, on March 17, 2026, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Costa Rica informed our Foreign Ministry, via a diplomatic note and without offering any justification, of its unilateral decision to close that country’s embassy in Cuba. Furthermore, it requested that Cuba, without any justification and invoking an alleged and unfounded principle of reciprocity, withdraw the diplomatic staff from its Embassy in San José and retain only consular and administrative personnel.
At that time, the then Costa Rican foreign minister, Arnoldo André Tinoco, informed the Cuban Foreign Ministry that these decisions “did not constitute a break in diplomatic relations.”
Institutional Communication 076-2026, published by the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 18, 2026, under the title “Closure of the Costa Rican Embassy in Cuba and Withdrawal of Diplomatic Personnel from Cuba in Costa Rica,” also makes no mention of a formal break in diplomatic relations with Cuba.
The fact that the current Costa Rican Foreign Minister has chosen to share information with a South Florida media outlet regarding an alleged severance—of which the Cuban government is completely unaware—suggests that we are witnessing yet another act of the Costa Rican government’s subservience to U.S. policy against Cuba.
Havana, September 18, 2026
(Cubaminrex)