Havana, March 18, 2026. – Under pressure from the United States, Costa Rica announces the closure of its Embassy in Havana and limits relations with Cuba to the consular level.
On March 17, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Republic of Costa Rica informed our Chancellery, by means of a Diplomatic Note and without offering any argument, of the unilateral decision to close that country's Embassy in Cuba.
Furthermore, without any justification and invoking an alleged and unfounded reciprocity, it requested Cuba to withdraw the diplomatic personnel from its Embassy in San José and to maintain only consular and administrative staff.
It also notified that, as of April 1, the government of Costa Rica will maintain relations with Cuba at the consular level.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba forcefully rejects the disrespectful statements made by the President of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves Robles, in a press conference on March 18, when, in trying to justify this unfriendly act of his government, he 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, a fact recognized over the years by the Costa Rican government itself.
This is an arbitrary decision, evidently adopted under pressure and without taking into account the national interests of that brotherly people.
With this step, the Costa Rican government, which has a history of subordination to the United States policy against Cuba, once again joins the offensive of the U.S. government in its renewed attempts to isolate our country from the nations of Our America, and becomes a participant in its aggressive escalation against the Cuban Revolution, rejected by the international community.
As was the case 60 years ago, it will fail in its endeavor. Nothing will be able to distance the peoples of Cuba and Costa Rica, united by indissoluble bonds of a common history, nurtured by great heroes of Cuban independence such as Martí and Maceo.