Costa Rica shutters its embassy in Cuba and orders diplomats to leave

Costa Rica on Wednesday closed its embassy in Havana and told Cuba’s communist government to pull its diplomats from San José. 

“We have to clean out communists from the hemisphere,” Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves declared after the diplomatic rupture.

The Cuban Embassy in the U.S. responded to the closure by alleging in a social media post that Costa Rica made the move “under pressure from the United States.” 

Costa Rica’s leadership is allied with President Trump, who has recently suggested he may “take” Cuba. The island nation’s communist government has faced months of intense U.S. pressure and has languished under severe energy shortages. The country faced island-wide power blackouts this week, and protests were reported last week. 

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo Andre Tinoco cited “deep concern” about the “sustained deterioration of the human rights situation on Cuba, as well as the increase in acts of repression against citizens, activists and dissidents.” 

“We have made the decision to proceed … with the closure of the Costa Rican embassy in the Republic of Cuba,” Tinoco said. “Likewise, we have requested that the Cuban Foreign Ministry withdraw its diplomatic personnel from the embassy in San Jose, with the exception of consular officials.”  

In doing so, Costa Rica follows in the footsteps of another Trump ally, Ecuador, which on March 4 expelled Cuba’s ambassador, Basilio Gutierrez, accusing him of interfering in the country’s internal political affairs and engaging in “violent activities.” 

Mr. Trump said Sunday that the Cuban and U.S. governments are talking, and “I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do.” The president hasn’t specified what his plans are for Cuba. 

“We’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon,” Mr. Trump told reporters Tuesday.

And on Monday, Mr. Trump said, “Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it.” 

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez responded to Mr. Trump’s statements by writing on social media late Tuesday that “any external aggressor will clash with an impregnable resistance.”