Another Trump ally country closes its embassy in Cuba and withdraws its diplomatic staff

Costa Rica is an ally of US President Donald Trump, who maintains an energy siege on the island and has multiplied his threats to take control of the country.

Furthermore, it is part of the Shield of the Americas the military cooperation alliance announced by the White House and that includes Argentina. Its current president, Rodrigo Chaves, was part of the launch event of that organization in Miami.

“We have made the decision to proceed (…) with the closure of the Costa Rican embassy in the Republic of Cuba. Likewise, we have requested the Cuban Foreign Ministry to withdraw its diplomatic staff from the embassy in San José, except for consular officials,” said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco.

This Wednesday, after ordering the embassy to close, Chaves affirmed that communism must be eradicated from the American continent

He maintained before the press that Costa Rica “does not recognize the legitimacy of the communist regime of Cuba in view of the mistreatment, repression, unworthy conditions in which they have the inhabitants of that beautiful island”.

“We must cleanse the hemisphere of communists”stressed the right-wing president.

Cháves, next May, will be replaced by the elected president Laura Fernández Delgado, the ruling party candidate who won in the first round and is currently Minister of the Presidency.

Costa Rica thus follows in the footsteps of another Trump ally, Ecuadorwhich on March 4 expelled the Cuban ambassador in Quito, Basilio Gutiérrez, accusing him of interference in the country’s internal political affairs and in “violent activities.”

In parallel, through a decree, Noboa also terminated the functions of the Ecuadorian ambassador in Havana, José María Borja, who had held the position since 2021.

The diplomatic delegation of Ecuador in Cuba also provided services to Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica. In this way, the Ecuadorian government – also a member of the Shield of the Americas – broke the diplomatic relations it had maintained with Havana since 1960.

The Cuban government rejected this Wednesday Costa Rica’s “unilateral decision” to close its embassy in Havana and demand the withdrawal of its diplomatic staff from the Central American country, a decision it considered taken “under pressure from the United States.”

“Under pressure from the United States, Costa Rica limits its relations with Cuba to the consular level,” the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) lamented in a statement, highlighting that it was a “unilateral decision” and “without offering any argument.”

Furthermore, he criticized that “without any type of justification and invoking an alleged and unfounded reciprocity,” Costa Rica asked Cuba to withdraw “the diplomatic staff from its embassy in San José, pointing out that this does not include the consular and administrative staff, who may remain exercising their functions.”

“This is an arbitrary decision, evidently adopted under pressure and without taking into consideration the national interests and those of that brother people,” the statement said.

According to the ministry, Costa Rica “exhibits a history of subordination to the United States policy against Cuba” and, with this latest step “it once again joins the offensive” of Washington “in its renewed attempts to isolate” Cuba from the rest of the continent.

“Just like 60 years ago, he will fail in his endeavor. Nothing will be able to distance the people of Cuba and Costa Rica, united by indissoluble ties of a common history, supported by great heroes of Cuban independence such as Martí and Maceo,” the Foreign Ministry concluded.

In 2025, when the White House’s pressure on Cuba had not yet intensified so much, other countries had already closed their diplomatic headquarters on the island.

Ukraine, Belgium and the Netherlands made that decision for different reasons. kyiv, for Havana’s support for Russia in the war; Brussels, for security reasons; and The Hague (seat of the Dutch government), due to a restructuring of its global diplomatic network to reduce costs.

This Tuesday, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, promised “unassailable resistance” to US President Donald Trump’s threats to take over the island.

“In the worst scenario, Cuba is accompanied by one certainty: any external aggressor will encounter impregnable resistance,” Díaz-Canel wrote in X.

On Monday, Trump He said that for him it would be “an honor to take the island.” “I mean release it, or take it. I think I can do whatever I want, if you want me to tell you the truth. It is a very weakened nation right now,” said the head of the White House in statements to the press.

The island is going through a severe energy crisis, after the tightening of the US blockade on the delivery of oil. On Monday, the entire territory was left in darkness, due to a massive blackout.