During a visit to the US in which he met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar reaffirmed the break in relations with Havana
EFE (via 14ymedio), San José, Costa Rica, September 20, 2026 / San José/Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Manuel Tovar Rivera, branded the Cuban government a “vile tyranny” that has denied freedom to its people for six decades, and reaffirmed the end of diplomatic relations, on Saturday.
“Costa Rica is not indifferent to a vile tyranny that for more than six decades has denied freedom and prosperity to the Cuban people, who today live in the most despicable misery,” Tovar said on his account on the social network X.
The head of Costa Rican diplomacy added that “we are firm and clear in our severing of diplomatic relations with the Castro regime.”
On Friday, a source at the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry confirmed the break in relations to EFE, adding that it dates back to last March, when then-President Rodrigo Chaves and his foreign minister Arnoldo André announced the closure of the embassy in Havana due to the deterioration of human rights on the island, and asked Cuba to close its own embassy in San José.
“We are firm and clear in our severing of diplomatic relations with the Castro regime”
However, the Costa Rican government had not publicly referred to that decision as a total break in relations.
In an interview with the US outlet Miami Herald this week, during a visit to the US in which he met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, current Foreign Minister Tovar said that his country broke off relations with Cuba and that the decision was not limited to the closing of embassies and the withdrawal of personnel.
The Costa Rican embassy in Havana had had no diplomatic staff since this past February 5, and, according to what the Costa Rican government said in March, the closure constituted a “firm signal of concern and an invitation for significant changes to take place that would allow for the restoration of the conditions necessary for an eventual reestablishment of full diplomatic relations.”
The Cuban government described the Costa Rican foreign minister’s statement on the break in relations as “surprising” on Friday, since, it claims, it “has never been formally notified by the authorities of that country.”
Costa Rica broke off its diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, but ties were restored in 2009 by then-Costa Rican President Óscar Arias
Cuba claims that on March 17, 2026, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship informed the island’s Foreign Ministry, “through a Diplomatic Note and without offering any argument, of the unilateral decision to close that country’s Embassy in Cuba.”
And it adds that the Costa Rican government also requested that Cuba, “without any kind of justification and invoking an alleged and unfounded reciprocity,” withdraw the diplomatic staff from its Embassy in San José and “retain only consular and administrative personnel.”
It stresses that on that occasion, the then-Costa Rican foreign minister, Arnoldo André Tinoco, informed the Cuban Foreign Ministry that those decisions “did not signify a break in diplomatic relations.”
Costa Rica broke off its diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, but ties were restored on March 18, 2009, by then-Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias.
Translated by GH.
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