Q COSTA RICA — Cuba, Costa Rica, and the rupture of their diplomatic relations became the center of a dispute after Cuba claimed it never received formal notification from Costa Rica, despite the closure of both embassies announced in March and the withdrawal of diplomatic staff.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry maintained that the decision was publicly announced by Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar Rivera during a visit to the United States.
Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar was honored on Friday with the 2026 Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award during a ceremony held at Miami’s Freedom Tower. That same day, he confirmed his government’s decision to sever relations with Cuba, telling the Miami Herald the measure was not limited to closing the missions or sending officials home.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, known as MINREX, responded that it learned of the Costa Rican position through the press on September 18. “A rupture of diplomatic relations” with Cuba has occurred, Tovar told the US newspaper, according to the island’s Foreign Ministry.
The Cuban reaction was reported by the Diario de Cuba (DDC), noting that Cuba maintained the view that closing diplomatic missions did not equate to formally severing ties between the two states.
Disagreement over the embassy closures
Costa Rica announced the closure of its embassy in Cuba in March and asked Cuba to take an equivalent measure in Costa Rica. However, MINREX indicated that the then-Costa Rican Foreign Minister, Arnoldo André Tinoco, had communicated to them that those decisions “did not mean a rupture of diplomatic relations.”
Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to EFE that diplomatic ties with Cuba were severed, and Manuel Tovar stated that the measure went beyond the closure of the missions. The Cuban Foreign Ministry also cited Institutional Communication 076-2026, published by Costa Rica on March 18, 2026, under the title “Closure of the Costa Rican Embassy in Cuba and withdrawal of diplomatic staff from Cuba in Costa Rica.” According to MINREX, that communication did not mention a formal rupture.
Rodrigo Chaves, then President of Costa Rica, had offered a broader political definition of the decision during a public event. “Costa Rica does not recognize the legitimacy of the Cuban communist regime, given the mistreatment, repression, and undignified conditions suffered by the inhabitants of that beautiful island,” he stated.
The Cuban government took issue with the fact that Tovar had communicated the rupture to a South Florida media outlet before notifying Cuba. The Foreign Ministry attributed this behavior to “another act of subordination by the Costa Rican government to United States policy against Cuba.”
Cuba presented no evidence that Costa Rican authorities had made their decisions under pressure from Washington—neither at the time of the March announcement nor following the statements made by the current foreign minister.
Regional tensions and Costa Rica’s stance
Chaves further maintained that “we must cleanse the hemisphere of communists,” according to Reuters. His statements coincided with a period of growing estrangement between several Latin American governments and Cuba.
In February, the Costa Rican government asked its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Cuba and recommended that those already on the island leave the country. The warning came amidst the collapse of the Cuban economy, following Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on countries shipping crude oil to Cuba.
Friction between Cuba and Costa Rica had already surfaced earlier in 2024. That year, it was revealed that the Cuban ambassador to Costa Rica, Jorge Rodríguez, had pressured Liberal Progressive Party lawmaker Eliécer Feinzaig to stop meeting with Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat—the leader of the Cuban Resistance Assembly and a figure on the Cuban regime’s list of individuals labeled as “terrorists.”