Costa Rica’s top newspaper says US revoked visas of its executives, prompting press freedom concerns

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — The United States has revoked the visas of several board executives at La Nación, one of Costa Rica’s leading media outlets, triggering fresh accusations that the U.S. — in conjunction with the allied Costa Rican government — is stripping visas to punish critics and political opponents.

In a statement that ran as the newspaper’s front page on Sunday, the board of directors said that the affected members first learned they had been stripped of their visas to enter the U.S. from reports in pro-government media.

La Nación has long been a thorn in the side of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who has agreed to accept up to 100 third-country deportees a month as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations.

The newspaper, which Chaves has berated since it published allegations of sexual harassment during his 2022 presidential campaign, said that the U.S. gave no reason for the visa revocations.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We fully recognize that the United States, like any sovereign state, has the power to determine the terms of entry into its territory,” La Nación said. “However, it is unprecedented in Costa Rica’s recent history for visas to be revoked from members of the board of a general-interest and independent newspaper.”

The move appeared to mark the latest instance of the Trump administration deploying immigration restrictions to punish its political foes, and prompted sharp criticism from political opposition and press freedom organizations in Costa Rica, which demanded that Costa Rican and U.S. authorities provide an explanation for what happened.

“If this decision is based on their critical stance toward this government, it would be yet another troubling signal for our democratic system,” the organizations said in a statement, adding that failing to provide transparent information would “constitute an unacceptable form of complicity.”

Mauricio Herrera, journalist and former Costa Rican communications minister from 2015 to 2018, went a step further, saying “there is no doubt that the cancellation of visas for its board of directors is in response to a request from the Costa Rican government.”

“The sanction seeks to intimidate those who dare to dissent and exercise their freedom of expression,” Herrera told The Associated Press.

A string of high-profile individuals have had their visas canceled in Costa Rica, where the aggressive governing style of conservative President Chaves has drawn criticism for eroding democratic norms.

Last year, the U.S. revoked the visa of Nobel laureate and former Costa Rican President Óscar Arias, an outspoken critic of President Trump, as well as that of his brother, then-legislative president Rodrigo Arias, who said he believed the U.S. decision was made at the request of Chaves.

Opposition lawmakers — like Francisco Nicolás from the centrist National Liberation Party and independent Cynthia Córdoba, both known for their vocal criticism of Chaves — also had their U.S. visas canceled in recent months, as did Constitutional Court Judge Fernando Cruz, an advocate for migrant rights who last month found himself unable to travel to the U.S. to receive an award from Northwestern Law School.

Chaves, who has cooperated extensively with the Trump administration to receive deportees from other countries and extradite suspected drug traffickers to the U.S., will leave office on Friday and hand over power to his successor, President-elect Laura Fernández.

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Associated Press writer Isabel Debre in Buenos Aires, Argentina contributed.

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