Costa Rica closed its embassy in Havana on Wednesday and ordered Cuban diplomats to leave San José—becoming the latest Latin American country to sever ties with the Cuban regime as the island’s political and energy crisis reaches a critical inflection point and Washington’s network of regional allies tightens its coordinated pressure on Havana.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves did not mince words at a press conference following the announcement. “Costa Rica does not recognize the legitimacy of Cuba’s communist regime, in light of the mistreatment, repression, and undignified conditions in which they hold the inhabitants of that beautiful island,” Chaves declared. “The hemisphere must be cleansed of communists,” he added.
Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco delivered the formal diplomatic announcement: “We have made the decision to proceed with the closure of the Costa Rican embassy in the Republic of Cuba. Likewise, we have requested that the Cuban Foreign Ministry withdraw its diplomatic personnel from the embassy in San José, with the exception of consular officials.”
Foreign Minister Tinoco cited “deep concern” about the “sustained deterioration of the human rights situation in Cuba, as well as the increase in acts of repression against citizens and activists” as the formal justification for the diplomatic rupture.
The Costa Rican embassy had, in fact, been without diplomatic staff since February 5—meaning the formal announcement on Wednesday represents the official recognition of a break that had been quietly building for weeks. Chaves noted that Cuba may retain its consular staff in Costa Rica to attend to approximately 10,000 Cuban residents living in the country, while Costa Rica will serve its own citizens in Cuba from Panama.
The Domino Effect
In taking this step, Costa Rica follows in the footsteps of Ecuador, which on March 4 expelled Cuba’s ambassador, Basilio Gutiérrez, accusing him of interfering in the country’s internal political affairs and engaging in “violent activities.”
Both Costa Rica and Ecuador are part of the group of Latin American nations that formed an alliance with Trump to combat drug trafficking using military force—the Shield of the Americas, signed at Trump’s Doral resort on March 7.
The pattern is now unmistakable. As Washington tightens what experts have described as the most effective energy blockade of Cuba since the Cuban Missile Crisis—blocking oil tankers, threatening tariffs against countries that supply fuel to Havana, and declaring openly that the regime must fall—governments aligned with Washington are taking coordinated diplomatic steps to strip the Cuban government of international legitimacy one country at a time.
Guatemala ended its Cuban doctors program last week, expelling 400 Cuban medical professionals under pressure from Washington. Jamaica later followed. Costa Rica has now closed its embassy entirely and expelled Cuba’s diplomatic mission. The isolation of the Cuban regime within its own hemisphere has accelerated dramatically in the past two weeks—coinciding precisely with Díaz-Canel’s confirmation on Friday that U.S.-Cuba talks are officially underway and that the island has not received oil shipments in more than three months.
Chaves, Trump & the Shield of the Americas
Costa Rica’s break with Cuba is inseparable from its broader alignment with Washington under Chaves—a conservative populist who has governed as one of Trump’s most reliable Latin American allies since his election.
Chaves’ statement came shortly after Costa Rica formally closed its embassy—and he is set to be succeeded by his party colleague Laura Fernández on May 8, suggesting the diplomatic rupture with Cuba is designed to be institutionally durable rather than a personal political gesture from a departing president.
The timing of the announcement—arriving on the same day that Delcy Rodríguez fired Venezuela’s Defense Minister Padrino López, confirmed active U.S.-Cuba negotiations, and Cuba’s power grid collapse entered its third day—suggests coordinated regional pressure rather than coincidence. Every development on Wednesday pointed in the same direction: the window for the Cuban regime to negotiate on its own terms is closing rapidly, and the governments aligned with Washington are making certain Havana understands it.
Cuba’s Growing Diplomatic Isolation
For the Cuban government, each expulsion carries both symbolic and practical consequences. Diplomatic missions provide intelligence-gathering infrastructure, consular services for nationals abroad, and the institutional framework for future normalization should political conditions change. Losing them one by one—first Ecuador, now Costa Rica—narrows Havana’s operational and informational reach in Central America precisely when it most needs regional support.
The 10,000 Cubans living in Costa Rica who will now deal with consular matters through Panama face a tangible degradation of services. For a diaspora community already watching the protests in Havana and the energy collapse from abroad, the closure of their home country’s embassy adds another layer of institutional rupture to what has become an extraordinary week in Cuban history.
Whether Wednesday’s diplomatic break accelerates or complicates the U.S.-Cuba negotiations that both governments have now publicly confirmed is the question that will define its historical significance. Díaz-Canel confirmed on Friday that talks are in their “initial phases” and that “we are still far from an agreement.”
The governments cutting ties with Cuba on Wednesday appear to have concluded that the agreement, when it comes, should arrive under conditions of maximum pressure—not neutrality.
