US Cancels Tourist Visas for Five Board Members of Costa Rica Newspaper

The US State Department has cancelled tourist visas for five of the seven board members of Costa Rica’s leading national newspaper, La Nación. The newspaper published articles during the president’s 2022 campaign that documented allegations of sexual harassment against him that had forced him out of his job at the World Bank.

It also reported on allegations of illegal campaign financing, which the president denied. ” He withdrew a sanitation permit for an event space run by the newspaper’s parent company. The president agreed last month that Costa Rica would receive up to 25 deported migrants a week from the US.

Nación’s board said the visa cancellations were completely unprecedented. “We see it as an indirect attack on press freedom because of the effect it can have on an independent media outlet and on those who have the institutional responsibility to protect it,” he stated in an email.

Five of the seven board members had their visas revoked. The other two hold passports from countries that do not require a visa to enter the US.

A former Costa Rican communications minister said the action against La Nación’s board members did not happen in a vacuum. He described a persistent pattern in which individuals have had visas revoked because they are political opponents or critics of the government.

Those affected have included a twice president of Costa Rica and Nobel peace prize laureate, along with that individual’s brother who served as president of the legislative assembly and as a supreme court justice. The visa restrictions began not long after the US secretary of state visited Costa Rica last year and praised a decree that in effect barred Chinese companies from the country’s 5G network rollout.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The president of Costa Rica will step down later this week.