The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba learned on Friday, September 18, through the press, of the surprising statement made by the Costa Rican Foreign Minister, Manuel Tovar Rivera, to the Miami Herald, that “diplomatic relations have been severed” with Cuba, a fact that has never been formally notified by the authorities of that country to the Cuban government.
As previously reported, on March 17, 2026, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Costa Rica informed our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via Diplomatic Note and without offering any justification, of its unilateral decision to close its Embassy in Cuba. Furthermore, it requested Cuba, without any explanation and invoking a supposed and unfounded reciprocity, to withdraw its diplomatic personnel from its Embassy in San José and maintain only consular and administrative staff.
On that occasion, the then Costa Rican Foreign Minister, Arnoldo André Tinoco, informed the Cuban Foreign Ministry that these decisions “did not signify a rupture of diplomatic relations.”
In Institutional Communication 076-2026, published by the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry on March 18, 2026, under the title “Closure of the Costa Rican Embassy in Cuba and Withdrawal of Cuban Diplomatic Personnel from Costa Rica,” there is also no mention of a formal break in diplomatic relations with Cuba.
The fact that the current Costa Rican foreign minister chose to share information with a South Florida news outlet about an alleged rupture—of which the Cuban government is completely unaware—suggests that we are witnessing yet another act of subordination by the Costa Rican government to the United States’ policy toward Cuba.
Havana, September 18, 2026
(Cubaminrex)
