Former Costa Rican president and Nobel winner Óscar Arias stated on Tuesday that the US had revoked his visa to enter the nation, weeks after he criticized Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like “a Roman emperor”.
Arias, 84, was president between 1986 and 1990 and once more between 2006 and 2010. A self-declared pacifist, he received the 1987 Nobel peace prize for his position in brokering peace through the Central American conflicts of the Nineteen Eighties.
Arias additionally promoted a free commerce settlement with the US throughout his final time period and in 2007 established diplomatic ties with China.
“I acquired an e mail from the US authorities informing me that they’ve suspended the visa I’ve in my passport. The communication was very terse, it doesn’t give causes. One might have conjectures,” Arias informed reporters outdoors his residence, with out elaborating on his suspicions.
In February, Arias had on social media accused the present authorities of President Rodrigo Chaves of giving in to US stress, because the US has sought to oppose China’s affect within the area and deported migrants from third nations into Central America.
“It has by no means been simple for a small nation to disagree with the US authorities, and even much less so, when its president behaves like a Roman emperor, telling the remainder of the world what to do,” he stated on social media in February.
His statements got here after the US withdrew visas from three Costa Rican lawmakers who opposed Chaves’s determination to exclude Chinese language companies from taking part within the improvement of 5G within the nation, following US calls for. On Tuesday, one other opposition lawmaker was additionally stripped of her US visa.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio had in early February visited Costa Rica and supplied to assist Chaves “punish” Costa Rican officers who collaborate with “overseas actors who pose a risk to the nation’s cybersecurity”.
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