US cancels tourist visas for board members of top Costa Rica newspaper

The US state department has cancelled tourist visas for more than half of the board members of Costa Rica’s leading national newspaper, La Nación, which has been a critical voice against the country’s president, Rodrigo Chaves, an ally of Donald Trump. During Chaves’s 2022 presidential campaign, La Nación published several articles documenting allegations of sexual harassment against him that had forced him out of his job at the World Bank. The paper also reported on allegations of illegal campaign financing , which Chaves denied . Since taking office, Chaves has been extremely critical of La Nación, accusing it of being “despicable press” and “political assassins”. He also targeted the newspaper financially by withdrawing a sanitation permit for an event space run by the organisation’s parent company. At the same time, Chaves has become a close ally of the US president. Last month, he agreed that Costa Rica would receive up to 25 deported migrants a week from the US. Chaves also participated in Trump’s Shield of the Americas summit and closed the Costa Rican embassy in Havana. Now, the ties between the two governments appear to have led to La Nación’s board members being barred from entering the US. “This is completely unprecedented,” Pedro Abreu, the president of the board of La Nación, said via email. …