Oscar Arias Sanchez, former Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the United States has revoked his visa to enter the country. “I received an e-mail from the U.S. government informing me that they have suspended the visa I have in my passport. The communication was very concise, not giving reasons. One could raise speculation,” Arias Sanchez told the media, stressing that he did not know the reasons for the revocation. A few weeks earlier he had criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like “a Roman emperor.” Arias who is now 84 years old, was president between 1986 and 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010 during which time he had worked to achieve a free trade relationship with the United States. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for serving as a mediator during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s.
Some previous events could be interpreted as related to the visa revocation. Last February, Arias Sanchez had accused via social media, the current government of Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves of giving in to pressure from the U.S. that sought to oppose China’s influence in Costa Rica. The former president had established diplomatic ties with China in 2007 during his second mandate as president. Arias Sanchez had also specifically criticized the U.S. for deporting migrants to Central America. “It has never been easy for a small country to disagree with the U.S. government, and even less so, when its president acts like a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do.”
Arias Sanchez said during a conference in San Jose that nothing would silence him and that he would continue to criticize U.S. policy.
