In a bit of startling Costa Rica news:
The US consulate revoked the visas of several (possibly all) members of the Board of Directors of the country's leading newspaper. Not the editorial board, but the board of directors (some who are hard right dudes). This is an unprecedented action that runs counter to freedom of the press, a value I thought we shared both in CR and the US. This newspaper has been highly critical of the Chavez regime; they first earned his wrath during his presidential campaign when they had the nerve to unearth the sexual harassment report from his time at the World Bank. Ever since he got into office, he has been in open war with the paper (and the paper has been an intense watchdog of the Chavez regime).
The consulate over the last year has revoked visas of several politicians grouped into one of three groups: 1) persons critical of US policy (former President Oscar Arias comes to mind), 2) political opponents of the CR President, Rodrigo Chaves (several lawmakers fall into this one...had a friend who was a witness in a defamation lawsuit fall into this one) and 3) persons who have facilitated business with China (couple of public telecom employees who did the negotiating with Huawei). The working theory is that the current CR administration passes names along, either to the US consulate in Costa Rica or someone in the State Department responsible to the region. Chavez defenders claim that Chavez has no influence in deciding US position on these matters.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything these administrations do, but this is really bewildering. To use visa revocations like this is unprecedented. I don't get the strategy in pissing off centrist politicians or the capital groups that have been friendly to the US for generations.
El Gobierno de EE. UU. retiró las visas a varios miembros de la junta directiva de La Nación S.A., según confirmó la empresa este sábado a través de un comunicado oficial. La compañía no precisó a cuáles de los miembros se les canceló la visa. La Nación S.A. indicó que los directivos son...
crhoy.com
