U.S. Embassy in San José Revokes Visas for La Nación Board Members

(COSTA RICA) — The United States revoked the visas of several board members of Costa Rica’s leading watchdog newspaper, *La Nación*, the paper announced on **May 2, 2026**, in a move that drew concern from press freedom groups and sharpened scrutiny of how Washington is using visa policy in Costa Rica. Five of the seven members of *La Nación*’s board of directors lost their tourist visas. Pedro Abreu, president of the board of directors, was among those confirmed to have been affected.

Board members learned of the revocations through pro-government social media accounts and media outlets before receiving formal notification from the U.S. Consulate. That sequence deepened alarm inside the newspaper and among observers who saw the action as political. The **U.S. Embassy in San José** held to its standard position on **May 4, 2026**. “The U.S. Embassy does not comment on individual visa cases. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), visa records are confidential. We reiterate that the United States has the sovereign authority to determine who is eligible to enter its territory based on national interest and security protocols.” That confidentiality rule sits in [INA Section 222(f)](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1202&num=0&edition=prelim), which governs visa record privacy. The State Department also lays out general rules on [visa denials and revocations](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/visa-denials.html), while the [U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica newsroom](https://cr.usembassy.gov/news-events/) carries public embassy statements and notices. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already created broader policy context for the move. In late **2025**, Rubio issued a directive authorizing the State Department to review and revoke visas of individuals who exhibit a “hostile attitude toward U.S. institutions or allies.” During a visit to San José earlier this year, Rubio praised the administration of Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves as a “model for the region” and warned that those collaborating with “adversarial foreign actors” could face sanctions. Rubio did not publicly tie those comments to *La Nación*. The revocations came after months of tension between Chaves and the newspaper. Chaves has repeatedly clashed with *La Nación* and labeled its journalists “enemies of the state” after the paper published investigative reporting on sexual harassment allegations and campaign financing irregularities tied to his **2022** campaign. Analysts and press freedom organizations, including the Inter-American Press Association, viewed the visa cancellations as coordinated with the Costa Rican government. The case stood out because it targeted the leadership of a major newspaper in a democratic country, rather than individuals accused of corruption, terrorism or organized crime. *La Nación*’s board addressed that point in a front-page statement published on Sunday, **May 3, 2026**. “We fully recognize that the United States, like any sovereign state, has the power to determine the terms of entry into its territory. However, it is unprecedented in Costa Rica’s recent history for visas to be revoked from members of the board of a general-interest and independent newspaper. In the absence of an official explanation, we can only conclude this is a punishment for our editorial stance.” The board members affected are Costa Rican nationals with deep personal and business links to the United States. Several have children attending American universities, and others maintain business interests there, making the visa losses more than a symbolic rebuke. The case also fits a broader pattern that has unfolded since mid-**2025**. At least **15 high-profile Costa Rican citizens**, including former magistrates and legislators, have had their visas canceled since then. Among the most prominent was former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Óscar Arias, whose visa was revoked in **2025**. Arias had been a vocal critic of the current U.S. administration’s policies. Chaves has been one of Washington’s closest regional partners. His government agreed to accept third-country deportees and banned Chinese 5G vendors, including Huawei, from Costa Rica’s infrastructure, steps that aligned closely with U.S. security priorities. That alignment gave the **U.S. Revokes Visas** episode added weight in Costa Rica, where critics saw the action against *La Nación* as part of a wider pressure campaign against opponents of both governments. Supporters of the government have not produced a public explanation tying the newspaper board members to any security or legal ground for revocation. The embassy’s refusal to discuss individual files left the legal basis undisclosed, which is common in visa cases. Under U.S. law, a visa is a privilege rather than a right, and Washington retains wide discretion over who may enter the country. Even so, the identities of those targeted made the move unusual. The reported cancellation of visas for five of seven board members amounted to a broad strike at the governing body of Costa Rica’s most influential newspaper. That was the point many press advocates seized on. They described the action not as an isolated consular decision but as a warning shot aimed at an outlet that has remained one of Chaves’s most persistent critics. Inside Costa Rica, the clash also landed in a country with a long reputation for democratic stability and press pluralism. Visa revocations against newspaper board members are rare enough anywhere; against the leadership of a general-interest daily in Costa Rica, they marked a break with recent practice. The public handling of the case added another layer. Learning of the cancellations first through pro-government social media and aligned media channels, before receiving formal consular notice, suggested that political signaling mattered alongside the administrative act itself. No U.S. official has publicly accused Abreu or the other board members of criminal conduct. The government’s public position has remained confined to confidentiality, sovereign control over entry and the broad national interest framework cited by the embassy. The dispute now places the **U.S. Embassy in San José**, Costa Rica’s government and *La Nación* in a confrontation with few formal answers and wide political consequences. The board’s statement left little doubt about how the paper sees the move: an immigration sanction imposed against a newspaper’s leadership for its editorial line.