Visa canceled for former American president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, critic of Trump’s deportation policies and global trade war

Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and Nobel prize winner, told reporters gathered outside his home that the United States informed him that his visa had been revoked. “I received an email from the US government informing me that they have suspended the visa I have in my passport,” he said.

“The communication was very terse, it does not give reasons,” Arias continued, adding, “One could have conjectures.”

“I say what I think, write what I say”

The move comes weeks after Arias criticized President Donald Trump for behaving “like a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do,” in a post on social media ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Costa Rica. He quoted a section of his speech to the US Congress in which he said:

“The relationship between our two countries has been a paradigm of friendship. We can tell you what we think, but that is not necessarily what you want to hear. You do the same with us. It is the dialogue of friendship, the dialogue that knows no submission.”

In another post last month, he contrasted the styles of Trump and former President Reagan, with whom he met with at the White House in 1986 where “despite the obvious existence of our discrepancies, respect and cordiality always prevailed.”

That was not the case with how Trump and Vice President JD Vance treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit where Arias said the Americans used “arrogant and humiliating language.”

He said that the Oval Office encounter lacked “diplomacy, measure, respect and calm” and that “President Trump used intimidating words and hurled a series of inappropriate and threats to the president of Ukraine.”

“Today I think it has become fashionable to eliminate visas”

Speaking to the press on Tuesday the former Costa Rican president said, “I don’t know if the revoking of my visa is the product of some sort of retaliation, because I say what I think, write what I say.” He added that he doesn’t think it was Trump that made the decision but the US State Department, which he said has the right to do so. But he denounced the move as being “characteristic of an autocracy.”

“Today, I think it has become fashionable to revoke visas. But the truth, in all honesty, it is a punishment that has been used very often,” said Arias, according to AFP News Agency.

The 84-year-old was president of Costa Rica between 1986 and 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1987 for his work to end civil wars in Central America. During his second term in office he established diplomatic relations with China and cut ties with Taiwan.

Miguel Guillén, secretary general of the National Liberation Party (PLN), indicated to the AFP agency that “he received an e-mail notifying him that his visa was cancelled (...) We do not know the underlying reasons, but we must take into account that Oscar was the one who established diplomatic relations with China and we could suspect that it could have to do with this issue.”

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