The Chancellor of Costa Rica, Manuel Tovar Rivera, reaffirmed this Saturday the complete break of diplomatic relations between his country and the Cuban dictatorship by receiving the "Pedro Luis Boitel International Freedom Award 2026" at an event held at Miami-Dade College, organized by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC).
"Costa Rica is not indifferent to a vile tyranny that for more than six decades has denied freedom and prosperity to the Cuban people, who now live in the most despicable misery. Therefore, we are firm and clear in our break of diplomatic relations with the Castro regime", wrote Tovar Rivera on his verified X account, where he also concluded with a "Long Live Free Cuba!".
The chancellor had already outlined San José's position a day earlier, stating to the Miami Herald: "We have severed diplomatic relations with the Cuban regime until freedom returns."
In the same message, Tovar Rivera acknowledged the leadership of Orlando Gutiérrez at the helm of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, an exile organization that has acted as a spokesperson with regional governments that have taken critical stances towards Havana.
The rupture has its roots in the government of former president Rodrigo Chaves. In March 2026, Costa Rica closed its embassy in Havana and demanded the withdrawal of Cuban diplomatic staff from San José, although the then foreign minister Arnoldo André Tinoco explicitly stated that these measures "did not signify a rupture of diplomatic relations."
The current president Laura Fernández continued that policy, and Tovar Rivera has now taken the definitive step.
The Cuban regime responded through MINREX with a statement in which it affirmed that the break "has never been formally notified" by the Costa Rican authorities and described the announcement as "surprising."
The Cuban Foreign Ministry accused San José of "subordination" to U.S. policy for having communicated the decision to a media outlet in South Florida instead of through formal diplomatic channels.
Tovar Rivera firmly rejected that accusation: "It is a sovereign decision that we made, we do not take instructions from any government."
Costa Rica's position is part of a regional pattern of diplomatic isolation towards Cuba that has intensified throughout 2026. Ecuador expelled all Cuban diplomatic staff in Quito in March, and the Dominican Republic issued an ultimatum to nine Cuban diplomats in August.
In all cases, the Havana regime responded with the same accusation of "subordination" to Washington.
The Boitel Award, established in 2001 by the Cuban Democratic Directorate, is named after the poet and student leader Pedro Luis Boitel, who died in 1972 after 53 days on a hunger strike in Castillo del Príncipe prison, becoming a symbol of the Cuban political prisoner.
Tovar Rivera announced that the return to democracy in Cuba and Nicaragua will be one of the central topics of a meeting of the Shield of the Americas scheduled for the week of September 21 to 28 in New York, within the framework of the UN General Assembly.
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