Ex-Costa Rica president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias says US
revoked his visa
[April 03, 2025]
By JAVIER CORDOBA
SAN JOSÉ,
Costa Rica (AP) — Former Costa Rica President and Nobel Peace Prize
winner Oscar Arias says the U.S. government’s unexplained cancelation of
his visa won’t stop his public criticism.
Arias, 84,
told the AP Wednesday that he received an email from the U.S. State
Department on Tuesday, notifying him of the decision. The brief email
said that the decision “is based on the fact that subsequent to visa
issuance, information has come to light that you may be ineligible for
your visa.” |
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and two-time Costa Rican President Oscar
Arias looks at the media during the opening ceremony of the XV World
Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates at the University in Barcelona, Spain,
Nov. 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File) |
|
It said that if Arias wanted to travel to the U.S. he would have
to re-apply. The U.S. State Department did not explain the
decision.
He spoke shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a
wave of tariffs against dozens of its trading partners around
the world, including a 10% duty on imports from Costa Rica.
It made no sense coming from the country that pushed free trade
around the world and signed dozens of free-trade treaties, Arias
said.
“History proves it. You can empirically analyze that those
countries with more open economies and more free trade are the
ones that have grown more and have been able to improve in
little time,” he said. Arias was the biggest promoter of the
free trade agreement that the U.S. signed with Central America.
Arias says he doesn’t know why his visa was revoked, but
acknowledged that Washington may not have liked his comments on
the war in Ukraine, the U.S. commercial conflict with China or
the situation in Gaza.
“Another of the big issues has been disarmament, spending less
on weapons and soldiers to free up resources,” he said. “To give
them to education, healthcare and protecting the environment and
so many other priorities there are in the world to benefit
humankind.”
The decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International
Development, which addressed basic human needs around the world,
confounds Arias.
“What it all shows is that the priorities are all mistaken and
the priorities are all mistaken because the ethical values are
mistaken,” Arias said.
Arias said he isn’t losing sleep over the decision.
“The United States already gave me 93 honorary degrees,” he
said. “They aren’t going to give me any more. The main reason
for my trips (to the U.S.) was to receive those doctorates. I
would have preferred this didn’t happen because I admire that
country, I admire it’s people.”
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