State Department revokes U.S. visas of five La Nación board members in apparent retaliation

The U.S. Department of State revoked the U.S. entry visas of five of the seven board members of La Nación, Costa Rica's leading watchdog newspaper, in early May 2026. According to a statement published on the paper's website and reporting by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the affected directors — board chairman Pedro Abreu Jiménez, vice chairman Luis Javier Castro Lachner, and directors Carmen Montero Luthmer, Luis Carlos Chaves Fonseca, and Daniel Lacayo Abreu — viewed the cancellations as an attempt to punish the outlet for its editorial line. The exact date the visas were revoked was not disclosed; the company confirmed the action publicly during the first week of May 2026.

The State Department offered no official explanation, citing visa-record confidentiality, and the board members reportedly learned of the revocations through pro-government Costa Rican media rather than from U.S. authorities. The action came shortly after Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to Costa Rica — during which he called the country a "model" for the region — and amid La Nación's investigations into President Rodrigo Chaves, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who has made attacking the independent press a central feature of his political strategy.

CPJ's Américas regional director, Jose Zamora, said the revocations show how "the Trump administration weaponizes the U.S. visa regime to punish critical voices and censor disfavored views." The Inter American Press Association and Costa Rican press-freedom groups protested the move, which fits a documented pattern of the administration using visa and immigration power against journalists, commentators, and critics — here directed extraterritorially at a foreign outlet whose reporting embarrassed a U.S.-aligned head of state.