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Resumes Diplomatic Relations With Cuba
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Costa Rica
Resumes Diplomatic Relations With Cuba
Costa Rica resumed diplomatic relations with
Cuba on Wednesday, nearly 50 years after it
broke formal ties with the Castro-run
island.
"It doesn't make sense today to maintain an
official distance, when we have open
channels of cooperation in various areas,
when we have consular and commercial
relations with Havana," President Oscar
Arias told a news conference, after signing
a decree to reopen formal relations.
"The time has arrived for direct and open
dialogue, for official and normal relations
that should permit us to tackle our
agreements and our disagreements, talking
with ourselves openly and with sincerity,"
President Oscar Arias said in a written
statement.
Arias added: "If we have been able to turn
the page with regimes as profoundly
different to our reality as occurred with
the USSR or, more recently, with the
Republic of China, how would we not do it
with a country that is geographically and
culturally much nearer to Costa Rica?"
He said that, in coming weeks, the
governments of both countries will exchange
ambassadors.
Until then, "as the oldest democracy in
Latin America, as the little republic of
peace, we extend our hand to the Cuban
people and we send by sea and by air an
olive branch to begin anew the good work of
building friendship."
The rupture occurred in 1961, a few months
after then-President Fidel Castro declared
Cuba a socialist state. On September 10 of
that year, then-President Mario Echandi
signaled the end of diplomatic relations by
signing Executive Decree Number 2, said
Arias.
The United States, which made the same move
on January 3, 1961, has not restored
diplomatic relations with the communist
country.
"Today, since the world is diametrically
different from what it was in those days, we
must be capable of adjusting to the new
realities," Arias said.
"It is a step I adopt convinced that times
change, and Costa Rica has to change with
them," he said.
Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987
for his role in bringing Central American
civil wars to an end, has made a number of
diplomatic shifts since taking office in
2006, including opening diplomatic relations
with China and the Palestinian Authority.
Although there has been no diplomatic
relations between the two countries, travel
to and from Cuba was never restricted and
Costa Rica took in thousands of Cubans
during the past decade.
Many Americans used Costa Rica as step-gap
to visit to Cuba. |
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