Óscar Arias, a former Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had his US visa revoked unexpectedly after making critical statements about President Trump and US foreign policy. The US State Department informed Arias via email that new information made him possibly ineligible for his visa. Arias speculated that his comments on global issues may have led to this decision, particularly following the revocation of several visas for other Costa Rican officials who opposed US demands. Arias criticized the decision, emphasizing that open economies tend to benefit from free trade and grow faster.
"It has never been easy for a small country to disagree with the US government, and even less so, when its president behaves like a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do."
"History proves it," said Arias, who was president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010. "You can empirically analyse 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."
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