Page "Foreign relations of Costa Rica" Paragraph 7

Soon after Fidel Castro declared Cuba a socialist state, Costa Rican President Mario Echandi ended diplomatic relations on 10 September 1961 with the island through Executive Decree Number 2, in compliance with sanctions placed on Cuba by the Organization of American States.

In 1995, Costa Rica established a consular office in Havana.

Cuba opened a consular office in Costa Rica in 2001.

Forty-seven years after the initial freeze, Costa Rican President Óscar Arias Sánchez announced on 18 March 2009 that normal relations were to be re-established, saying, " 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?

" Arias also announced that both countries would exchange ambassadors.

The next day, Cuba's government announced that it agreed to re-establishing relations.