Costa Rica and Honduras abolish the mutual obligation of visas

Government from Costa Rica and Honduras They agreed on Tuesday to end each other’s consular obligation to issue visas and pledged to strengthen security cooperation, ending a bilateral conflict that has affected regional trade.

“We have already solved the problem, and in a much better way than visas. At this moment, visas are no longer required for the travel of Hondurans to Costa Rica and Costa Ricans to Honduras, whether they are passengers by plane, carrier, diplomat, whoever is from both people,” said the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chavesin a statement to journalists.

The high delegation of Costa Rica received a delegation from Honduras in the presidential house this Tuesday to resolve the bilateral problem that arose on October 10 last year when the Costa Rican authorities began to demand consular visas from Hondurans, before which the Government and the country responded reciprocally.

The agreement is that Honduran citizens who wish to travel to Costa Rica must present a police certificatewhile Costa Ricans wishing to travel to Honduras must present a criminal record.

Carriers with their official license in Central America and diplomats are exempt from these requirements.

“Today we have more security, without visas, in terms of safety and the ability to filter out the negative elements that exist in either of the two countries who want to commit criminal acts. We have established stricter protocols to filter out the bad guys and welcome the good people, who are the majority of the population of both countries” , Chaves said.

Costa Rica decided to introduce the visa starting last October 10 due to “national security”. Authorities have discovered Honduran members of gangs of killers and drug traffickers.

The visa did not apply to carriers, diplomats, layovers or US visa holders, but Honduras responded by requiring visas from Costa Ricans without any exception, for which Costa Rica also removed the original exceptions.

President Chaves said this Tuesday that he spoke on the phone with his Honduran counterpart on Monday, Xiomara Castrowith which he presented the basis of the agreement reached today at the meeting of the delegations of both countries, which are made up of security ministers, immigration directors and vice chancellors.

Chaves said it was not possible to disclose the extent of bilateral agreements reached on security and the fight against organized crime in order not to alert criminals.

Vice Chancellor of Honduras, Gerardo Torreshe stated that “it is a pleasure to announce to the citizens of Honduras that joint work has made it possible to publish this news, that the visa has been suspended” and commented that during the meeting they discussed “a security problem that affects not only Honduras and Costa Rica, if not the entire region”.

Torres pointed out that Costa Rica and Honduras are “fraternal nations” that “we can effectively find, respecting the needs of each country, a solution that is for the benefit of our population.”

The introduction of visas provoked criticism from personalities, politicians, carriers and chambers of industry and commerce, because they considered the measure a setback in the integration of Central America and because it affected trade and the mobilization of people in the region.