Oscar Arias, the former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has revealed that his U.S. visa was quietly revoked.

This was weeks after publicly calling out U.S. President Donald Trump.

The 84-year-old, known worldwide for brokering peace across Central America, says he received a cold, vague email from U.S. officials.

Informing him his visa was no longer valid. No reason was given.

“I have no idea why,” Arias said during a press briefing in San José.

“The message was short. Just a few lines. No explanation.”

But Arias suspects the move may have roots in either his blunt criticism of Trump.

Or his bold 2007 decision to sever ties with Taiwan and embrace diplomatic relations with China during his second presidential term.

“I established diplomatic relations with China. That, of course, is known throughout the world,” he stated pointedly.

The Trump administration has made no secret of its opposition to growing Chinese influence in Latin America.

Furthermore, it has cheered Costa Rica’s current president, Rodrigo Chaves, for freezing out Chinese companies from Costa Rica’s 5G rollout.

Arias, however, took issue with Chaves’s cozy relationship with Washington.

In a scathing social media post earlier this year, he accused Trump of acting like a Roman emperor.

Moreover, he warned of Costa Rica slipping into the role of a “banana republic” under foreign pressure.

“It has never been easy for a small country to disagree with the U.S. government, less so when its president behaves like a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do,” Arias wrote.

He added, “During my governments, Costa Rica never took orders from Washington.”

Arias is not alone. Three Costa Rican lawmakers who opposed President Chaves’s decree banning Chinese tech companies from the 5G sector have also had their U.S. visas revoked.

As questions swirl and silence continues from U.S. officials,

Arias’s visa revocation raises deeper concerns about diplomacy, power plays, and how far a superpower will go to silence dissent even from a Nobel laureate.