Nicaragua to Require Visas of All U.S. Citizens

The Sandinista government, escalating a diplomatic feud with Washington, will require entry visas of all U.S. citizens coming to Nicaragua starting July 1.

The requirement, announced Saturday, will complicate travel plans for the 1,200 or so Americans who visit Nicaragua each month. Any traveler with a U.S. passport will first have to obtain a visa from a Nicaraguan consulate outside Nicaragua--a process that will normally take 24 hours if it’s applied for in person or at least a week by mail, Nicaraguan officials said. The only Nicaraguan consulate in the United States is in Washington.

Until now, enmity between the Sandinistas and two successive Republican administrations has hardly affected private American citizens in Nicaragua, many of whom work for the revolution. Since 1983, they have been able to enter Nicaragua for 30-day visits simply by filling out a tourist card at the border or at the airport here.

Manuel Cordero, a Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry official, said the new requirement is a move by Managua to apply “strict reciprocity” in bilateral relations after the expulsions of two U.S. envoys from Managua and two Nicaraguan envoys from Washington last month.

He noted that Nicaraguans have been required for years to obtain visas to enter the United States and were further inconvenienced by the shutdown of the U.S. consular office that issued them in Managua.

That office has been closed, for lack of manpower, since the two governments ousted the ambassador and seven other diplomats on each side last July. Last month, after an agreement was reached allowing the expelled diplomats to be replaced, Nicaragua kicked out two more U.S. envoys, accusing them of encouraging labor unrest, and Washington retaliated in kind.

Nicaragua then cried foul, saying the tit-for-tat reprisals worked against its smaller embassy, and called for talks on limiting the U.S. Embassy staff. Cordero said the visa requirement was imposed after the United States failed to reply and will remain in force until there is “sufficient progress in normalizing all aspects of our relations.”