Students in Costa Rica and Nicaragua have mobilized in the recent period, to protest Israel’s genocidal war against Palestine, demanding an immediate ceasefire, and in the case of Costa Rica, demanding that the government break diplomatic relations with Israel. In a May 4 post on X, Hispan-TV interviewed a student leader of the Committee for Solidarity with Palestine at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose, which has set up an encampment on campus. He told Hispan-TV that his group is demanding that the national government break diplomatic relations with Israel, “a genocidal government that is massacring dozens of thousands of innocent people.” Another student stressed that their group is part of an international movement of students that stands in solidarity with Palestine and they want to make their voices heard to stop the genocide..
Notably, the Costa Rican Confederation of Labor (CTA) issued a statement [May 3](La CTA se solidariza con los universitarios de EE.UU. salvajemente reprimidos por exigir el cese del genocidio en Gaza—CTA (ctaa.org.ar)) expressing solidarity with students of the United States, denouncing their “savage” repression by police and the arrests of more than 2,000 students. “From the CTA, we appreciate and value the youth and student resistance in the United States, which is Israel’s primary supporter in the world, which allows that state … to continue perpetrating genocide” while multilateral organizations fail to act, the statement read.
In Nicaragua, on May 4, students from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and other universities issued strong statements in solidarity with Palestine, denounced Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and supported U.S. university students “who have been repressed and jailed for guaranteeing that the Palestinian people will be free.”
