The United States has revoked tourist visas for five board members at La Nación, Costa Rica’s most influential newspaper, in what critics are calling an “unprecedented” measure that could have a “chilling effect” on free speech in the Central American nation.

Over the weekend, Pedro Abreu, CEO and chairman of the board of Grupo Nación, the holding company that owns the newspaper, started getting messages from friends with links to local media reports. Three outlets claimed that he, along with four other board members, had had their U.S. tourist visas revoked.

“One of the media outlets even stated our names, our dates of birth, and the expiration dates of our visas,” Abreu told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, adding that he was in disbelief. “I checked my email, looked to see if I had any calls or anything, but I had no official communication. After a while, I searched on a U.S. government website, I put in my visa information and there I saw. It came up as revoked.”

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. State Department has revoked visas of lawmakers, government officials and judges from Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica over a range of accusations from organized criminal activities to “witch hunts” of Trump’s political allies. Costa Rica is the only country where the U.S. government has targeted owners and executives at media outlets. (In October, the U.S. revoked the tourist visa of the owner of a digital outlet who was under investigation for money laundering.)

The State Department did not respond to questions sent by ICIJ.

Costa Ricans are required to apply for tourist visas to enter the U.S., which grants them entry for years at a time. Five of Grupo Nación’s seven board members had their visas revoked; the other two hold passports from countries that allow them to enter the U.S. without one, said Fabrice Le Lous, La Nación’s editor in chief. “And there is one common denominator among them: that they were given absolutely no reason or explanation,” he said.

The Trump administration has used visas as a reward and a punishment in its efforts to persuade nations to accept U.S. deportees from other countries. In September, after Ghana agreed to take deportees, the U.S. lifted visa restrictions on the country. It is not clear whether the visa revocations in Costa Rica are connected to the April agreement outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves signed with the U.S. to accept up to 25 deportees a week.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-targets/escalating-efforts-a-year-after-china-targets-beijings-global-campaign-against-dissenters-continues/

CHINA TARGETS ‘Escalating efforts’: A year after China Targets, Beijing’s global campaign against dissenters continues Apr 28, 2026

https://www.icij.org/news/2026/01/im-on-the-right-side-of-history-icij-member-roman-anin-stripped-of-his-russian-citizenship/

PRESS FREEDOM ‘I’m on the right side of history’: ICIJ member Roman Anin stripped of his Russian citizenship Jan 22, 2026

https://www.icij.org/news/2025/11/censorship-disguised-as-law-investigative-journalists-in-peru-push-back-against-government-crackdown/

PRESS FREEDOM ‘Censorship disguised as law’: Investigative journalists in Peru push back against government crackdown Nov 12, 2025

Recommended reading CHINA TARGETS ‘Escalating efforts’: A year after China Targets, Beijing’s global campaign against dissenters continues Apr 28, 2026 PRESS FREEDOM ‘I’m on the right side of history’: ICIJ member Roman Anin stripped of his Russian citizenship Jan 22, 2026 PRESS FREEDOM ‘Censorship disguised as law’: Investigative journalists in Peru push back against government crackdown Nov 12, 2025

Federal prosecutors have charged an Arizona gun dealer with attempting to provide material support to terrorists, signaling a new approach to slowing the deluge of weapons flowing across the border into Mexico.

The indictment, filed in March, revolves around the sale of several high caliber firearms to an undercover agent who posed as a gun runner for a Mexican drug cartel. The case is the first of its kind brought against a firearms dealer in the state and likely the first such action in the United States, according to an analysis of federal court records by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The Trump administration designated six Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations in February 2025, opening the door for law enforcement agencies to take a variety of actions against the groups and those who do business with them.

Criminal organizations in Mexico and elsewhere have long relied on the loosely regulated U.S. gun market to procure firearms, including powerful, military-style rifles they have used in shootouts with government forces and in civilian massacres.

In February, those arsenals were on full display as cartel gunmen unleashed violence across Mexico in response to the Mexican Army killing New Generation Jalisco Cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho.

More than 60 people died during the violence.

Mexican soldiers watched over a funeral home in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco state, Mexico, on March 1, 2026, where the body of drug trafficker Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, who died on February 22 during a military operation, was being held for a wake.

In the wake of the attacks, Mexican defense secretary Ricardo Trevilla Trejo told reporters that 80 percent of the more than 23,000 firearms seized by the Mexican government since late 2024 originated in the United States

U.S. gun dealers have rarely been held accountable for their role in facilitating the movement of those weapons.

There are over 77,000 licensed firearms dealers across the country, compared to two in all of Mexico, according to the most recent government data. And there are few federal restrictions on what kinds of guns they can sell or who can buy them.

In theory, the federal government can bring criminal charges against dealers who facilitate trafficking or can take administrative action against them, such as revoking their license, but in practice that is often difficult, according to Marianna Mitchem, a former senior official at the ATF who worked on industry regulation and currently serves as the Senior Firearms Industry Advisor at Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit that advocates for stronger firearms regulation.

“Both avenues are available, but both require proving the dealer’s culpability, and for years that difficulty has been used as a reason not to try,” Mitchem said.

The terrorism-related charges unveiled in Arizona in March appear to be a “test case” for a new strategy to reign in illicit firearms sales, according to Jason Red, a former investigator at the Department of Homeland Security in Arizona, who worked on gun trafficking investigations.

Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade association, said that the group, “supports the Department of Justice’s efforts to keep firearms from being illegally trafficked, whether that is to criminal elements within the United States or narcoterrorists beyond our borders.”

https://www.icij.org/news/2026/02/nearly-half-of-powerful-50-caliber-ammo-seized-by-mexican-government-came-from-us-army-plant-defense-minister-says/

IMPACT Nearly half of powerful .50-caliber ammo seized by Mexican government came from US Army plant, defense minister says Feb 10, 2026

https://www.icij.org/news/2026/02/mexican-cartels-overpower-police-with-ammunition-made-for-the-us-military/

INVESTIGATION Mexican cartels overpower police with ammunition made for the US military Feb 07, 2026

https://www.icij.org/news/2026/03/human-rights-court-calls-on-governments-to-crack-down-on-weapons-trafficking/

IMPACT Human rights court calls on governments to crack down on weapons trafficking Mar 12, 2026

Recommended reading IMPACT Nearly half of powerful .50-caliber ammo seized by Mexican government came from US Army plant, defense minister says Feb 10, 2026 INVESTIGATION Mexican cartels overpower police with ammunition made for the US military Feb 07, 2026 IMPACT Human rights court calls on governments to crack down on weapons trafficking Mar 12, 2026

For more than 15 hours, Abdulhakim Idris stared at the walls of a detention room in a Malaysian airport. The room, dirty and ridden with bed bugs, held dozens of detainees from around the world. Many of them slept on the floor.

Idris is the executive director of the Center for Uyghur Studies, a U.S.-based research and advocacy nonprofit. Last month, he traveled to Malaysia to launch the Malay-language version of his book, which chronicles Beijing’s repression of Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic group from northwestern China. But his plans changed when immigration officers detained him upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur, seized his U.S. passport and left him languishing in a detention room for hours before eventually deporting him.

There was clearly pressure from Beijing, Idris told ICIJ. “I feared [for] my life.”

Center for Uyghur Studies Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris. Image: via Center for Uyghur Studies

Idris’ detention is the latest high-profile example of China’s campaign to quell dissent worldwide, a trend that ICIJ and a team of 104 journalists explored as part of last year’s China Targets investigation. Interviews with more than 100 people in 23 countries who were targeted by Chinese authorities revealed how Beijing uses other governments, as well as international institutions like the United Nations and Interpol, to silence critics.

In a statement to ICIJ, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said allegations of transnational repression were “fabricated by a handful of countries and organizations to slander China.”

But human rights advocates say Idris’ case is a clear example of China’s international reach.

“Beijing successfully weaponized a third country to detain and expel a U.S. citizen,” Rushan Abbas, founder and executive director of Campaign for Uyghurs, said in a press release following Idris’ deportation from Malaysia. “China is escalating its efforts to harass citizens of sovereign nations engaged in lawful advocacy.”

Beijing has consistently been one of the world’s leaders in transnational repression, according to the U.S.-based human rights group Freedom House, which began recording cases in 2014.

Since then, Uyghurs like Idris have been involved in more than 20% of incidents recorded by the nonprofit, but the Chinese government has also targeted political dissidents, Tibet and Taiwan independence advocates and Falun Gong practitioners.

In 2025, the total number of direct, physical incidents of Beijing’s repression rose to 319, according to Freedom House’s latest report. Incidents recorded last year included the detention and suspicious death of a Tibetan lama in Vietnam; the detention of a Thailand-based pro-democracy activist; and the mass deportation of 40 Uyghur men from Thailand who had fled repression in China more than a decade ago.

But those cases just scratch the surface.

“There’s a whole universe of digital or indirect transnational repression,” said Freedom House research director Yana Gorokhovskaia, who co-authored the report. In addition to direct threats, China carries out mass surveillance, online harassment, and coercion by proxy, including threats to friends and family. Those cases are harder to track and validate.

Freedom House also found that Beijing continues to leverage geopolitical and economic power to influence other governments. Thailand’s deputy foreign affairs minister said the country deported the group of Uyghurs last year to avoid “retaliation from China,” according to the report, which suggested that Thai authorities may have been concerned about compromising Chinese investments in Thailand’s agricultural industry and other sectors.

When Malaysian officers detained Idris, he saw them conferring with three people in civilian clothes. “They avoided eye contact with me. They were wearing a mask,” he said. “I’m sure they were Chinese.” Idris’ contact in Malaysia was able to confirm that Beijing had put pressure on the Malaysian government to detain him.

Gorokhovskaia said that transnational repression is “cheap and easy to do.”

“It relies on kind of the existing structures in the international system,” she said, emphasizing the abuse of Interpol red notices, alerts shared with police forces around the world. Freedom House recorded 11 incidents of wrongful detention or deportation last year spurred by red notices, though China was not among the perpetrators.

ICIJ’s China Targets investigation exposed how Beijing previously exploited the red notice system to pursue dissidents and powerful businesspeople in violation of Interpol’s rules. Targets of red notices interviewed by ICIJ included Uyghur rights advocates who said they had been falsely accused of terrorism; a small-town politician who said he was blacklisted after exposing corruption in the communist party; and followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-targets/fake-journalists-cyber-spies-china-targets-reporters/

TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION Phony whistleblowers, fake journalists and cyber spies: ICIJ network targeted after China Targets probe  Apr 27, 2026

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INSIDE ICIJ WATCH: Inside China Targets — a live panel with ICIJ reporters Jun 10, 2025

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-targets/china-uses-dissidents-turned-spies-to-infiltrate-overseas-activist-groups-as-authorities-flounder/

CHINA TARGETS China uses dissidents-turned-spies to infiltrate overseas activist groups, as authorities flounder Jun 23, 2025

Recommended reading TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION Phony whistleblowers, fake journalists and cyber spies: ICIJ network targeted after China Targets probe  Apr 27, 2026 INSIDE ICIJ WATCH: Inside China Targets — a live panel with ICIJ reporters Jun 10, 2025 CHINA TARGETS China uses dissidents-turned-spies to infiltrate overseas activist groups, as authorities flounder Jun 23, 2025