Prominent Nicaraguan Dissident Roberto Samcam Shot Dead in Exile in Costa Rica

 June 20, 2025 – A retired Nicaraguan military officer and outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega's government, Major Roberto Samcam, was shot dead yesterday, Thursday, June 19th, in Costa Rica, where he had been living in exile since 2018. His assassination has sent shockwaves through the Nicaraguan exile community and sparked condemnation internationally, raising fears about the safety of dissidents abroad.

Samcam, aged 66 or 67 depending on reports, was gunned down by unknown assailants at his condominium in a suburb of San José, Costa Rica, yesterday morning. According to his wife, Claudia Vargas, the attacker gained access to their gated community by posing as a delivery driver, claiming to have a package for Samcam. He then approached their home and shot Samcam at his doorstep.

The Costa Rican Red Cross confirmed that an advanced life support unit responded to the emergency, but Samcam showed no vital signs upon their arrival and was pronounced dead at the scene. Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) later confirmed his identity and stated he was shot at least eight times with a 9mm pistol. The shooter remains at large.

A Vocal Critic of the Ortega Regime:

Roberto Samcam was a significant figure in Nicaragua's opposition movement. A retired Sandinista major, he became a fierce critic of the Ortega-Murillo government after the brutal repression of widespread anti-government protests in 2018. He went into exile in Costa Rica following a paramilitary assault on his home in July 2018.

From exile, Samcam remained a prolific commentator and activist, regularly speaking to media and actively working to document human rights violations in Nicaragua.

• In 2020, he served as a "chain-of-command expert" for the Court of Conscience, a group established by Costa Rica's Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. His role involved collecting testimonies of torture and abuses committed under Ortega, with the explicit aim of building legal cases to be presented before regional and international human rights bodies like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
• He published books, including "Ortega: El Calvario de Nicaragua" (Ortega: Nicaragua's Torment) in 2022, which critiqued the Ortega regime and its tactics.

International Condemnation and Concerns for Dissidents:

Nicaraguan exile activists and former diplomats, including Arturo McFields, have quickly condemned the killing, directly accusing the Ortega-Murillo regime of responsibility and calling it a "cowardly act of criminal political revenge."

The U.S. State Department expressed its shock at Samcam's murder and offered Costa Rica support "to hold the murderers and those behind them accountable."

This assassination has significantly heightened concerns about the safety of hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans who have sought refuge in Costa Rica and other countries since Ortega intensified his crackdown on dissent. It follows another attempted assassination in January 2024 against student leader Joao Maldonado, also in San José, who survived two such attempts and has blamed Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Critics and international organizations accuse President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-President Rosario Murillo of dismantling democratic institutions and committing widespread human rights abuses, including stripping hundreds of dissidents of their citizenship and seizing their property.