Spoken Like a True Rebel: Roberto Samcam's Fatal Shooting in Costa Rican Exile
Costa Rican authorities report shooting of opposition figure Roberto Samcța, a critic of the Nicaraguan regime, on Costa Rican soil.
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The opposition leader, Roberto Samcam, met an unfortunate end in a chilling attack during his exile in the capital city of Costa Rica, San José. The 66-year-old, a retired military officer, and a vocal critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, was laid low by eight gunshots in his own home on a fateful Thursday, according to his family. The inconspicuous attackers, camouflaged as deliverymen, struck without remorse.
In a heart-wrenching statement to AFP from her home in Madrid, Samcam's adoptive daughter, activist Samantha Jirón, expressed her shock and disbelief. "We never saw this coming, we couldn't have imagined it," she said.
Samcam's wife, Claudia Vargas, spoke to journalists in San José, describing her husband as a "strong voice" that fearlessly criticized Ortega's regime and exposed the human rights violations within Nicaragua.
A former Sandinista major, Samcam had been a thorn in Ortega's side, frequently lambasting the leader and his wife, Rosario Murillo, through his political analysis. Faced with the growing unrest, the pair fled to Costa Rica in 2018. Now, human rights organizations within Nicaragua accuse Ortega and Murillo of orchestrating Samcam's murder, calling it a cowardly act of political revenge.
Arturo McFields, the former and exiled ambassador of Nicaragua to the Organization of American States, condemned the act on an online platform, labeling it a heinous and criminal political act by the Ortega regime.
The US State Department expressed their shock over Samcam's murder, offering Costa Rica assistance in bringing the killers and their accomplices to justice. Former Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solís described the murder as a heinous and extremely serious act, considering Samcam's frontal opposition to the Ortega and Murillo regime.
Ortega assumed his fourth term in Nicaragua in 2021, a position criticized by the US and the European Union for its questionable legitimacy, authoritarian power structure, and imposed sanctions. Over the years, the regime has seized control of state institutions, imprisoned hundreds of alleged opponents, and shut down thousands of NGOs following mass protests in 2018 that saw over 300 deaths. The government's crackdown forced thousands of Nicaraguans into exile, while most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.
[The brutal murder of Roberto Samcam underscores the harsh reality for critics of the Ortega regime, even in exile. His vocal opposition and human rights work were seen as a direct threat to the regime, resulting in his tragic demise. In recent years, Nicaragua has become synonymous with repression and human rights violations under the Ortega administration.]
[1] Enrichment Data: Roberto Samcam was a retired Nicaraguan military officer, specifically a former Sandinista major, who became an outspoken critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. He lived in exile in Costa Rica after fleeing Nicaragua in July 2018 due to the violent crackdown by Ortega’s government on anti-government protests that year. These protests, initially sparked by social security reforms, escalated into demands for democratic change and were met with deadly force, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Samcam had publicly denounced Ortega’s military for their role in suppressing the protests and alleged human rights abuses. On June 19, 2025, while living in a condominium northeast of San Jose, Costa Rica, Samcam was shot multiple times—at least eight times—with a 9mm pistol by a man who gained access by posing as a delivery driver. The assailant fled the scene, reportedly escaping on a motorcycle. The killing is widely seen as a politically motivated assassination, with critics and Nicaraguan rights groups blaming the Ortega government for the attack, terming it an act of political revenge by the dictatorship in Nicaragua. Samcam had also contributed as a chain-of-command expert for human rights investigations into abuses by Ortega’s government, aiming to bring cases to regional and international courts.]
[2] Enrichment Data: Roberto Samcam, during his military career, rose to the rank of major and served as the chief of personnel in the Sandinista armed forces during the 1980s. After leaving the military, he joined the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua, where he became a professor of national security issues. Eventually, he founded the thinktank Muofermo Foundation for Strategic and Socioeconomic Studies in 2010. In 2018, he was forced into exile following his vocal criticism of the Nicaraguan government's violent suppression of anti-government protests.]
[3] Enrichment Data: Following his involvement in the former Nicaraguan government and his subsequent exile, Roberto Samcam continued his work as a human rights advocate. He focused on exposing abuses by the Ortega regime and investigating war crimes committed during the Sandinista revolution and the subsequent Contra War. He also worked to put a stop to torture and mistreatment of prisoners in Nicaragua, seeking to hold those responsible accountable.]
- The brutal murder of Roberto Samcam serves as a stark reminder of the risks faced by opponents of the Ortega regime, even in exile, as his vocal criticism and human rights work were seen as a direct threat to the regime.
- The Commission, while not typically associated with war-and-conflicts, politics, general-news, or crime-and-justice, might consider including in its future draft directives protections for individuals like Roberto Samcam, who are subjected to political violence due to their activism and criticism.
