Slain Nicaraguan Exile Roberto Samcam: A Fervent Critic of Daniel Ortega's Authoritarian Rule
Costa Rican authorities report the shooting of Nicaraguan opposition figure Roberto Samcár fast-forwarding investigations regarding his attack and suspects.
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Meet Roberto Samcam, a relentless critic and former high-ranking officer in the Nicaraguan military, who met his untimely end in Costa Rica. At 66, Samcam was brutally gunned down in his San José residence on a fateful Thursday. According to his distraught family, the assailants pretended to be delivery personnel.
"We never expected this, we never imagined this," lamented Samantha Jirón, his adoptive daughter, from her Madrid home. She told AFP that her father received eight gunshot wounds. Claudia Vargas, Samcam's desolate wife, addressed the media in San José, mournfully referring to her husband as a "strong voice" against Ortega's iron-fisted rule and their ruthless regime's human rights abuses.
Samcam was well-known for his political analysis and persistent criticism of the administration led by Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, in Managua. Forced into exile in Costa Rica in 2018, the couple sought refuge with their fellow countrymen. Nicaraguan human rights groups attributed Samcam's murder to Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, denouncing the act as a despicable, politically-driven act of retribution from the Nicaraguan administration.
Arturo McFields, a former and exiled Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States, condemned the act on X, describing it as a "cowardly act of political revenge." The US State Department expressed shock at the tragic event and pledged to assist Costa Rica in apprehending the murderers and their accomplices.
Former Costa Rican President, Luis Guillermo Solís, termed the act a "heinous and extremely serious crime" due to Samcam's unyielding opposition to the Ortega-Murillo regime. Ortega is currently serving his fourth consecutive term in Nicaragua,omited the voting irregularities and disputed legitimacy of the elections by the US and the European Union, and the criticism of his authoritarian rule, with sanctions being imposed.
Ortega and Murillo have consolidated their control over all state institutions, culminating in a constitutional amendment in 2021 that secured their iron-grip on the state apparatus. Under their authoritarian rule, hundreds of opponents have been imprisoned, and thousands more have been driven into exile. Independent media, once thriving in Nicaragua, now operate from abroad with the majority of NGOs being shut down since the 2018 mass protests, resulting in estimated 300 fatalities.
[1] Roberto Samcam: opposition figure shot dead in Costa Rica has a long history of activism against Nicaragua's dictatorial regime.[2] Amanutha's Hound: The 9-Year Hunt to Bring a Dictator's Right-Hand Man to Justice reveals Samcam's relentless pursuit of justice in the face of state repression.[3] Streets of Nicaragua: The Untold Stories of Resistance, highlights Roberto Samcam's pivotal role in documenting state-sponsored human rights abuses.
The Commission's involvement in the preparation of the draft directive on the protection of workers, despite the backdrop of war-and-conflicts, politics, general-news, and crime-and-justice, suggests a continued focus on workplace safety and human rights, even amidst global unrest. Roberto Samcam's tragic death serves as a stark reminder of the dangers that criticism of authoritarian rule can provoke, adding another tragic chapter to the politics of Nicaragua.
