Outspoken Nicaraguan opposition figure shot to death at his home in Costa Rica
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — A retired Nicaraguan military officer turned outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega was shot to death Thursday at his home in Costa Rica, authorities said.
Roberto Samcam, 67, had been living in exile since July 2018 when paramilitaries assaulted his home in Nicaragua.
Police say a man entered the condominium complex where Samcam lived northeast of the Costa Rican capital of San Jose and went directly to the retired major's home around 7:30 a.m.
Without saying a word, the man shot Samcam multiple times with a 9mm pistol, according to Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Organization. The shooter escaped.
Word of Samcam's killing spread rapidly among the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans who have sought refuge in Costa Rica since Ortega cracked down on widespread protests in 2018.
In 2020, Samcam served as chain-of-command expert for the Court of Conscience, organized by Costa Rica's Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, to collect testimony of those who suffered torture and other abuses at the hands of the government.
The exercise was in part to build cases to eventually take to regional and international human rights bodies.
'We are documenting each case so that it can move on to a trial, possibly before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,' Samcam said at the time. He said government officials were involved in the abuses.
In 2022, Samcam published a book titled 'Ortega: El calvario de Nicaragua' roughly 'Ortega: Nicaragua's torment.' Last year, he published another text describing in detail how he watched Ortega build a dictatorship.
In January 2024, another Nicaraguan exile, Joao Maldonado, was shot seven times in the street outside Costa Rica's capital. He survived and accused a cell of Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front of responsibility for the attack.
Ortega and his wife and Co-president Rosario Murillo have driven hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans into exile and imprisoned then stripped hundreds more of their citizenship.
Murillo who is also the Nicaraguan government's spokesperson did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about Samcam's killing.
Since crushing the 2018 protests, the government has systematically pursued any voice of opposition. The government has shuttered hundreds of nongovernmental organizations and persecuted religious groups, including the Catholic church.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mamdani doubling down on ‘intifada' comment as Mayor candidates vote early
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Candidate for Mayor and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is doubling down on his explanation of a term many Jewish New Yorkers view as a rallying cry to attack Jewish people. While casting his ballot in Astoria, Queens, Mamdani doubled down on his explanation of the term 'globalize the intifada.' More Local News It is a term many Jewish people, and even the U.S. Holocaust Museum, say is a rallying cry to kill Jews. Mamdani said he has heard those concerns and does not tolerate antisemitism. He said he would protect Jewish New Yorkers if elected Mayor and increase anti-crime funding. But Mamdani maintains the phrase continues to mean a struggle for basic human rights for Palestinians and many Muslims. 'I've been clear time and time again, there is no room for violence in the city and in the country,' Mamdani said. 'My point is not that this is language that I use… the meaning of these words have many different meanings to many different people.' Mamdani said former governor Andrew Cuomo and the billionaires backing his Super PAC have weaponized antisemitism in the closing days of the campaign. During a wide-ranging conversation with Cuomo, PIX 11's Henry Rosoff asked him about that. More Local News 'I have not said anything, these are his words,' Cuomo responded. 'Globalize the Intifada is a vulgar and brutal expression to the Jewish people.' Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, while casting his vote, Comptroller and Mayoral candidate Brad Lander—currently the highest-ranking Jewish city official—weighed in. Lander is standing by his cross-endorsement of Mamdani. 'We are not going to agree on everything Israel and Palestine, but I do believe he will protect Jewish New Yorkers and our rights,' Lander said. PIX 11's Henry Rosoff went one-on-one with former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is leading in the polls in the Democratic Primary for New York City Mayor. Cuomo was pressed on how he would rapidly build affordable housing, recent controversy around Zohran Mamdani's explanation of the term 'globalize the intifada,' the brief ICE detention of Comptroller Brad Lander, and a recent conversation he had with Governor Kathy Hochul. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Critic of Nicaragua's Ortega shot dead in exile in Costa Rica
A retired Nicaraguan army officer in exile who fiercely criticized authoritarian President Daniel Ortega was shot dead Thursday in neighboring Costa Rica, his family and officials said. Major Roberto Samcam, 66, was gunned down at his apartment building in San Jose, reportedly by men pretending to deliver a package. "It was something we did not expect, we could not have imagined it," Samantha Jiron, Samcam's adoptive daughter, told AFP from her home in Madrid. Nicaraguan rights groups and exiled dissidents immediately blamed the government of Ortega and his co-president wife Rosario Murillo. "Roberto was a powerful voice" who "directly denounced the dictatorship" of Ortega, Samcam's wife Claudia Vargas told reporters in San Jose as she fought back tears. His job, she said, was to "expose human rights violations" in his homeland. The head of Costa Rica's judicial police, Randall Zuniga, said that the attackers took advantage of the fact that Samcam's apartment building was unguarded in the mornings. The gunman "called out to... Roberto," who "approached without knowing" the danger, Zuniga said. "When he was within striking range, the individual began shooting at him and hit him at least eight times," he told reporters. The Nicaraguan news site Confidencial reported that the killers fled the scene by motorbike. The US State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on X that it was "shocked" by Samcam's murder and offered Costa Rica help in "holding the assassins and those behind them accountable." Nicaragua's former ambassador to the Organization of American States, Arturo McFields, who lives in exile in the United States, called the killing "an act of cowardice and criminal political revenge by the dictatorship of Nicaragua." "The manner of the crime indicates political motives. This is very serious," Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli, exiled in Spain, stated on X. Neither Ortega nor his government commented on the case. Samcam, who was a political analyst, had spoken out frequently against the government in Managua, which he fled in 2018 to live with his wife in Costa Rica. That year, protests against Ortega's government were violently repressed, resulting in more than 300 deaths, according to the UN. In January last year, another Nicaraguan opposition activist living in Costa Rica, Joao Maldonado, was shot while driving with his girlfriend in San Jose. Both were seriously wounded. While the motive of that attack was the object of much speculation, Samcam's killing fueled suspicion among Nicaraguans that it may also have been linked to his political activities. - 'Night of long knives' - Former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solis called Samcam's murder "for his frontal opposition to the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship" an "outrageous and extremely serious act." "I feel that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are initiating a 'Night of the Long Knives'... due to the regime's weakening," Dora Maria Tellez, a former associate of Ortega turned critic, said from Spain, where she too is in exile. The "Night of the Long Knives" was a bloody purge of rivals ordered by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1934. "They resort to the execution of a retired ex-military officer, whom they believe has a voice that resonates within the ranks of the army," Tellez told the Nicaraguan news outlet 100% Noticias. Ortega, now 79, first served as president from 1985 to 1990 as a former guerrilla hero who had helped oust a brutal US-backed regime. Returning to power in 2007, he became ever more authoritarian, according to observers, jailing hundreds of opponents, real and perceived, in recent years. Ortega's government has shut down more than 5,000 non-governmental organizations since the 2018 mass protests that he considered a US-backed coup attempt. Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled into exile, and the regime is under US and EU sanctions. Most independent and opposition media operate from abroad. Pro-government media in Nicaragua did not report on Samcam's killing. bur-fj/cb/sst
6 hours ago
Outspoken Nicaraguan opposition figure shot to death at his home in Costa Rica
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- A retired Nicaraguan military officer turned outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega was shot to death Thursday at his home in Costa Rica, authorities said. Roberto Samcam, 67, had been living in exile since July 2018 when paramilitaries assaulted his home in Nicaragua. Police say a man entered the condominium complex where Samcam lived northeast of the Costa Rican capital of San Jose and went directly to the retired major's home around 7:30 a.m. Without saying a word, the man shot Samcam multiple times with a 9mm pistol, according to Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Organization. The shooter escaped. Word of Samcam's killing spread rapidly among the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans who have sought refuge in Costa Rica since Ortega cracked down on widespread protests in 2018. In 2020, Samcam served as chain-of-command expert for the Court of Conscience, organized by Costa Rica's Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, to collect testimony of those who suffered torture and other abuses at the hands of the government. The exercise was in part to build cases to eventually take to regional and international human rights bodies. 'We are documenting each case so that it can move on to a trial, possibly before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,' Samcam said at the time. He said government officials were involved in the abuses. In 2022, Samcam published a book titled 'Ortega: El calvario de Nicaragua' roughly 'Ortega: Nicaragua's torment.' Last year, he published another text describing in detail how he watched Ortega build a dictatorship. In January 2024, another Nicaraguan exile, Joao Maldonado, was shot seven times in the street outside Costa Rica's capital. He survived and accused a cell of Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front of responsibility for the attack. Ortega and his wife and Co-president Rosario Murillo have driven hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans into exile and imprisoned then stripped hundreds more of their citizenship. Murillo who is also the Nicaraguan government's spokesperson did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about Samcam's killing. Since crushing the 2018 protests, the government has systematically pursued any voice of opposition. The government has shuttered hundreds of nongovernmental organizations and persecuted religious groups, including the Catholic church. Yader Valdivia of the human rights organization Nicaragua Nunca Más said that Samcam had been one of the exiled Nicaraguans stripped of his citizenship by the government. Valdivia said there was fear of the government's 'long arm' among the Nicaraguan exile community in Costa Rica that makes it capable of reaching critics outside its borders.
