Q COSTARICA — Costa Rica’s judicial police, the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), will investigate the possible presence of an arm of the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime that could be operating on Costa Rican soil to commit crimes against opponents in exile.
Roberto Samcam, a retired former Nicaraguan military commander and one of the most vocal critics of the dictatorship, was murdered by at least two people inside an apartment complex where he lived in San Vicente de Moravia last Thursday.
Randall Zúñiga, director of the OIJ, told the press, while it would be premature to conclude that the crime was orchestrated by the Ortega-Murillo government, this is a possibility being considered and will be investigated to rule out or confirm it.
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Investigators are now trying to find the perpetrators of the murder: both the gunman who entered the apartment to kill Samcam and his accomplice.
The investigations will also focus on determining who planned and ordered the murder.
In the recent past, another attack was carried out against Joao Maldonado, a young Nicaraguan man whose opposition voice has resonated, and who was attempted to be assassinated in San Pedro de Montes de Oca in January 2024.
“As a precedent also occurred in Costa Rica, a few months ago, in a case that has already been clarified by the OIJ, another activist opposed to Daniel Ortega’s regime was attempted to be assassinated and shot multiple times.
“This person managed to survive this attack. Therefore, the OIJ is taking both cases with all due seriousness, and we hope to soon have some results,” said Zúñiga in public statements on the day of Samcam’s murder.
In the past, the OIJ has detected the presence of foreign criminal forces operating on national soil, primarily structures linked to international drug trafficking.
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Roberto Samcam was murdered inside his home located in a residential area near Plaza Lincoln, on the east side of San José, when a gunman knocked on his door and killed him with at least eight shots to the chest and extremities.
At least two people are believed to be involved in the attack. The gunman and his accomplice were reportedly circling the residential area in a vehicle where the victim lived.
Warnings
Before being assassinated, the retired Nicaraguan Army major publicly denounced the existence of a cell of hitmen operating out of the Nicaraguan embassy in San José.
As he revealed in an interview with Darío Medios Internacional, the Ortega-Murillo regime had deployed intelligence agents to monitor and attack Nicaraguan opponents who had taken refuge in Costa Rica.
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According to Samcam, this clandestine network, protected by the diplomatic structure, was composed of officers sent from Managua through the Dirección de Información para la Defensa (DID), Nicaragua’s Directorate of Defense Information, the intelligence agency of the Nicaraguan Army.
The operations had allegedly intensified after the repression of the April 2018 protests, which led to the migration of thousands of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica.
The opposition leader identified a structure with more than 20 officials without visible official positions. Samcam asserted that embassies and consulates function as espionage centers with institutional cover, and that some members of these cells were identified, causing them to retreat or return to Nicaragua.
He also stated that one of the most alarming cases was the attack on Joao Maldonado and his wife, an action he described as typical of this organization’s modus operandi: locating, following, and hiring hitmen to carry out the attack.
“They sent people to locate and try to cause harm. (…) Public denunciation is our only weapon,” Samcam asserted, noting that the Rodrigo Chaves government has denied the existence of this cell.
However, he warned that Costa Rica’s crime rates are used to camouflage political attacks as simple acts of violence.
Nicaraguan Leaders Denounce Persecution
Óscar René Vargas, economist, sociologist, and political analyst, is a veteran of the political struggle and one of Nicaragua’s most prominent and respected academic voices.
He went from being part of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FRN) and saving Daniel Ortega’s life to exile in Costa Rica, from where he has criticized and denounced the regime formed by the commander and his wife, co-president Rosario Murillo.
Vargas was one of the last people to see Samcam alive. They shared lunch with a third friend at an establishment near La Sabana, after Roberto returned to the country after two months of visiting his children and siblings.
Óscar René did not hesitate to hold the dictatorial regime responsible for the murder and publicly condemned Ortega and Murillo for ending the life of the opposition leader.
In an interview with CRHoy, he also asserted that there is an operation on Costa Rican soil to repress or eliminate voices that have denounced the regime’s actions.
“I think so. That’s a problem here, but what I believe is that this is a problem for the security of Costa Rica itself.
“Given the type of action, this is the work of hired assassins. I don’t think it’s the same people (as the masterminds of the murders), but it could also arise like the Maldonado case.
“It could be Costa Ricans who are bought off with money. The problem is that this hired assassination also has some connection to drug trafficking in Costa Rica.
“The Ortega dictatorship is using these types of people to carry out political actions, and this creates a security problem not only for those of us in exile here, but also for Costa Ricans themselves,” stated Óscar René Vargas.
Prior to his murder, Samcam informed the DIS that he was being pursued
At least one investigative agency, the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS) – the Directorate of Intelligence and Security, an agency attached to the Ministry of the Presidency, was informed by Samcam about his safety concerns
After the OIJ concluded its investigation at the crime scene, Claudia Vargas, Samcam’s wife, in tears and, in a brief address to the press, recalled that she and her husband both shared concerns with the DIS for his safety.
She also hinted that they believe the crime may have been politically motivated, as her husband had no personal conflicts beyond his outspoken stance against the Nicaraguan regime.
“I remember him as coherent, I remember him as strong. Roberto had a powerful voice and he also directly denounced the dictatorship. He never engaged in any wrongdoing, or anything at all.
“His focus was the promotion of human rights in Nicaragua and the constant denunciation of what was happening,” Vargas stated, who also expressed her gratitude for the messages of solidarity and asked for space for the family.
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