A retired Nicaraguan army officer and outspoken critic of the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo government was shot dead Thursday in Costa Rica, where he was living in exile. Major Roberto Samcam, 66, was gunned down by unknown assailants Thursday morning in the condominium where he lived in a suburb of San José. Nicaraguan exile activists hold the Ortega-Murillo regime responsible for the killing.
“This news hit me hard, we never expected this,” said his daughter Samantha Jirón, who lives in Madrid. “Roberto was a powerful voice,” said his wife, Claudia Vargas, through tears. She said he “never did anything wrong” and worked to expose “human rights violations in Nicaragua and denounce what was happening in the country.”
Costa Rica’s Red Cross dispatched an advanced life support unit to Samcam’s residence in Moravia but confirmed he showed no vital signs. The Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) later identified him and confirmed his identity. “We strongly condemn the cold-blooded murder of Roberto Samcam. This is a cowardly act of criminal political revenge by Nicaragua’s dictatorship,” wrote exiled former Nicaraguan ambassador Arturo McFields on X.
Samcam, who regularly spoke to the media to criticize the Ortega regime, had been living in Costa Rica with his wife since 2018, when protests in Nicaragua were brutally repressed, leaving over 300 dead, according to the UN. According to Confidencial, the killers entered his residence under the pretense of delivering a package, shot him eight times, and fled on a motorcycle.
Night of the Long Knives
On January 10, 2024, another Nicaraguan exile in Costa Rica, Joao Maldonado, was shot while in a car with his girlfriend in San José. Both were seriously injured. Former Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís (2014–2018) called the assassination “an outrageous and serious act” due to Samcam’s opposition to Ortega and Murillo.
Ex-sandinista commander Dora María Téllez, now exiled in Spain, warned this could signal the beginning of a “night of long knives”—a reference to Hitler’s 1934 purge—executed in slow motion by a weakening regime. “They’re resorting to executing a retired military officer whose voice they believe still carries weight within the army,” Téllez told 100% Noticias.
The U.S. State Department expressed its shock and offered Costa Rica support “to hold the murderers and those behind them accountable.” Ortega, a 79-year-old former guerrilla, ruled Nicaragua from 1985–1990 and again since 2007. Critics and international organizations accuse him of being an autocrat who has dismantled freedoms and democratic institutions.
A constitutional reform enacted in February formally made Murillo co-president, cementing the couple’s total control. Following the 2018 protests—labeled by the regime as a U.S.-backed coup attempt—hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans were forced into exile. The government expelled and stripped citizenship from some 450 critics, including clergy, journalists, writers, and politicians, many of whom were jailed for “treason.”
