A retired Nicaraguan military officer and critic of President Daniel Ortega, Roberto Samcam, was shot dead in his condominium in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Thursday. Samcam, 67, was killed after an assailant disguised as a delivery driver arrived at his condo and shot him at least eight times. The suspect escaped on a motorcycle and remains at large.
Samcam went into exile after participating in the 2018 protests against Ortega’s government, which began as demonstrations against social security reforms and escalated into one of the largest antigovernment movements in Nicaragua’s history. The protests were met with a police crackdown, resulting in an estimated 355 deaths, over 2,000 injuries, and another 2,000 arbitrary detentions, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Samcam was an outspoken critic of Ortega’s government, denouncing its use of military weapons and paramilitary forces to suppress the protests. Ortega has denied using either for repression. In a 2019 interview, Samcam compared Ortega to Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the last member of the Somoza family dictatorship that ruled Nicaragua for nearly 43 years. Samcam also published a book in 2022 titled “El Calvario de Nicaragua” (Nicaragua’s Torment), highlighting Ortega’s authoritarian tendencies.
Ortega’s government has been accused of human rights abuses, including stripping hundreds of dissidents of their citizenship and seizing their property. The president has also pushed for constitutional reforms to increase his power and that of his wife, Rosario Murillo, who leads alongside him as co-president. These reforms grant Ortega control over all government agencies, further consolidating his authority.
From abroad, Samcam worked to document Ortega’s alleged abuses as part of the Court of Conscience, a group created by the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. Samcam solicited testimony of torture and abuses committed under Ortega, aiming to build a legal case against the Nicaraguan president and his officials. “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.
Samcam’s death has raised concerns about the safety of Nicaraguan dissidents living in exile. Another dissident, Joao Maldonado, a student leader in the 2018 protests, survived two assassination attempts in Costa Rica, blaming Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front for the attacks.
Nicaragua recently broke diplomatic ties with Israel amid the ongoing Gaza war, aligning with other countries critical of Israel’s actions. Ortega’s government has also approved constitutional reforms boosting his power and that of his wife. The US has sanctioned Nicaragua’s attorney general over human rights concerns, accusing her of suppressing dissent.