Samcam’s Murder in Costa Rica ‘Shocking for the Impunity’
Says former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla
Former Costa Rican President: ‘This is unprecedented, and that’s why it’s alarming. I hope it gets the government’s attention.’
By Carlos F. Chamorro (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla believes the political assassination of former Nicaraguan Army major Roberto Samcam — which took place in San Jose, Costa Rica, on June 19, 2025 — is “shocking because of the impunity with which the [Ortega-Murillo] regime is using hitmen to target exiles or refugees on Costa Rican soil.”
“It’s an open invitation to continue down the same path,” she added, calling the crime “truly unacceptable and outrageous.”
In an interview on the program Esta Semana, broadcast on Sunday, July 22 on CONFIDENCIAL‘s YouTube channel, due to television censorship in Nicaragua, Chinchilla stated that this political assassination should be “a top investigative priority” and expressed hope that “it draws the government’s attention.” However, she lamented that Costa Rica’s presidential office “has not even expressed its dismay.”
What is your reaction to the criminal attack against Nicaraguan exile and refugee Roberto Samcam, a retired major in the Nicaraguan Army, which occurred last Thursday in a residential area of San José, Costa Rica?
Deep sorrow—for Roberto, for his family, and for what this represents for other Nicaraguans under threat, who today, justifiably, must be alarmed. I feel deep indignation, because at this point, one wonders what else the despotic Nicaraguan regime is capable of. Not even allowing those who were forcibly displaced to live in peace.
Also a sense of disbelief, because after similar and equally tragic events have taken place on Costa Rican soil — and after knowing that several victims of threats have reported them to the authorities — it’s impossible to understand how they were able to get to Roberto and kill him in the way they did, with such ease.
In 2024, there was a second attack on another exiled and refugee couple, Joao Maldonado and Nadia Robleto, in San Jose. Before that, another refugee was killed in Upala. Is there a pattern of political violence against Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica?
Absolutely. This has already been confirmed. People are now starting to talk about espionage by the Nicaraguan regime in Costa Rica. The regime has always had people planted here — undercover, gathering information, keeping tabs on certain individuals — and that’s true. Those kinds of activities have always existed, but they’ve generally been tolerated, especially between neighboring countries with contrasting regimes or systems of government.
What is new, however, is the regime’s impunity in using hitmen to execute exiles or refugees on Costa Rican soil. What happened on Thursday, June 19, is an open invitation to continue down that same path. That, to me, is truly unacceptable and outrageous.
In Costa Rica, there’s currently a growing public security crisis. There’s a kind of hitman-for-hire industry, and at the same time, the Nicaraguan dictatorship is engaging in espionage and political interference in this country to foster violence. Where is the line between Costa Rica’s internal security crisis and this political intervention by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship?
Unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that they go hand in hand. If we’re facing this unprecedented security crisis, it’s also because the authorities have let their guard down. I want to make an exception for the Judicial Investigation Office (OIJ), which always ends up collecting the dead and trying to solve the cases.
But from a prevention standpoint, of raising the necessary barriers so that organized crime reduces its operations, what we’re seeing is the opposite: an intensification of homicides. So yes, they go hand in hand.
What worries me is that the Ortega-Murillo regime is indeed gauging the security weaknesses Costa Rica is showing and thinking, “Here we have a free hand to get away with whatever we want.” As a result, we may see an increase in political assassinations — something completely unprecedented in our country.
Throughout its history, Costa Rica has welcomed various dissident groups from across the Americas and beyond, and they have always come here to live in peace. This has no precedent, which is why it’s a serious alarm that I hope will catch the Government’s attention.
Last Thursday, more than 90 Nicaraguan exiles, most of them refugees in Costa Rica and some in other places, demanded protection and security from the Costa Rican state, as well as an investigation to clarify this assassination and bring those responsible to justice. Does the Costa Rican government have the capacity to prevent and provide protection? And to investigate and solve these crimes?
I’ll start with the second part. Costa Rica has one of the highest homicide clearance rates, at least in our region, in the Americas. That remains a hopeful sign. We have to acknowledge, and the authorities themselves admit this, that both the forensic experts and the OIJ officers are currently overloaded, especially since not many additional resources have been invested.
Precisely because of the precedent this political assassination sets, one would expect it to become a top priority for investigation.
From a prevention standpoint, the problem here in Costa Rica seems to be that not even a minimal level of protection or alert was attempted, no cameras or anything that could have at least warned Roberto that he needed to change his routines or take extra security measures. Much less to consider providing physical protection; I don’t see anyone assigned to protect him at all.
So yes, protection must be demanded; otherwise, Costa Rica will end up, beyond the tragedies this entails, making headlines not as a violent country in terms of common crime, but as a country where political violence occurs.
Roberto Samcam, besides being a refugee in Costa Rica protected by law, also acquired Spanish citizenship after being stripped of his Nicaraguan nationality by the dictatorship, like many other Nicaraguans. This crime was also committed against a Spanish citizen and has sparked strong reactions from various governments. However, to this day, we have not seen any response from the Costa Rican government authorities.
I’m very surprised by this, and I think the very least they could have done was to express sorrow and concern. There was a daughter there who could also have been a victim. Roberto had been with us for many years and had accustomed us to relying on very rigorous information to better understand the situation in Nicaragua. If the authorities had known — and I believed they might have — how valuable Roberto was due to his training in security issues. The government’s attitude seems to be completely turned away from the Nicaraguan community.
Who should take the lead in clarifying this case and providing protection? The OIJ, the Intelligence Directorate, or the Presidency?
Ideally, we would have seen the president moved by this. But at the very least, the Minister of Security or the Foreign Ministry. The Minister of Security simply came out and said this wasn’t their responsibility, that it was up to the OIJ. Yes, the OIJ is doing its job now, but it wasn’t their responsibility to try to prevent these things from happening in the first place. And there wasn’t even a word of comfort for the family or reassurance for the rest of the Nicaraguans who, I insist, have every justified reason to fear for their physical safety today.