Ret. Nicaraguan Major Roberto Samcam Killed in Costa Rica
He was shot eight times inside his home in San Jose, sustaining injuries to the chest, abdomen, and lower limbs, according to the Red Cross.
HAVANA TIMES – Retired Nicaraguan Army Major Roberto Samcam was shot and killed on the morning of June 19, 2025, in his home in San Jose, Costa Rica, where he had been living in exile since 2018.
Samcam was pronounced dead in the ambulance en route to the hospital, according to close sources. The Red Cross reported that he was shot in the chest, abdomen, and lower limbs, according to the Costa Rican media outlet La Teja.
Samcam lived in a condominium in the canton (municipality) of Moravia, north of San Jose. According to sources, the hitmen entered the residential area under the pretense of delivering a package to the ex-military officer, shot him eight times inside his home, and fled on a motorcycle.
He had been out of Costa Rica for more than a month and returned to the country on Monday, June 16th.
Costa Rican security forces have not yet released official information about the attack.
Roberto Samcam, Critic of the Army and the Dictatorship
The retired major was a strong critic of the Nicaraguan Army for its role in the repression and killing of unarmed civilians during the 2018 protests.
The Army has denied that its troops or weapons were involved in the repression of the population, but according to Samcam, many of the weapons used in the crackdown in Diriamba and Jinotepe were military-grade and exclusively in the possession of the armed forces.
“In Carazo, we saw for the first time the appearance of RPG-7 rocket launchers—that’s for exclusive Army use. Neither the Police nor the DOEP, nor the Tapir units, possess those weapons. The Dragunov rifle is for Army use only. While some special police forces may have a few, there might be at most 10 or 15 Dragunovs in the hands of the Tapir units. The number present was staggering,” said Roberto Samcam in an interview with Esta Semana and CONFIDENCIAL in July 2019.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.