Costa Rica’s Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) has classified the assassination of retired Nicaraguan Army major Roberto Samcam as an “ideological” homicide tied to his opposition to the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Investigators also describe the crime as “professional and commissioned,” indicating that suspects were allegedly paid.
The findings were disclosed by Costa Rican TV company Teletica, which obtained access to the judicial file, including expanded details based on witness testimony.
According to the case file, one key trigger for the attack may have been Samcam’s involvement in a report prepared for the United Nations. Working alongside other Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica, Samcam contributed to drafting a document proposing a “transitional government,” which reportedly drew backlash from sectors linked to the Ortega-Murillo administration.
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“(…) The idea was for it to be a document open for signatures, similar to the constitutional reform signed in January 2025—a signed document that would begin to challenge the Constitution at that time—but Roberto circulated it,” one witness told investigators, according to the file quoted by Teletica.
The same witness described the report as “the last straw,” adding that Samcam had also published another document targeting individuals he labeled as responsible for killings, while criticizing the military, intelligence services, and the Interior Ministry—actions that allegedly placed him “as a target” of the regime.
Investigations that angered Nicaraguan authorities
A second witness cited in the file supported the claim that the UN-related report was the main trigger. “Most of this document was based on research conducted by Roberto Samcam, so government anger could have led to his killing,” the testimony states.
The witness added that the retired officer “was a specific target of the regime” and that, through information provided to the United Nations, Samcam had “exposed a list of individuals involved in 300 killings.”
Teletica further reported that the OIJ file points to the existence of a list of ten people whom the Ortega-Murillo government allegedly planned to assassinate.
Widow: Justice “no longer seems distant”
Claudia Vargas, Samcam’s widow, responded on social media expressing cautious optimism, saying the prospect of justice “no longer seems distant.”
“Investigations in Costa Rica have shed light on a painful but necessary truth: his death is linked to his commitment to human rights and his efforts to expose the reality under Nicaragua’s dictatorship… Seeing the OIJ and the judiciary getting to the bottom of this, identifying the crime as political and pointing to links with the dictatorship and the Army, gives us some optimism about what lies ahead,” Vargas wrote on Facebook.
She added that “seeing this through to the end no longer feels like a distant dream.”
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One suspect still at large
Samcam was shot dead on June 19, 2025, at his home in Moravia, in San José, Costa Rica. Authorities said a gunman entered the residence, reached the second floor, and opened fire at close range.
Four suspects are currently in custody, including one allegedly linked to a group operating in the Nicaraguan department of Carazo, reinforcing the hypothesis of a coordinated operation. A fifth suspect remains at large.
