{"id":3552,"date":"2025-06-20T12:29:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T07:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=3552"},"modified":"2025-06-20T13:11:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T08:11:29","slug":"nicaraguan-dissident-shot-dead-in-costa-rica-in-suspected-political-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/2025\/06\/20\/nicaraguan-dissident-shot-dead-in-costa-rica-in-suspected-political-hit","title":{"rendered":"Nicaraguan Dissident Shot Dead in Costa Rica in Suspected Political Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE: A fierce critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, retired army major Roberto Samcam, was shot dead outside his San Jose apartment on Thursday in what exiled dissidents and rights groups are calling a politically motivated assassination.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 66-year-old, known for his outspoken criticism of the Ortega-Murillo regime, was gunned down by a man posing as a delivery agent, according to Costa Rican police. Investigators said the assailant called out to Samcam before firing at close range, hitting him at least eight times. The attacker fled the scene on a motorbike.<\/p>\n

Samcam, who had been living in exile in Costa Rica since fleeing Nicaragua in 2018, frequently condemned Ortega\u2019s repression and human rights abuses. \u201cHe directly denounced the dictatorship,\u201d said his wife, Claudia Vargas, through tears at a press conference in San Jose.<\/p>\n

Nicaraguan exiles were swift to accuse Ortega\u2019s government of orchestrating the murder. Arturo McFields, Nicaragua\u2019s former envoy to the OAS, described the killing as \u201ccriminal political revenge.\u201d Noted writer Gioconda Belli echoed the sentiment, saying the manner of execution indicated political motives.<\/p>\n

US officials expressed outrage, with the State Department offering to assist Costa Rica in tracking down those responsible. Former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solis called the assassination an \u201coutrageous and serious act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major Samcam, also a political analyst, had frequently appeared in media outlets denouncing the regime\u2019s actions since the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in 2018 that left over 300 dead.<\/p>\n

The assassination bears unsettling resemblance to earlier attacks on Nicaraguan dissidents abroad. In January last year, opposition figure Joao Maldonado was shot and seriously wounded in a drive-by attack in San Jose.<\/p>\n

The killing has reignited fears among Nicaragua\u2019s exiled community of a cross-border campaign to silence critics. \u201cThis could be the beginning of a \u2018Night of the Long Knives,\u2019\u201d warned Dora Maria Tellez, a former ally of Ortega turned vocal opponent, referencing Hitler\u2019s infamous political purge.<\/p>\n

Ortega, who first came to power in 1985 and returned in 2007, has faced growing condemnation for jailing opponents, dismantling civil society, and clamping down on dissent. His government has shuttered more than 5,000 NGOs since 2018 and driven thousands into exile. Independent media now operate almost entirely from abroad.<\/p>\n

The Nicaraguan government has remained silent on Samcam\u2019s killing. Pro-Ortega outlets have not reported the incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE: A fierce critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, retired army major Roberto Samcam, was shot dead outside his San Jose apartment on Thursday in what exiled dissidents and rights groups are calling a politically motivated assassination. The 66-year-old, known for his outspoken criticism of the Ortega-Murillo regime, was gunned down by a man …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1497,1761,1762,1759,1760],"class_list":["post-3552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-assassination","tag-costa-rica","tag-exile","tag-nicaragua","tag-ortega"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3554,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/3554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2day.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}