Overview

• Samcam, a retired military officer and outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega, was fatally gunned down at his San José apartment by assailants posing as deliverymen.
• His family said eight shots were fired in the early-morning attack on June 19.
• Samcam fled Nicaragua in 2018 after paramilitaries assaulted his home and in 2020 helped document torture and human rights abuses under Ortega’s regime through Costa Rica’s Arias Foundation court initiative.
• Former ambassador Arturo McFields and other opposition figures directly accuse Ortega and co-president Rosario Murillo of orchestrating the assassination.
• The killing follows a January 2024 shooting of exile Joao Maldonado and has intensified fears for the safety of Nicaraguan dissidents in Costa Rica.