SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — A retired Nicaraguan army officer turned outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega was shot to demise Thursday at his residence in Costa Rica, authorities stated.
Roberto Samcam, 67, had been dwelling in exile since July 2018 when paramilitaries assaulted his residence in Nicaragua.
Police say a person entered the condominium advanced the place Samcam lived northeast of the Costa Rican capital of San Jose and went on to the retired main’s residence round 7:30 a.m.
With out saying a phrase, the person shot Samcam a number of instances with a 9mm pistol, in line with Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Group. The shooter escaped.
Phrase of Samcam’s killing unfold quickly among the many a whole bunch of 1000’s of Nicaraguans who’ve sought refuge in Costa Rica since Ortega cracked down on widespread protests in 2018.
In 2020, Samcam served as chain-of-command expert for the Courtroom of Conscience, organized by Costa Rica’s Arias Basis for Peace and Human Progress, to gather testimony of those that suffered torture and different abuses by the hands of the federal government.
The train was partially to construct instances to finally take to regional and worldwide human rights our bodies.
“We’re documenting every case in order that it could transfer on to a trial, presumably earlier than the Inter-American Courtroom of Human Rights,” Samcam stated on the time. He stated authorities officers have been concerned within the abuses.
In 2022, Samcam revealed a e book titled ‘Ortega: El calvario de Nicaragua’ roughly ‘Ortega: Nicaragua’s torment.’ Final 12 months, he revealed one other textual content describing intimately how he watched Ortega construct a dictatorship.
In January 2024, one other Nicaraguan exile, Joao Maldonado, was shot seven instances on the street outdoors Costa Rica’s capital. He survived and accused a cell of Nicaragua’s Sandinista Nationwide Liberation Entrance of duty for the assault.
Ortega and his wife and Co-president Rosario Murillo have pushed a whole bunch of 1000’s of Nicaraguans into exile and imprisoned then stripped a whole bunch extra of their citizenship.
Murillo who can also be the Nicaraguan authorities’s spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark about Samcam’s killing.
Since crushing the 2018 protests, the federal government has systematically pursued any voice of opposition. The federal government has shuttered a whole bunch of nongovernmental organizations and persecuted spiritual teams, together with the Catholic church.
Yader Valdivia of the human rights group Nicaragua Nunca Más stated that Samcam had been one of many exiled Nicaraguans stripped of his citizenship by the federal government.
Valdivia stated there was concern of the federal government’s “lengthy arm” among the many Nicaraguan exile group in Costa Rica that makes it able to reaching critics outdoors its borders.