On Tuesday, October 6, the Costa Rican Public Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigation into the mastermind behind the murder of Roberto Samcam, a retired Nicaraguan major living in exile in Costa Rica who was murdered in June of last year outside his home in the capital San José.
El Faro obtained the official document in which the assistant prosecutor in charge of the case decided to close the Samcam case —one of the most egregious examples of violence against Nicaraguan exiles in recent years— due to “insufficient evidence to reach a conclusion.”
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The investigation can be reopened if evidence or information supporting the case is found, the prosecutor’s office noted in the document.
At the same time, a parallel investigation remains open against the alleged perpetrators of the murder: the individuals who, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, murdered Samcam in front of his home.
Costa Rican authorities have already arrested five suspects as part of an investigation that the plaintiffs hope will culminate in a trial by the end of this year or early next year. However, they are still awaiting confirmation of the date.
In September 2025, Attorney General Carlo Díaz Sánchez said that the main line of investigation focused on a possible “political motive” behind the murder. “One of the lines of investigation suggests that this was apparently an order from the Nicaraguan Army,” he said at the time.
But since then, according to Almudena Bernabeu, the Samcam family’s attorney, Costa Rican authorities have not pursued that hypothesis. “In practice, there has been no evidence, and no effort has been made to contact [the authorities in] Nicaragua in any way,” she told El Faro.
The decision to close the investigation into the mastermind took the plaintiffs by surprise. “The most surprising part for us as lawyers is the decision by a prosecutor’s office to close an investigation before actually pursuing it,” the attorney said.
Growing transnational repression
Between 2019 and 2025 —key years of repression in Nicaragua during which thousands went into exile— the Nicaragua Nunca Más collective documented more than 200 cases of repression against Nicaraguan exiles, including threats, attacks, and executions in multiple countries across the region.
Claudia Vargas de Samcam, Roberto’s wife, asserts that “we’re not talking about an isolated case; we’re talking about several cases that are occurring in Costa Rica and that establish a pattern of transnational persecution.”
Samcam’s murder is not the only attack against Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica. Jaime Luis Ortega, a peasant leader and former Contra commander, was murdered in October 2024. Rodolfo Rojas, a Sandinista fighter, was found dead in Honduras; his family stated that he had been lured out of Costa Rica under false pretenses.
Opposition figure Joao Maldonado and his wife, Nadia Robleto, survived two attacks in Costa Rica in 2021 and 2024. On September 14, Reinaldo Picado, another peasant leader, was hospitalized after being shot three times, also at his home in San José.
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The Costa Rican government, led since May by President Laura Fernández, has remained silent on the growing violence against Nicaraguans in the neighboring country.
“Costa Rica has reaffirmed its commitment in multilateral forums and in diplomatic circles. Ambassador Alejandra Solano stated emphatically that Costa Rica would not allow impunity on its territory and that it would investigate,” said Vargas.
Costa Rica, she added, “is making a commitment before other states—not only to Costa Rica but also to the exiled community here—not to allow impunity.”
For Vargas, the investigation into the mastermind behind her husband’s murder was more important than that of the perpetrators—not only for her family, but for the rest of the Nicaraguans in exile.
“Costa Rica is turning its back on us, but it is also turning its back on the Costa Rican people, because there is an issue of (Costa Rican) sovereignty at stake,” she said.