Podcast: Nicaragua Accused of “State Terrorism” in Murder of Exile

The following is the transcript of episode 61 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.

VARGAS: Fear has taken hold of Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica. The number of defenders and activists who have migrated as a result of Roberto’s murder in the last six months, taking advantage of the U.N. Safe Mobility program to leave for Spain, Canada, and other countries, is immense.

RAMAZZINI, HOST: On Tuesday, the missing suspect in the murder of retired Major Roberto Samcam, a Nicaraguan refugee in Costa Rica, was captured near the capital, almost eight months after he was shot at his doorstep.

Samcam’s wife, Claudia Vargas, is calling the crime a political assassination tied to the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua.

Nicaraguan exiles on edge

The brazen murder on foreign soil of a former top Nicaraguan military leader, who once fought alongside Daniel Ortega during the Sandinista Revolution, shook thousands of exiles living in Costa Rica.

Like many disaffected former Sandinistas, Roberto Samcam later became a strong opponent of the Ortega-Murillo regime, which is why he and his family had been exiled in Costa Rica since 2018.

Last year, he even reported to the local intelligence authorities that he feared for his safety. He also warned of possible espionage networks tied to the Nicaraguan regime.

Days later, he was murdered at his front door.

According to his wife, Claudia Vargas, the administration of outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves has yet to comment on the murder.

And she’s concerned that the new government of Laura Fernández, who has called herself the president of “continuity,” may remain silent, too.

Vargas is also a private party to the prosecution. Her lawyers have called the murder “a crime of state terrorism directly involving the Nicaraguan dictatorship.”

The opposition has accused the government of incompetence. They say a possible Nicaraguan state-sponsored hit squad on their soil is a matter of national security and international law.

[newsletter]

On Tuesday, the Judicial Investigation Agency, or OIJ, arrested a fifth suspect: Luis Fernando Carvajal Fernández, a 21-year-old Costa Rican accused of being the shooter.

Judicial authorities profiled the group. They say they lived in a neighborhood controlled by organized crime. Carvajal has a short rap sheet, but they say he wasn’t a high-profile criminal.

The director general of the OIJ says that Carvajal was the last suspect they had yet to capture. However, the masterminds behind this crime remain unknown.

At least two other Nicaraguan refugees have been murdered in the region in recent years, and another dissident faced two assassination attempts in 2021 and 2024.

Claudia Vargas says she will not leave Costa Rica, and she will not remain silent.

VARGAS: And that, of course, makes me afraid, but I’ve also worked on my fear. Because that’s another thing we learn as women. We live our lives going out into the streets, knowing that the streets are not safe.

And sometimes we go home knowing that our homes are not safe. We learn to live in fear, and I don’t want to live in fear.

Jose Rubén Zamora out of prison

RAMAZZINI: Next, to Guatemala, for a major development in the case against leading publisher and newspaperman Jose Rubén Zamora.

Yesterday, a criminal court ordered Zamora’s release to house arrest. He is awaiting trial in two cases: the first for supposed money laundering, and the second for alleged obstruction of justice and document tampering.

It was this second case that had kept him in prison despite an order for his release, in the first case, last year.

The tactics of Guatemalan prosecutors mirror authoritarian regimes around the world. They piled on the second case stemming from the first one. This tied a thick knot keeping Zamora in prison.

[rel2]

Prosecutors even went after his lawyers, former staff of his newspaper elPeriódico, and columnists writing about the case.

The judge noted that he spent 1,295 days in detention, almost exceeding the minimum sentence for the obstruction of justice case.

The defense argued that the reasonable time frame for trying him in this case has already expired.

Zamora ran a leading newspaper in Guatemala for over two decades, with unflinching coverage of corruption, organized crime, and impunity.

Unsurprisingly, the Public Prosecutor’s Office opposed his release. He won’t be allowed to leave the country, and will have to regularly check in with prosecutors.

If we’ve learned anything from the ups and downs of this case over the last three and a half years, press freedom advocates are holding their breath.

The Supreme Court of Justice will very likely have the last say on both his house arrest and Zamora’s ultimate fate.

Popularity and fear in El Salvador

Last, we turn to El Salvador. The human rights organization Socorro Jurídico Humanitario now records over 94,000 arrests and at least 470 deaths in prison under the state of exception in El Salvador.

The measures have been in effect since March 2022, after the breakdown of a pact between the gangs and the Bukele government.

Of those, they estimate that the cause of death was violent in one-third of cases. The Attorney General’s Office has not investigated or prosecuted any authorities for the deaths.

Blanca Osmilda Castro Quijada is one of 35 women who died during the state of exception, as documented by Socorro Jurídico.

[rel1]

When police officers arrived at her home in Santa Ana on June 1, 2022, they found no evidence of illicit gang association. But they arrested her anyway.

Two-dozen police documents obtained by El Faro coincide with what her family says: there were no gangs in her neighborhood.

For two years, polls have shown Bukele’s high popularity, but also growing fears of voicing opinions in public.

On February 4, newspaper La Prensa Gráfica announced new polling reporting that 92 percent of Salvadorans approve of de-facto President Nayib Bukele.

Of the hundreds of known deaths in custody during the state of exception, El Faro has documented how some relatives deny knowing their loved ones, out of fear of the Bukele government.

As for Blanca Osmilda, a relative and three neighbors asked that El Faro withhold their names out of fear of arrest.

At the same time, her relative says she supports the state of exception, with some reservations. Her daughter can go to school without being harassed by gangs.

But the family expects little to nothing from the state following her death. The only thing her relative told us was, “It would be good if they conducted a thorough investigation.”

This episode was produced with support from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. It was written by Yuliana Ramazzini and Roman Gressier, with sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and YouTube.