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With the capture of fugitive Luis Fernando Carvajal Fernández, 21, identified by Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) as the hitman who murdered retired army major and Nicaraguan refugee Roberto Samcam on June 19, 2025, in San José, authorities have now detained all five suspects — all Costa Rican — accused of carrying out the attack.
Claudia Vargas, Samcam’s widow and a human rights defender, is participating in the investigation as the family’s representative alongside the legal team from Guernica 37. She hopes a trial against the five suspects can take place by mid-year and that investigators will continue pursuing those who ordered the crime.
“It is important that the OIJ reach the intellectual authors of this murder — that they cross the border and reach the co-dictators and military intelligence officers. They must follow the money trail of those who paid for this assassination and the political trail of who Roberto was. Identifying the victim will lead us to those who ordered the crime,” she said.
Speaking on La Tertulia, a program broadcast on CONFIDENCIAL’s YouTube channel due to censorship of radio and television in Nicaragua, Vargas also urged the Costa Rican government to translate its international rhetoric of solidarity with Nicaragua into concrete protection policies for Nicaraguan refugees.
“Neither the exile community nor Costa Rican society can tolerate the repressive arm of Nicaragua crossing the border and linking up with transnational crime, corrupting Costa Rican youth by paying them to carry out political killings,” she warned.
How have you and your family reacted to the capture of the alleged gunman accused of murdering your husband, Roberto Samcam? He had been a fugitive from justice for more than seven months and has now finally been detained by police.
With mixed feelings. I wouldn’t say we jumped for joy. We are grateful for the work the OIJ and the Prosecutor’s Office in Costa Rica are doing, but seeing that the person who killed Roberto is a 21-year-old young man, who is the same age as my children, is very hard and painful for us.
We fully trust the investigation being carried out by the OIJ. The Guernica 37 team and I have been meeting with them every month, and we had a general idea of where this fugitive was.
Do you have any additional information in these first hours about the investigations being conducted after the hitman’s arrest?
None. I wrote to one of the OIJ investigators to ask what would happen next, and he told me they expected to present the suspect to the Prosecutor’s Office and request six months of pretrial detention in order to continue the investigation.
What are your expectations regarding the investigation now that these five individuals who organized and carried out the murder are in custody, and regarding the next steps in the judicial process?
Five people participated in carrying out Roberto’s murder. One of them is a woman who is detained but under house arrest and also under investigation.
It is important that the OIJ reach the intellectual authors of this crime, that they cross the border and identify the co-dictators and the Army’s intelligence officers. They must follow the money trail of those who paid for this assassination and the political trail of who Roberto was. Identifying the victim will lead us to those who ordered the crime.
That is the task of the Prosecutor’s Office and the courts: to investigate and prove who is responsible for this murder, which has been described as an act of state terrorism. Now the challenge is to identify specifically who the masterminds are.
Of course, the trial is taking place in Costa Rica, and the OIJ and the Prosecutor’s Office bear the greatest responsibility for the case. But the international community also plays a decisive role, because exiles are not only in Costa Rica, and incidents of transnational repression have been reported elsewhere.
Reports by special investigative bodies, MESENI and the GIEI, the UN Group of Human Rights Experts, have documented other incidents as well. Spain is also important, because Roberto was a Spanish citizen living as a refugee in Costa Rica. Spain should assume responsibility and accompany Costa Rica in this case. Spain has shown solidarity with many exiles and has granted nationality to those who were stripped of it. Granting nationality to a Nicaraguan also means assuming a role in protecting that person. Spain and the international community have an important role to play in supporting this case, because it is a major challenge for Costa Rica.
Roberto’s murder was not the first attack carried out in Costa Rica against Nicaraguan refugees. What can the Costa Rican government do in response to these acts of transnational repression, those that have occurred in the past and the murder of Roberto Samcam?
I have been very clear when meeting with Costa Rican authorities — the Foreign Ministry, the Ombudsman’s Office, and other institutions — and I also wrote about this in an article published in CONFIDENCIAL. The international diplomatic discourse Costa Rica has maintained, including the statements made by Ambassador Alejandra Solano before the OAS, must be translated within Costa Rica into concrete practices and policies to protect refugees. Ambassador Solano said, “We will not tolerate any act of transnational repression in Costa Rica.” That commitment must translate into exiles actually feeling protected and safe, into a concrete protocol of support for the exiled population in Costa Rica.
The outgoing government of President Rodrigo Chaves did not comment at any point on Roberto Samcam’s murder. Do you have any expectations regarding the new government of President-elect Laura Fernández and how it will address situations that even affect Costa Rica’s sovereignty?
Costa Rican analysts and media say it will be a continuation of the previous government. I followed the campaign closely, and the message was also one of continuity. I hope that the message being projected internationally, that Costa Rica is leading support for Nicaragua, will be translated into action. It is necessary for the executive branch to speak out, to recognize that transnational violence is crossing borders and that there is persecution of leaders, activists, and defenders living in Costa Rica, and for that to result in justice, in an end to impunity, and above all in guarantees of non-repetition.
Neither the exile community nor Costa Rican society can tolerate the repressive arm of Nicaragua crossing the border and linking up with transnational crime, corrupting Costa Rican youth by paying them to carry out political assassinations.
How far has the OIJ investigation progressed regarding how this murder was organized and financed? There has been talk of payments made to those involved. Is it known who was behind the financing and how the planning of the crime was organized?
Those are some of the answers the OIJ must provide over the course of this year, within the next six months. I have insisted that the OIJ must communicate progress in the process — silence is not an option. If we already have silence from the executive branch, we cannot also have silence from the judiciary. They must keep the exile community and Costa Rican society informed about how the investigation is progressing.
At this time, we know some things, but we cannot share them for the security of the case. I hope the judiciary will be able to do so as the investigation advances.
I want to thank the media. What they are reporting and the information they are handling about cases of repression is very important, not only in Costa Rica but elsewhere.
Based on the information available so far, could this case go to trial in 2026? What are your expectations regarding the judicial process?
According to the planning we have with the Prosecutor’s Office — working in coordination with prosecutors, the Judicial Investigation Agency, and Guernica 37, our lawyers Almudena Bernabéu, Michael Reed, and Federico Campos (who is accredited in Costa Rica), and myself as the family’s representative — we could be looking at a trial and the filing of a formal complaint by August or September, after the next six months. There should be no further reason to delay the process with the individuals already in custody.
The investigation and judicial process are underway in Costa Rica. Is it possible to consider trials in other countries?
It is too early to say, but we have discussed the possibility that Costa Rica may face limitations when it comes to crossing borders. The director of the OIJ previously mentioned difficulties in conducting a transnational investigation, since the OIJ is not a transnational investigative body. That raises some concern for us, so we have a Plan B. Roberto was a Spanish citizen, and through Spain we could access another avenue of justice if Costa Rica becomes stalled in the pursuit of justice.
