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Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) has arrested four of the five suspects in the murder of retired Nicaraguan Army major Roberto Samcam, who was gunned down on June 19, 2025, in his apartment in San José, Costa Rica, where he had lived in exile since 2018.
The arrests took place during two raids in León XIII, in the Tibás canton of San José, and a third in Cañas, Guanacaste, carried out by OIJ agents together with director Randall Zúñiga and Attorney General Carlo Díaz.
The suspects arrested by the OIJ are:
- A man surnamed Chaves, 35, arrested in Cañas on Thursday, September 11, 2025. Identified as the intermediary between the masterminds and the perpetrators of the murder.
- A woman surnamed Chacón Guillén, 30, arrested on a public street. Identified as the intermediary’s wife, who allegedly paid 50,000 colones (about 100 dollars) for the transport of those involved.
- A man surnamed Cordero Robles, 23, arrested during one of the raids in the León XIII neighborhood of San José. Believed to be one of the drivers involved.
- A man surnamed Castro Pérez, 33, arrested on a public street. Also believed to be one of the drivers involved.
The OIJ is still searching for a man surnamed Carvajal, 20, who is believed to be the gunman. Efforts to capture him are underway.
“A young man, apparently 20 years old and surnamed Carvajal, is the one who entered the condominium and committed the homicide. But according to the investigation, we also identified—for the first time—an intermediary, something that didn’t happen in the (Joao) Maldonado case,” OIJ director Zúñiga told Teletica.
“This intermediary, surnamed Chaves, was also at the scene. He shared a motorcycle with the suspected hitman and also shared transport with another person. The three of them are directly linked to the murder,” he added.
All the suspects are Costa Rican nationals and allegedly carried out the crime “for hire,” according to the OIJ director. The intellectual authors of the murder have not yet been identified.
Roberto Samcam, 67, was a strong critic of the Nicaraguan Army for its role in the repression and killing of unarmed citizens during the 2018 protests. He died after being shot twice in the leg, twice in the abdomen, and multiple times in the chest and underarms.
Crime Allegedly Ordered from Nicaragua
During the raids, Attorney General Carlo Díaz highlighted the speed with which the case has progressed and did not rule out the possibility that the crime had a political motive.
“One line of investigation suggests that this was apparently an order from the Nicaraguan Army. We will not be satisfied with merely arresting those who carried out the execution; we will go to the fullest extent to determine who ordered this homicide,” Díaz stated.
He emphasized that the investigation remains open to fully identify the intellectual authors of the crime.
Hitmen Reached His Front Door
According to information from the OIJ, two people in a vehicle approached the apartment complex where Samcam lived. They took advantage of the lack of security at the site and the fact that it had only one gate, which at that moment “was up.” Then, one of the individuals got out of the vehicle, entered the complex, and went up to the second floor, where the former military officer’s apartment was located.
At the apartment door, the assailant called out to Roberto Samcam, who approached. “Once he was within a safe firing line, the individual began shooting and hit him at least eight times,” Zúñiga detailed.
“Afterwards,” he continued, “he left the apartment complex, returned to the vehicle, and they fled the scene.”
The former military officer died at the bathroom door of his apartment, according to Costa Rican newspaper La Nación, based on police reports and the Costa Rican Red Cross. Eight 9-millimeter shell casings were collected at the scene.
Samcam was one of 94 Nicaraguans who were stripped of their citizenship and had their assets confiscated in February 2023 by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. All the citizens were accused by the Public Ministry of the alleged crime of “treason to the homeland.” Roberto Samcam was among the first stateless Nicaraguans to obtain Spanish nationality.
A Crime That Shocked Refugees
Samcam’s murder caused widespread concern among Nicaraguan refugees in Costa Rica and human rights organizations, who have suggested that the crime may have been ordered by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.
The Human Rights Expert Group on Nicaragua (GHREN) condemned the killing and noted that “there is relevant information suggesting political motivations” in this and other similar crimes that occurred previously.
The repercussions of the retired major’s murder also reached the halls of the European Parliament. MEP Diana Riba i Giner, of the Greens/EFA Group, stated that “this assassination demonstrates that the insecurity situation is no longer confined to Nicaragua, but also extends beyond its borders.”
