Geneva, June 24. The Colectivo 46/2 denounces before the international community the murder of retired Nicaraguan Army Major Roberto Samcam Ruíz, which took place on June 19 at his home in San José, Costa Rica.

Samcam Ruíz was a strong critical voice against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. He denounced the Nicaraguan army and accused it of participating in the repression and extrajudicial executions committed since 2018. He had also denounced a network of spies targeting opposition members who had sought refuge in Costa Rica.

The retired Major was one of 94 Nicaraguans stripped of their nationality in February 2023 by the dictatorship and had been living as a refugee in Costa Rica since July 11, 2018, due to persecution and criminalization by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. He obtained Spanish nationality on July 26, 2023.

The murder of the retired military officer is not the first attack against opponents on Costa Rican soil. In 2023, opposition figure Joao Maldonado and his wife were shot with the clear intention of killing them. Maldonado had already suffered another attack in 2021, also in San José, Costa Rica. In 2022, Nicaraguan opposition figure Rodolfo Rojas was found dead in Honduras. According to family members, he had been lured to that country from Costa Rica, where he had been living in exile. Added to the list is the murder of another refugee, Jaime Luis Ortega, in 2024, in Upala, a town on the border with Nicaragua. In the wake of these events, Roberto Samcam had spoken to the press, pointing to the direct involvement of the Ortega Murillo regime and indicating that he knew his life was in danger.

While investigations into Samcam’s murder are ongoing, the circumstances of the crime and the profile of the victim raise well-founded suspicions that this may be a political crime with possible transnational links. This murder comes at a time when various human rights organizations have been documenting a sustained pattern of surveillance, threats, harassment, and acts of intimidation against Nicaraguan exiles in the region, especially in Costa Rica.

We believe that this crime should be analyzed and investigated as part of a broader strategy of transnational repression promoted by the Nicaraguan regime to persecute and silence dissent outside its borders, in open violation of the human rights of refugees and exiles. This transnational repression has been documented by the Group of Experts on Human Rights in Nicaragua (GHREN), which has stated that “The government’s repressive actions transcend the country’s borders and affect opponents or those perceived as such abroad. The government has also continued to attack relatives of opponents inside Nicaragua, including children, by association alone, as a way of punishing opponents and/or deterring them from speaking out wherever they are.”

Given the gravity of this crime and the sustained pattern of transnational repression against Nicaraguan exiles, we urgently call on the international community to demand that the Nicaraguan State immediately cease all forms of persecution, surveillance, and violence against dissidents in exile. We also request that the international community strengthen its political, technical, and financial support for protection mechanisms for human rights defenders in exile. Likewise, we urge the establishment of bilateral or multilateral communication channels with the host countries of Nicaraguans, in order to assess the security situation and coordinate preventive responses to possible acts of transnational persecution. Finally, we call on international human rights bodies to urgently follow up on these cases as part of a systematic pattern of cross-border repression, and to ensure justice and truth for the victims.

Additional information

Colectivo 46/2 is a coalition of 19 international, regional, and Nicaraguan human rights organizations that regularly informs the international community about the Nicaraguan regime’s failure to fulfill its international human rights obligations. The following is a list of the organizations that are members of the Collective and have decided to publicly endorse this statement:

Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más

Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights

International Service for Human Rights – ISHR

International Network of Human Rights Europe – RIDHE

Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres – MAM

Peace Brigades International – PBI

Unidad de Defensa Jurídica, Registro y Memoria – UDJUDR

Urnas Abiertas

World Organization Against Torture – OMCT