Nicaraguan ex-military officer killed in exile in Costa Rica

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SAN JOSE (Reuters) -Former Nicaraguan military officer Roberto Samcam was killed on Thursday in Costa Rica, where he was living in exile, his wife and opposition parties said.

Samcam, a retired Sandinista major, was shot to death in his condo on the outskirts of the capital San Jose, his wife, Claudia Vargas, told Reuters.

Vargas later told local media that the attacker had presented himself as a delivery driver before shooting Samcam at least eight times, then escaping on a motorcycle.

Samcam was a vocal critic of the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega, which human rights groups and the U.N. have accused of carrying out a violent crackdown on dissidents.

The military officer fled Nicaragua after participating in anti-government protests in 2018, which were initially sparked by social security reforms but quickly evolved into demanding widespread democratic change.

The protests, rights groups allege, were met with deadly force by authorities and hundreds of people were believed to have been killed. Samcam had denounced Ortega’s military as being involved in the suppression.

Costa Rican police in a statement confirmed that a Nicaraguan with the last name Samcam had been shot to death in his condo around 7:30 a.m. local time (1330 GMT).

The Nicaraguan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another Ortega critic, Joao Maldonado, has survived two assassination attempts in San Jose. The most recent, in January of last year, left Maldonado – who rose to prominence as a student leader during the 2018 protests – and his partner seriously injured.

(Reporting by Gabriela Selser and Alvaro Murillo; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel and Diane Craft)