UPDATED/BREAKING NEWS/Colombian killed in Central American ambush was with man who became Maltese citizen

Update note at 1.45pm: Some sections of the Spanish-language press in Costa Rica have given the Maltese citizen’s surname as Sinesterra Sanchez, which means – under the Spanish-influenced naming system – that Sanchez is his mother’s family name and that his actual surname (his father’s) is Sinesterra. His Maltese identification papers would therefore carry the surname Sinesterra rather than Sanchez.

A Colombian murdered a few days ago in a motel in Tibás, near the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, was with a man described by Costa Rica’s national newspaper, La Nacion, as a “Maltese called Sanchez, 35”.

Reports in other Costa Rican media have this man down as originally Venezuelan but who is a “naturalised Maltese” – which means that he acquired Maltese citizenship.

He could have done this only after several years of marriage to a Maltese citizen, by having at least one Maltese citizen for a parent, or by buying his citizenship under the Labour government’s new law.

If he turns out to be a Venezuelan ‘person of talent’ who bought his Maltese citizenship when drug-traffickers’ defence counsel Manuel Mallia was the Minister responsible for citizenship (and the police), we have another major scandal on our hands.

The Colombian, Roberto Carlos Salazar Arroyo, 28, was ambushed and killed in the motel garage at 4am. He was shot at close range in the legs, neck, head and abdomen by a hit-man who got out of a car while Salazar Arroyo was closing the garage gate and entering one of the rooms.

The Colombian worked as a private guard at a bar called Bongos, at a shopping centre called El Pueblo which also has many bars and is busy at night. He had been living and working illegally in Costa Rica since 2011, after his application for refugee status there was refused.

La Nacion reports that he was with a girl of 16 (a minor) and a woman of 21, both from Limon, a rough port city on the country’s Pacific coast, and two men – a Costa Rican with the surname Montano Abrahams, 21, who has a history of violence, and a Maltese called Sanchez (no first name given), 35. The Maltese had entered the country on 5 July, but La Nacion reports that there are no migration (point of entry) records for him and it is assumed that he entered the country “irregularly”. Tourists arriving in Costa Rica by air have to fill in detailed forms which are then retained by the immigration police.

All five of them had just arrived together at the motel from the bar where Salazar Arroyo worked when the hit-man arrived. They had taken one room for the night. After the shooting, the hit-man locked the two women in the bathroom and made a phone-call, saying “The job’s done”.

Salazar Arroyo died at the scene. The Maltese and the Costa Rican man are being held by the Costa Rican police as part of the investigation, because they gave conflicting statements. The girl and young woman were released after giving their statements.

The police suspect that the Colombian was lured to the motel room by the Maltese and the Costa Rican using the girls as bait, with the specific aim of trapping him for the hit.