On the morning of December 26, 2025, the body of Francisco Ojeda Garces was found on the shore of Playa Dominicalito, a quiet stretch of beach in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. He was 36 years old. He had spent the night before celebrating Christmas with friends near his home in Uvita, the kind of ordinary holiday gathering that should not end in a murder investigation. It did.
What followed was a story about borders and bureaucracy, a family coordinating repatriation across two countries during the holiday period, and a conservation community grappling with a question it is never fully prepared to answer: what does it cost, in the most concrete sense, to do this work in the world’s most dangerous region for environmental defenders?
Who Was Francisco Ojeda Garces?
Francisco Ojeda Garces was a 36-year-old environmentalist, nature photographer, and community activist originally from Chiloe and Puerto Varas in southern Chile. He grew up on the islands and rain-soaked forests of the Los Lagos Region, a landscape that tends to produce people with strong opinions about the natural world, and Francisco was no exception. He became skilled with a camera not as a hobby but as a practice of attention, documenting flora and fauna wherever he traveled and sharing that work on social media with a consistency that reflected genuine commitment. His uncle, Rene Garces Alvarez, serves as the mayor of Quinchao in the Chiloe Archipelago, and Francisco maintained close ties with family in Chile even as he built a life abroad, including his brother Jaime, who had also relocated to Costa Rica.
The move to Costa Rica was deliberate. Francisco was drawn by the country’s extraordinary biodiversity and its reputation as a global conservation model, and he settled in Uvita, a small coastal town in the Osa Peninsula, where he contributed to the Santuario de Vida Silvestre Alturas, a wildlife sanctuary dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating native species. His brother later told reporters that Francisco moved there drawn by its natural diversity and the genuine possibilities for eco-projects. He was not passing through. He was building something, and by every indication, he was exactly where he intended to be.
The Incident
On the evening of December 25, 2025, Francisco joined friends for a Christmas celebration near his home in the Uvita area. By all accounts it was a peaceful gathering, the kind of night that belongs to the ordinary fabric of life in a small coastal community. What happened after that gathering remains the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.
On the morning of December 26, 2025, Francisco’s body was discovered on the shore of Playa Dominicalito, a beach in the Bahia Ballena area of Osa, Puntarenas. The location was remote and largely unpatrolled at night, a stretch of coastline far from the tourist infrastructure of Costa Rica’s more developed areas.
The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ), Costa Rica’s primary investigative police agency, responded to the scene and classified the death as a homicide. Preliminary examinations at the scene showed no obvious major external injuries, a detail that complicated the initial investigation and led some early reports to speculate about the cause of death. Subsequent investigation confirmed third-party involvement. Later reporting from the Tico Times indicated that Francisco had, in fact, suffered multiple blows to his body, a finding consistent with a violent physical attack.
No immediate arrests were made, and the OIJ maintained close reserve on the specific details of the case as investigators worked to piece together Francisco’s final hours.
Investigation
The investigation moved forward on multiple fronts simultaneously. OIJ agents canvassed the Dominicalito and Uvita communities, interviewed people who had attended the Christmas gathering with Francisco, and worked to identify any prior conflicts or personal disputes that could point toward a motive.
A critical lead emerged from Francisco’s own family. His brother Jaime, who was already in Costa Rica, told investigators that Francisco may have had a run-in with one of the eventual suspects in the days leading up to his death. This information helped investigators focus their efforts and ultimately contributed to an arrest.
In February 2026, the OIJ announced that agents had detained a 28-year-old man identified by the surname Perez during a raid in Dominicalito de Osa. Perez was arrested as the primary suspect in Francisco’s homicide and was brought before a judge shortly after his detention. Prosecutors requested preventive detention, citing both the severity of the crime and flight risk.
A second suspect was identified but remained at large as of the announcement of the arrest, with specialized OIJ units continuing their pursuit. The investigation pointed to a personal dispute as the likely trigger for the attack, a conclusion consistent with Jaime Ojeda’s account of a prior conflict involving his brother.
Repatriation of Francisco’s remains was coordinated by his brother and partner, with support from the Chilean consulate in San Jose. The process encountered bureaucratic delays due to the holiday period, particularly around registering the death in the Costa Rican Civil Registry. The family ultimately completed the repatriation in January 2026, and Francisco was brought back to Puerto Varas.
What Happened? Understanding the Circumstances
Several factors converged to make Francisco’s death both possible and tragically difficult to prevent.
The geographic isolation of Playa Dominicalito played a significant role. The Osa Peninsula, while one of the most biologically rich places on earth, is also one of Costa Rica’s more remote and under-resourced regions in terms of law enforcement presence. Beaches like Playa Dominicalito are not consistently patrolled after dark, and incidents in rural coastal areas are often discovered hours after the fact.
The broader security context matters as well. In 2025, Costa Rica recorded 873 homicides, the third-highest annual total in the country’s history, representing a rate of 16.7 per 100,000 inhabitants. While much of this violence is concentrated in urban corridors and is tied to organized crime and drug trafficking routes, the surge has created ripple effects throughout the country, including in regions that previously felt relatively insulated from such pressures.
OIJ investigators’ conclusion that the attack stemmed from a personal dispute rather than a random crime does little to diminish the tragedy, but it does reshape what questions families and communities need to be asking. Francisco was not a stranger in Uvita. He had lived there for approximately three years, had built relationships within the community, and had become a known presence at the Alturas sanctuary. Whatever conflict preceded his death, it existed within a social world he had come to call home.
For activists and environmentalists living and working abroad in regions experiencing elevated crime, Francisco’s story is a sobering reminder that safety cannot be assumed and that prior conflicts, however seemingly minor, deserve to be taken seriously.
Who This Story Speaks To
If you are an environmentalist, conservationist, or nature professional considering work or relocation abroad, Francisco’s story is one you will feel personally. You understand the pull he felt toward Costa Rica. You know what it means to leave home for a place that seems to align with your values, where the work feels urgent, and the landscape feels alive. That impulse is not naive. It is what drives meaningful conservation work around the world.
But Francisco’s story also asks you to hold that idealism alongside a clear-eyed awareness of risk. For those already working in remote or rural environments in Latin America, the questions this case raises are not abstract. They are practical. Who knows where you are? Who do you trust in your immediate community? What conflicts, even small ones, have you allowed to go unaddressed?
For family members and loved ones of people living abroad in conservation or activist roles, this story may surface fears that are difficult to name. The distance is hard. The inability to assess risk from thousands of miles away is real. Francisco’s brother, Jaime, was in the same country and still could not prevent what happened. That is not a failure of care. It is a reminder that proximity alone is not protection.
And for those who work in international human rights, environmental law, or journalism covering Latin America, Francisco’s case is part of a much larger pattern. Latin America remains the world’s most dangerous region for environmental defenders, a designation backed by decade after decade of Global Witness data. What happened on a quiet beach in Osa is not an isolated incident. It is one data point in a grim and ongoing trend.
What This Case Reveals and What You Can Do
One of the hardest things about a case like Francisco’s is that it does not offer easy preventive lessons. He was not reckless. He was not uninformed. He was a person living a purposeful life who encountered violence through what investigators believe was a personal conflict, in a country experiencing a documented surge in homicides. That combination does not yield a simple checklist.
But there are meaningful steps that individuals, organizations, and governments can take.
If you are an individual working in conservation or environmental activism in Latin America, start by assessing your conflict landscape honestly. Not every disagreement becomes dangerous, but ignoring friction in a small community can allow resentment to build unobserved. Tell someone you trust about any conflicts or uncomfortable interactions, even ones that seem minor. Make sure at least one person knows your location and routine at all times.
If you lead or manage an environmental organization with field staff, your responsibility extends beyond program outcomes. Conduct regular safety check-ins with personnel working in remote areas. Establish clear protocols for reporting threats or personal conflicts. Build relationships with local legal aid and consular offices before they are needed. And take the mental health dimension seriously. People doing this work carry enormous emotional weight, and isolation compounds risk.
If you are a policymaker or legislator in a country where nationals work abroad in activist or conservation roles, Francisco’s case is an argument for stronger consular capacity and faster cross-border coordination when a citizen goes missing or is harmed. The bureaucratic delays his family encountered during repatriation are a solvable problem.
Immediately, the most important thing is awareness. Not the paralyzing kind, but the grounded kind that keeps people safer without eroding the passion that drives this work.
Legal Proceedings
The formal legal process in Costa Rica began in earnest following the February 2026 arrest of the primary suspect, Perez, who was brought before a judge and faced formal homicide charges. Prosecutors successfully argued for preventive detention on the basis of flight risk and the gravity of the offense.
A second suspect remained at large as of the latest reporting, with OIJ specialist units continuing their search. Costa Rican law enforcement has pledged continued effort to bring all those responsible to justice.
Francisco’s uncle, Mayor Rene Garces Alvarez of Quinchao, made public calls for justice and has been vocal about the family’s expectation that Costa Rican authorities will pursue the case fully. The involvement of a Chilean public official added diplomatic weight to the family’s advocacy and helped sustain media attention on both sides of the Pacific.
No trial date had been announced as of early 2026, and Costa Rica’s legal proceedings are expected to unfold over the coming months. The case has been classified as a priority homicide investigation by the OIJ.
Legacy and the Broader Crisis
Francisco Ojeda Garces was one person. But his death falls into a pattern that has been killing environmental defenders across Latin America for decades. According to Global Witness, Latin America consistently accounts for more than half of all environmental defenders murdered globally each year. The killings are driven by conflicts over mining, agriculture, water, and logging. They happen in Colombia, Honduras, Brazil, Guatemala, and yes, in Costa Rica, a country that markets itself to the world as a conservation success story.
The contradiction is painful. Costa Rica protects roughly 30 percent of its territory in parks and reserves. It runs on renewable energy. It abolished its military in 1948. And in 2025, it recorded 873 homicides, many tied to drug trafficking routes that run through its remote coastal corridors. The same geography that drew Francisco to Costa Rica, the biological richness, the isolation, the wildness, also created conditions that left him vulnerable.
The long-term legacy Francisco leaves is the one he was building while he was alive: the wildlife content he posted, the hours he put in at Alturas, the way he moved through the world with curiosity and generosity. His brother Jaime’s description of him as someone who loved to give love is the kind of testimony that endures long after grief subsides.
What justice looks like in Francisco’s case is not only the conviction of the men responsible. It is a Costa Rica that invests meaningfully in rural law enforcement. It is an international community that takes the safety of environmental defenders seriously enough to create real protections. It is a world where the people most committed to the places that sustain us are not also the most exposed.
Public Perception and Media Coverage
The news of Francisco’s death broke in Chile on December 31, 2025, and spread quickly across major media outlets, including Chilevision, Radio Bio Bio, and Mega Noticias. The coverage emphasized both his identity as an environmental activist and his family connection to the mayor of Quinchao, details that gave the story both a human face and a degree of political resonance.
In Costa Rica, the Tico Times and other English-language outlets framed the case within the country’s escalating homicide crisis, noting that incidents involving foreign nationals in sensitive regions carry particular weight for tourism and national reputation. Officials were careful to contextualize the case as a personal dispute rather than a crime targeting foreigners or activists specifically, though that distinction offered cold comfort to those who knew Francisco.
On social media, environmental and conservation communities in both Chile and Costa Rica shared tributes and calls for justice. Francisco had built an audience through his nature photography and field documentation, and those followers became the first wave of people demanding accountability from Costa Rican authorities.
The case has become, in the months since, a reference point in ongoing discussions about safety for foreign nationals and environmental workers in Central America, and it is increasingly cited in advocacy materials produced by human rights organizations that track threats against defenders.
What’s the Latest in 2026?
As of early 2026, the investigation remains active. One suspect, Perez, is in custody and facing homicide charges. A second suspect is still being sought by OIJ specialist units, and the search continues. No trial date has been formally announced.
Francisco’s remains were successfully repatriated to Puerto Varas, Chile, in January 2026, following delays tied to the holiday period and administrative processes in the Costa Rican civil registry. His family was present throughout the process, with the Chilean consulate in San Jose providing coordination support.
Mayor Rene Garces Alvarez has continued to speak publicly about the case and has called on Costa Rican authorities to see the prosecution through to a just conclusion. The case has been raised in conversations about Costa Rica’s security situation and its implications for the country’s standing as a destination for international conservation workers and volunteers.
No formal foundation or advocacy initiative has yet been established in Francisco’s name, though family and community members have expressed a desire to honor his legacy by advancing environmental education and defender safety. That work, if it comes, will likely take shape over the coming year as the family moves through grief and into a longer-term vision for what Francisco’s life should mean.
For now, his story continues to circulate through the conservation and human rights communities that cared about him, carried by the people who knew him and by those who never did but understand what was lost.
What Comes Next: Immediate and Long-Term
In the near term, the most important developments will be the conclusion of the arrest of the second suspect, the formal charging process for Perez, and the scheduling of a trial. Those following the case for professional or personal reasons, whether as advocates, journalists, or researchers, should monitor the OIJ’s updates and the Costa Rican court filings.
Families of people working abroad in conservation or activist roles can take immediate steps to establish better safety routines with their loved ones. Regular check-ins, shared location information, and open conversations about local conflicts are practical starting points that cost nothing but attention.
The longer arc of this story is about whether Francisco’s death becomes part of the momentum needed to change how the international community treats environmental defenders. Organizations like Global Witness, Front Line Defenders, and Amnesty International have been documenting these killings for decades. What they consistently identify is that the solution is not to stop sending passionate people into wild places. It is to build legal, political, and institutional systems that protect them while they are there.
Francisco Ojeda Garces went to Costa Rica because he believed in what that country represented. The least those of us who survive him can do is make sure that belief is not buried with him.
Cited References That Made This Article Possible
The Tico Times. Death of Foreign Activist Adds to Costa Rica’s Mounting Security Concerns (January 8, 2026). Primary source for investigation details, crime statistics, and diplomatic context.
The Tico Times. Suspect Held in Killing of Chilean Activist in Costa Rica (February 13, 2026). Source for arrest details, suspect information, and updated investigative findings.
The Costa Rica News. Chilote Environmentalist Murdered in Costa Rica (January 3, 2026). Source for initial reporting, family response, and repatriation details.
Explore Costa Rica. Foreign Activist’s Death Fuels Costa Rica’s Security Fears (January 9, 2026). Source for OIJ procedural details and regional security context.
Global Witness. Enemies of the State? (2019). Background on environmental defender killings in Latin America.
Council on Foreign Relations. Who Is Killing Latin America’s Environmentalists? (April 2020). Regional context on threats to environmental activists.
Radio Bio Bio and Chilevision (Chile). Chilean media coverage confirming the identity of the victim and family statements, reported December 31, 2025.