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A 30-year suspect allegedly tried to rape a Canadian woman who was walking down the beach of Los Brasiles Island in Poneloya, a coastal community in the Pacific seaboard of Nicaragua. Poneloya is in the district of Leon.

According to a news story published by national newspaper La Prensa, the Canadian woman was all alone when Gerson Uziel Cuadra Vargas, a known felon, jumped out from the shadows. The incident occurred in the hours before dawn. The suspect threw sand in the eyes of the expat before trying to physically and sexually assault her.

La Prensa reports that the woman was rescued by a resident of the island who rushed to her aid upon hearing her scream in the darkness. The suspect fled on horseback but was later detained by police officers assigned to the Poneloya precinct. According to Captain Marvin Ruiz, the suspect has a history of rape complaints filed by foreign women in addition to having being convicted of armed robbery and aggravated assault. Alas, he has not been convicted of the previous rape charges because the foreign female victims left Nicaragua and never returned.

Captain Ruiz added:

“The suspect has a lengthy rap sheet. In fact, he was on conditional release when we caught him on this new complaint of attempted rape. He was supposed to report to court this past Monday and failed to do so. He is a dangerous individual who has been involved in other crimes such as sexual assault and aggravated robbery.”

It is not clear whether the suspect is in custody or if has been released; nonetheless, La Prensa quoted him as follows:

“They say I am a suspect of an assault on a gringa; I am ready to fight these accusations. They just want to destroy my life, which was already battered because I have been incarcerated for a fight and because I shattered the windows of a bus, but that was all just a drunken episode.”

The Canadian expat works as a volunteer in a development project to benefit the community of Poneloya. According to a report by online news site La Jornada, this incident tarnishes the image of Nicaragua as a safe and affordable destination for expats fleeing Costa Rica due to exorbitant prices and security issues.

In the past, The Costa Rica Star has compared the two nations with regard to crime and safety, and Nicaragua clearly seems to be a safer option in terms of statistics; however, journalistic organizations and third-party observers note that crime reporting tends to be very deficient in Nicaragua, and that obfuscation of the press has been an ongoing problem during the Ortega administration.