A police under-lieutenant at Los Chiles was recalled from his post by Deputy Security Minister Celso Gamboa for allegedly giving a most un-Costa Rican order — “Shoot to kill.”

Supposedly, the order was given by the officer identified as Efrain Sanabria in an eviction of squatters from farmland. The operation was carried out Friday without a hitch and with the arrest of four squatters.

This incident was captured on an audio recording circulated on social media where the under-lieutenant was heard for 22 minutes giving instruction to his men before the eviction operation, characterizing the rural people as “terrorists.”

The official (if, indeed, it turns out to be his voice) was also picked up suggesting that the police shoot the squatters in the head. “Try not to shoot them in the foot because they go out on the street and say you tried to shoot them,” the voice on the recording instructed.

The recording went viral on the internet. La Nacion got its copy from a download by Citizen Action Party (PAC) lawmaker Claudio Monge. In his e-mail to the paper, Monge said that Sanabria excused shooting the squatters in the head on the ground of legitimate defense.

The voice on the tape was quoted by the national newspaper La Nacion as ordering police to “shoot them in the head so they can’t leave the scene of the crime.”

The squatters were active near Medio Queso in Los Chiles in the northern area of the country. It is a persistent problem in rural areas and groups of squatters have been known to invade and settle on the same farm four times in a year, each time being evicted by police.

Gamboa vowed, using Twitter, to conduct an immediate investigation. “No official of the police,” Tweeted the chief, “can express himself in this manner. This does not represent the Ministry of Public Security or the body of officers.”

The public employees union ANEP called for criminal penalties against the officer. However, at this writing, no confirmation has been received by media that the voice on the tape is that of the under-lieutenant Sanabria.

If it is not, it would not be the first hoax on the Internet.