On the 39th Anniversary of His Death: Ben Linder Presente!
By James Phillips
The life and death of Ben Linder have become emblematic of what international solidarity meant during the contra war. Linder was born in San Francisco in 1959. His parents were refugees from eastern Europe. The family moved to Portland, Oregon, when Linder was eleven. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical engineering in 1983 and spent time in Costa Rica learning Spanish in preparation for going to Nicaragua “to seek his fortune,” as his father said after Ben’s death.
In Nicaragua, Linder was hired by the National Energy Institute and eventually sent to work on a hydropower project in the remote region of El Cua and San José de Bocay in the north. The area had no electricity. In December, 1986, Linder left the Institute to work on developing other hydroelectric projects in the same region. The region was considered dangerous. There were frequent contra attacks in the area in early 1987. In March, as many as four hundred contras attacked the nearby agricultural settlement of El Cedro, killing several people and destroying a medical clinic. It was the third such attack on the community. On March 24, contras attacked a hydroelectric power unit that Linder himself had designed and helped construct. They were repelled by a detachment of Sandinista Army soldiers.
During the last week of April, Linder and six local Nicaraguans were working for several days to complete a small hydroelectric project. On the fourth day, Linder went back with several workers to test the water flow before the onset of the rainy season in May. They arrived at 8 a.m. At about 8:30 at least ten contra soldiers attacked the group, throwing a grenade that immobilized Linder and two Nicaraguan workers. Contras then stabbed one to death and shot the other in the ear, killing him. Linder had shrapnel in his leg. The contras shot him in the head.
This version of what happened was later confirmed by forensic examination of the bodies, and it contradicted other versions of events put out by the Reagan Administration and the contras: that Linder and the Nicaraguans were killed in a battle with a contra unit that accidentally found them; or that a contra unit saw the group in military uniforms and armed, and mistook them for Sandinista soldiers; or even that Linder and the others were caught in a crossfire between contra and Sandinista Army soldiers.
Ben Linder’s funeral was held in Matagalpa on May 1, 1987. It was attended by hundreds from the area and from other parts of Nicaragua, and a large contingent of international volunteers including Lucy and me and other WFP team members. President Daniel Ortega and Linder’s parents David and Elizabeth led the procession to the cemetery. The silence of the solemn march was broken occasionally by shouts of determination from Sandinista youth groups and others.
In testimony before the Sub-Committee on Western Hemisphere Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington a few weeks after the funeral, his father David spoke about Ben’s motivation:
“He had a firm commitment to develop [electricity] units up there [El Cua] which were independent from the main city so that you did not have to go four to six hours to get there, a unit which would have its own hydroelectric power, and from that power there would be development of a machine shop, a wood mill, and a rice processing facility, along with a school, a medical clinic, and the like. It was his attempt to empower people in the area, to give them control over their own lives in the most real sense of the word. This was his idea of the revolution. This was how he expressed what he wanted to do to further the cause of Nicaragua. It was what he did, not what he said. And what he wanted to do was to bring hydro power to this–to remote areas in the country so they could become self-sufficient, proud, productive people.”
It is worth noting that the Reagan Administration tried to present an alternative narrative of Linder’s killing that shifted the blame to Linder himself or to the Sandinista Army. It was part of a larger campaign to discredit international solidarity with revolutionary Nicaragua. The falsehoods and propaganda continue in other forms today, but the memory, example, and spirit of Linder’s solidarity remain strong. Ben Linder presente!
(James Phillips is a cultural anthropologist. He and his wife Lucy Edwards were Witness for Peace team members in Nicaragua in 1985-87.)