Benjamin
Linder
THE MURDER of international aid worker Benjamin Linder by the contras in Nicaragua sparked off a number of protests in the USA (see the last issue of International Viewpoint). Foreign aid workers from other countries have been murdered and kidnapped by the contra forces, but Linder was the first US citizen to be killed by them.
Linder's death focused attention once again on the Reagan government's continuing support for the counter-revolutionaries in their attempts to overthrow the Sandinista regime. Ben Linder's commitment to the revolution and to the people of Nicaragua is illustrated in this personal tribute from a fellow aid worker. JACK BRESEE
MET Benjamin the second time he came looking for me at the house in which I was staying in Maximo
Jerez Barrio, Managua. The woman of the house told me he had come by earlier and would return at 5.00pm. I asked her who he was and she told me his name, but it didn't mean anything to me.
I asked her for more details - what did he look like, was he "Nica" or North American? She said she didn't 2 know. He looked like a "gringo" but sounded like a "Nica." He spoke Spanish as if it was his native tongue, with a perfect Nicaraguan accent, she exInternational Viewpoint • June 15, 1987 plained. Then she said he worked for the energy department, and I remem-
During my stay at Casa Nicaraguense de Espanol the coordinator of the school, a woman, gave him my name, since I expressed an interest to stay on in the country and work after my time at the school ended. She knew of Benjamin's efforts. All internationals seemed to know of his work — and his love of things Nicaraguan, of the coun try's people and of their language.
Now he was coming by to meet me. He wanted to know if I would be suitable for a position with the water systems project in San Jose de Bocay, in Jinotega province. When he returned at five I liked him at once. Most people I saw him with liked him as well. He always seemed incredibly calm — tranquilo as the Nicas say — considering the places he was known to be working in. He smiled and laughed often. He told me he had studied to be a professional clown. The Nicaraguans nicknamed him payaso, which means clown in Spanish....
During that first meeting we talked on the patio - a dirt floor, small but cool. He lay down in a hammock Nicastyle, and talked of the work he had done. He asked me many questions and I asked some as well. Then he told me of the project in San Jose de Bocay. His department was making this a total effort for the people of San Jose, who had never had running water, toilets, sewers or electricity. He said the government felt that these were the most deserving of Nicaraguans and he
The government believed that if the kinds of tangible things, decent things, to protect and fight for, they would better understand the arguments in favor of the revolutionary process -and he agreed with that too. "Some things," he said, making a little joke, "are worth fighting for. No-things are not worth fighting for."
He told me that the very young men of the village now saw little promise for the future. That made it easier for the contras to buy their services as mercenaries, since they had plentiful yanqui dollars. With something worth staying for in San
Jose they will be less likely to leave and join the enemy.
During the next two months Benjamin and I talked often. I would walk to his house in the next barrio where all who lived close to him seemed to know him and keep track of his comings and goings. I could leave messages and he would always get them - and that is not often the case in Nicaragua.
Benjamin was a professional in every respect that I could measure. He wanted to make absolutely sure that I could contribute to his life's work: building Nicaragua....
Contras are mercenary, destructive and cruel
Ben was killed by people inferior to him in every respect. Not only inferior from a cultural or intellectual point of view - for that can be attributed to an accident of birth — but from a human point of view. They are cowardly, mercenary, destructive and cruel. They are, no doubt, much like the profiles of captured contras often published by Barricada [the Sandinista's paper], or like the captured contras sometimes presented to the townspeople in places like Esteli or San Jose de Bocay. The government shows what the contras are like not to inflame the people or create a vigilante spirit. They do it so people know the contras for what they are.
In a few cases they are simply poor, scared, bewildered individuals who signed up for food and money. "Oh!" the people say when they see one. "He is so young. It is sad to think of it." "Ah, look at that one! I know that one.
The fight is on for a new Equal Rights
His family lives next to my cousin. Oh, they were so poor, and such a large family."
But for the most part, the stories read like those of Al Capone or Charles Manson. These are the real contras — who have their roots in the Somoza
Amendment
National Guard. Their most important duties before the revolution were to act as pimps for exploited prostitutes or extort protection money from the shopkeepers in their district. They enjoy the excitement of destruction, the
THE NATIONAL Organization of Women (NOW) is marking feeling of power over innocent people.
the 200th anniversary of the US Constitution with a
They have a personality which mani-
"Bicentennial Drive for the New Equal Rights Amendment."
fests itself in depravity and violence.
These pathological personalities are
This article, from the June issue of Bulletin in Defense of the ones the US State Department and