Grief Lives On

GRIEF LIVES ON FIVE YEARS AFTER COUPLE'S SON IS KILLED -- PARENTS CONTEND DEATH IN NICARAGUA OF UW GRAD WAS A HIRED HIT BY CONTRAS ANDREW E. NACHISON 04/26/1992 The Seattle Times SUNDAY Page B3 (Copyright 1992) PORTLAND - In one of his last letters home, Ben Linder predicted the end of the contra war in Nicaragua. But he didn't live long enough to see his prophecy fulfilled. Five years ago on April 28, the American engineer and two Nicaraguans were shot to death by the contras. The U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary guerrillas tried for a decade to overthrow the socialist Sandinista government that took power in Nicaragua in 1979. Now the contra war is over, and Violeta Chamorro is Nicaragua's democratically elected president. Germany is united and the Soviet Union is no more. But in this world of lightning-fast geopolitical change, the slow process of grief over one death in a tiny Central American country has dragged on. For Elizabeth and David Linder, a 27-year-old son is dead. "Our home has been, and much of our thinking has been, consumed with things about Ben's death and the aftermath," said David Linder, 68. "One thing that's bothersome is just plain talking about it. I find it a strain." "It doesn't get any easier," said Elizabeth Linder, 64. "That's all I can say. I'm bothered by the time that goes by. And I feel very angry. It didn't have to be, it shouldn't have been." The couple has lectured throughout North America, describing what they believe was a hired hit by contra leaders living in Florida. They have filed a $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit against three contra leaders they believe plotted their son's death. And they have raised more than $400,000 to complete the 250-kilowatt San Jose de Bocay hydroelectric project he was working on when he was killed. Ben Linder grew up in Portland and graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Two months later, he set out for Nicaragua to find a job and to see for himself the results of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the government of Anastasio Somoza. "It was a little scary," said his mother, a retired trial assistant. "But I was excited that he had the courage to pick up and do something like that rather than just try and find a job and make a living." David Linder said his son's decision was a logical extension of his participation in political events in the Pacific Northwest. "There were thousands of Americans like himself who went down there, too, almost to witness the dream change of independence, freedom," said Linder, a retired pathologist. Ben Linder believed that developing countries do not need Western-style malls and nuclear power plants but "appropriate" technology, such as small hydroelectric plants to keep lights shining in schools. He found a job in Managua with the Nicaragua Energy Institute, a public utility. In March 1984, he agreed to work on a tiny 100-kilowatt hydroelectric project on a stream in the Cua-Bocay Zone of northern Nicaragua. It was a move from the relative safety of a large city to the center of contra territory. During the day the rebels would storm into the countryside from neighboring Honduras to wage a war of terror on civilians. At night, the contras returned to Honduras. "The risk is how close you are to peoples who are sacrificing their lives to make a better world. It was kind of understandable that he would put himself in a situation where he could die," his father said. Linder survived the completion of the El Cua hydroelectric project, and had begun surveys for a second, larger project nearby when he was killed. The Linders say an autopsy showed Ben's face had up to 40 needle puncture marks, suggesting he was tortured before he died. "There was an accelerating policy of killing internationals in Nicaragua," David Linder said. "I think that Ben's death was not a mistake. I think that he was an internationalist who was killed along with others, and an American at that. I think that the outrage on our part to Ben's death stopped that policy." The Linders' lawsuit was dismissed in 1989 by a judge in Miami who ruled it would have interfered with the U.S. government's ability to conduct foreign policy. The case has been appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Meanwhile, the hydroelectric-power plant Ben Linder was working on when he was killed is nearly complete. "We asked Ben what he was going to do when the hydro plant was built," David said. "He said he wanted to work as an engineer in a country where the main concern was the people, so that when he did something it would go to the people," David said. "He said you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of engineers in the entire world who go to Third World countries with a socialist base and make life better. And he wanted to be one of them. That was fulfillment for him."