Linder, Benjamin Ernest (d. 1987)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 14 May 1987 p. 2

Birth date:

text of obituary:

MCCer Knew Slain Nicaragua Worker

Akron, Pa. (MCC) — American volunteer Benjamin Ernest Linder, shot and killed by Nicaraguan rebels April 28, was an acquaintance of Art Montoya of Akron, Pa., an MCC worker in Nicaragua in 1984-85. Montoya had met Linder in the capital city of Managua during a peace fast.

Linder, of Portland, Ore., was working on construction in a small hydroelectric plant at La Camaleona, a small village of about 100 scattered families. He went to Nicaragua to work for the Nicaragua Energy Institute. His death is the first of a North American as a direct result of the war between the Sandinista government and counter-revolutionaries.

Montoya, currently working as a peace educator and draft counselor with MCC U.S. Peace Section, comments, "There are around 3,000 North American volunteers in Nicaragua. Many of them, including MCCers, work in small rural villages helping people with development projects much like Linder was doing."

He went on to say that Linder's killing "points out the absurdity of our government's policies supporting a movement that kills innocent people volunteering to help the poor."

Rich Sider, secretary for MCC's Latin America program, noted that "MCC does have volunteers in the same general area doing the same basic kind of work as Linder."

A civil engineer, Linder had been developing power projects in rural areas for the government.