The Death of Ben Linder; The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua

the long version

"In the summer of 1983, a young American engineer and unicyclist named Ben Linder flew to Managua, Nicaragua, as one of thousands of foreigners offering their skills in support of the revolutionary Sandinista government. While waiting for an engineering job, Ben performed as a clown in the circus and in poor neighborhoods, leading children to newly-opened health clinics for vaccinations. When the U.S. threatened to invade Nicaragua, he joined his neighbors in digging bomb shelters, and over the next four years his life became increasingly entwined in the life of this country at war."--BOOK JACKET. "In 1986, Ben Linder left Managua to work on a project to provide electricity to a village called El Cua in the northern mountains, dangerously near strongholds of the U.S.-backed Contras. In spite of the danger, Ben chose to stay because he felt he had an obligation, as an American, to rebuild what his country was destroying. On April 28, 1987, Ben and two Nicaraguans were ambushed and killed by the Contras, while surveying a stream for another hydroplant. He was the first American killed by Ronald Reagan's "freedom fighters.""--BOOK JACKET. "The Death of Ben Linder incorporates formerly classified CIA documents that reveal who killed Linder and why."--BOOK JACKET. "Linder's story is a portrait of one idealist who died for his beliefs, and a portrait as well of a failed foreign policy. It vividly exposes the true dimensions of a war that forever marked the lives of both Nicaraguans and Americans."--BOOK JACKET.