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Linder was well aware of the danger he faced. Eight European volunteer workers have been killed over the past five years. When eight West Germans were kidnaped by the contras a year ago, all volunteers were ordered out of war zones. The order was later modified to cover only Europeans, thus raising suspicions that the Sandinistas reacted to pressure from countries that supplied financial aid. Linder, would not have been likely to heed such restrictions. The youngest child of parents active in left-wing causes, he graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Washington in 1983, then went to Nicaragua. After working briefly as a juggler for the Managua Circus, he volunteered to help the Nicaraguan Energy Institute. Later he began designing small hydroelectric plants for the northern departments. Because of his efforts, the hamlet of El Cua now has electricity.
Linder was among the best of a group commonly known as sandalistas. The sardonic reference is to the beat-up sandals characteristically worn by volunteer workers, but the word embraces all Westerners who go to Nicaragua to demonstrate their support for the eight-year-old revolution. Although no official account is available, the number of Americans is estimated at around 1,500. They include both teenagers and octogenarians and bring to their jobs varying degrees of intelligence, commitment and maturity. Many come for only a few weeks and get a Sandinista-guided tour. Others stay long enough to complete educational, medical and agricultural projects, and to share the impoverished living conditions of the Nicaraguan peasants.
Depending on whose political lens is trained on the sandalistas, they are either altruistic and committed or arrogant and shallow pawns of the Managua government. The contras disparage them as "frogs of the rabid dogs," a contemptuous reference for any Nicaraguan or foreigner who collaborates with the Sandinistas. Government critics even claim that they have heard Sandinista leaders privately allude to the volunteers as "useful fools." Certainly they provide sorely needed assistance for the revolution's beleaguered health, education and land-reform programs. Most volunteers, tend to screen out the flaws of the Sandinista revolution. They would be unlikely to report home, for instance, that last week a heavily armed security force raided the offices of La Prensa, the opposition newspaper that the Sandinistas closed down last June.
Linder's death seems to be producing a new wave of volunteers. Last week several U.S. organizations were besieged by telephone calls. "The contra tactics are to demoralize Nicaraguans and scare Americans away," says Samuel Hope of the Washington-based Witness for Peace. "But the killing only inspires more of us to go." That is doubtless the kind of memorial that would have pleased Benjamin Linder.