‘They Can Never Stop the Spring:’ Day of the Internationalist Hero Announced in Nicaragua

Benjamin Linder: ¡Presente!

Under the shade tent in the schoolyard, staring solemnly ahead, stands a line of children wearing t-shirts with the image of the most famous North American in this mountainous Nicaraguan village. The picture on the t-shirt is not of a pop singer or a movie star, it’s the image of a skinny electrical engineer from Portland, Oregon: Ben Linder.

“Benjamín Linder: ¡Presente! ¡Presente! ¡Presente!” The children call out, raising their little fists in the air to emphasize that Ben Linder’s spirit is here with us today.

Ben Linder moved to Nicaragua in 1983 to contribute his skills to the Sandinista Revolution. He was a clown and a unicyclist who worked with the national circus. As an engineer, he worked to bring electricity to war zones in northern Nicaragua, where the U.S.-funded contra guerillas attacked villages in the dark – electricity made them safer. After building a successful hydroelectric plant in El Cuá, Ben and his coworkers began work on a new plant in San José de Bocay, near the Honduran border.

On April 28, 1987, Ben hiked upstream to measure for a weir with two local masons – father of four Pablo Rosales, and father of seven Sergio Hernandez – both of whom had volunteered to work on the project. The three were ambushed and assassinated by U.S.-backed contra forces.

Thirty-nine years later, our small group representing the Casa Ben Linder in Managua has driven six hours to honor these heroes and martyrs together with the students, families, and local authorities at the Ben Linder Elementary School.

Day of the Internationalist Hero
As we arrived in San José de Bocay late the evening before, we heard the news that Nicaragua’s National Assembly had just declared April 28^th to be the Day of the Internationalist Hero in Nicaragua. It is an honor to be able to share this moment of pride with the people of Los Angeles, the village where Ben was killed, which sits perched above San José de Bocay with sweeping views of the river valley below and dramatic mountains in the background.

Juan Ramón Obregón Valdivia, the National Assembly member representing the region, is sharing the text of the law with those gathered.

“Nicaragua has been blessed with a host of internationalist heroes and heroines

who, throughout our history and during the various phases of the struggle for our sovereignty, have embraced our ideals and defended peace,” he reads.

“Our North American brother Benjamin Linder was assassinated…becoming an eternal symbol of the people’s struggle against injustice. We must honor all our internationalist heroes, reaffirming the unbreakable bond between the Nicaraguan people and international solidarity and making the ideal of internationalism the guiding light for our struggle for progress and the building of a future of unity and peace,” the Deputy finishes.

Unlikely Heroes
After celebrating with dancing, speeches, poems and piñatas, we make our way to the pond that now feeds the hydroelectric plant, finished in 1994 by APRODELBO, the organization which today provides electricity to 2,000 families in the region. We then hike through the thick forest up to the spot where Ben, Pablo and Sergio were assassinated.

Standing on the rocks next to the flowing stream, José Luís Olivas, head of the environmental management unit of APRODELBO, speaks of their heroism. With his wire rimmed glasses and shirt pockets filled with pens, Ben Linder didn’t come across as courageous. But in the context of the Contra War, everyone knew that the simple act of trying to connect communities to electricity was reason enough for your name to wind up on a death list.

“At that time, there were armed groups financed by the government of the United States,” explains José Luís.

“Mr. Ronald Reagan didn’t want Nicaraguans to continue our lives of prosperity, he wanted to see us buried in misery, and so he financed the counterrevolution.”

Yet, Ben and thousands more like him, continued working to improve the lives of families in rural war zones, even knowing the personal risk they were taking.

Ben Linder: At 37 Years, Presente!

“They worked so that we could have an organized community, young people studying, so that we could prepare medical professionals from this community to provide medical attention to our own population,” explains José Luís.

He tells the story of Ambrosio Mogorrón Martínez, a Basque nurse from Spain. Ambrosio, known as “El Doctorcito,” was also killed in Bocay, just one month after Ben. He was travelling to bring medicine to the community when a U.S.-made anti-tank mine detonated under his pick-up truck, killing him and nine others with him. The health center in Bocay is named Ambrosio Mogorrón.

“Unfortunately, these internationalists lost their lives, but they planted a seed in fertile soil, and that seed has sprouted and continues to grow,” concludes José Luís. “That is why we have electricity, drinking water, hospitals, schools, and universities.”

They Will Never Stop the Spring
As we are leaving the site, we spot a tiny frog on the rock above where Ben was shot at point-blank range. The frog is bright red and black, the colors of the Sandinista Revolution. It obligingly hops around, letting us take pictures of it. A friend tells me that in Indigenous lore, Frog sings to bring the rain, symbolizing new life and harmony.

As we make our way back down the mountain, I reflect on how apt it is to celebrate the contributions of our fallen internationalists when so many of their dreams for Nicaragua have now come true: peace and security, free education, free health care, dignified housing, good roads.

“‘They can cut all the flowers, but they will never stop the spring,’” quotes Nicaragua’s Co-President Rosario Murillo while announcing the Day of the Internationalist Hero. “Ben Linder, a flower in Bocay, a flower for the Nicaraguan people…We work for peace, for the flowering that brings Peace, we work to live as brothers and sisters, we work for joy. They will never stop the spring.”

On this 28th of April, as we celebrate the first annual Day of the Internationalist Hero, we know that spring has arrived in Nicaragua.