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FEATURES

By JIM STANFORD

MANAGUA — Many Americans have been horrified
to learn of the corrupt and deceptive escapades of Rich-
ard Secord, Bud McFarlane, and ‘‘Rambo’’ Oliver
North, which are being exposed live on day-time televi-
Sion from the Contragate hearings in Washington. Their
various James Bond-like schemes to channel funds and
arms to the contras would be laughable for their inep-
| titude, were it not for their viciously criminal motive: to

€stroy the Nicaraguan revolution, using terrorism,
€conomic sabotage, and selective assassination.

What does not receive so much North American
Media attention, unfortunately, are the actual conse-
quences of this dirty U.S. war against Nicaragua: over
3,000 killed by the contras during the 6-year war; close to

3-billion in economic damage caused by the fighting;
and a defense effort that gobbles up an estimated 50 per
cent of Nicaragua’s badly-needed GNP, creating a dif-
ficult economic crisis here.

But despite these hardships caused by the contra war,
the latest developments have reinforced the conclusion
In Nicaragua that the contras have been dealt a strategic
defeat, both politically and militarily.

On the military front, the contras’ much vaunted

Spring offensive’’ has fizzled out. Despite the receipt of
the latest $100-million official American aid package,
Contra forces still cannot lay claim to a single acre of

Icaraguan territory. Some 365 contras were killed in
Combat in April alone, and the six-month rainy season is
Now beginning, which will further reduce contra military
effectiveness.

Sandinista military officials estimate that there are
approximately 5,000 contras now operating within Nica-
Tagua, supplied by CIA-organized air-drops from E] Sal-
| Vador and Honduras. But these contra forces are kept on
the run by special irregular Nicaraguan army battalions,
and have no base of support among the Nicaraguan
Population. As a result, contra military actions are limit-
ed to attacks on isolated villages, ambushes of civilian
transport vehicles, assassinations of leading pro-
Sandinista personalities in the outlying regions, and
Other forms of terrorism.

American Murdered

3 One recent attack claimed the life of an American
citizen, 26-year-old Benjamin Linder of Seattle, who

Internationalists at work
in Nicaragua. Providing
essential assistance to
'3 the revolution.

F

Standing up to the
U.S.’s dirty war

was an electrician doing volunteer work on a small
hydro-electric project in San Juan de Bocay, near the
Honduran border. Linder had received previous death
threats from the contras because of his work, which was
helping to bring electricity to isolated mountain villages,
and thereby consolidating support for the Sandinista
revolution among the campesino population.

Linder was assassinated along with two Nicaraguan
colleagues on April 27 while working at a hydro site. His
body was later examined in Nicaragua by his father —a
pathologist with 30 years of experience. This autopsy
revealed evidence of torture and a close-range bullet
wound to the head, proving that Linder was deliberately
murdered, and was not ‘“‘caught in the crossfire’.

Linder’s murder by U.S.-backed terrorists makes a
farce of the Reagan government’s campaign against
‘international terrorism’’. U.S. Vice-President George
Bush’s response to Linder’s death was to say that Linder
would still be alive ‘‘if he had done his volunteer work in
a more democratic country’’. This is equivalent to de-
claring open season on anyone who actively assists the
Sandinista cause, regardless of their nationality. At least
nine other volunteer workers from various West Euro-
pean countries have also been killed by the contras,
together with numerous teachers, medical specialists,
and technicians from Cuba.

U.S. Maneuvers

As destructive and demoralizing as this contra terror-
ism is, however, it is now clear that the U.S. attempt to
use the contras to overthrow the Nicaraguan government
has been defeated. This is cause for celebration in Nica-
ragua, but also for concern, for it increases the risk of
direct U.S. intervention in the war, which is the only
option left to Reagan in his unholy campaign against the
FSLN government.

Ina thinly-disguised dress rehearsal for the invasion of
Nicaragua, a record 50,000 U.S. troops participated ear-
lier this month in the ‘‘Solid Shield’’ military maneuvers,
in which neighboring Honduras was ‘‘invaded”’ by U.S.
forces landing by sea and by air. Sandinista leaders
believe that the U.S. government is now looking for
some kind of a border incident to serve as a pretext for
invasion; failing that, they suspect that U.S. involve-
ment could start with ‘‘surgical”’ air-strikes in support of
the contras, broadening to a larger-scale invasion later.

Thus the importance of the political battle — to stop
escalating U.S. intervention — is increased, and here,
too, the contras are suffering setbacks. The highest pro-
file, of course, is generated by the Contragate hearings,
which are exposing one lie and cover-up after another,
the result of Reagan’s insistence to support the contras
despite U.S. legislation. Polls show that at least 80 per
cent of American citizens oppose military aid to the
contras, and an even higher proportion is against direct
U.S. intervention. Despite this, however, Democratic
Party opposition to Reagan’s plans is so weak that the
next $105-million aid installment for the contras is still
given considerable chance of being approved by Con-
gress later this summer.

The credibility of the contras has been further under-
mined by internal feuding among the contra leaders, and
by the lack of any visible political support within Nica-
ragua. No Nicaraguan opposition party — even the far-
right parties, that at U.S. bidding boycotted the 1984
election — has been able to identify itself with the con-

aes A Gas 3
Benjamin Linder working on a hydroelectric project in
Nicaragua shortly before his murder by contra forces.

members that make up the bulk of the contra forces. The
recent process which resulted in a new Nicaraguan con-
stitution this January served to draw further segments of
Nicaraguan society into the revolutionary process, and
shored up opposition to the U.S. campaign. Without an
‘internal front’’, the credibility of the contra movement
as a ‘‘legitimate’’ opposition force is non-existent.

Tensions are naturally created within Nicaragua by
the serious economic difficulties accompanying the war
effort. Inflation runs at something close to 1000% per
year, and there are shortages of many goods. But a
tighter distribution system and a range of development
projects included in the 1987 economic plan should
guarantee basic foodstuffs and other staples for all Nica-
raguans, and it is clear that most people here blame the
U.S. war — not the FSLN government — for their
economic hardship.

Barriers to Peace

Internationally, the American government is as isolated
as ever in its efforts to destroy the new Nicaragua. New
governments in Guatemala and Costa Rica, anxious to

’ exert a nominal degree of independence from their U.S.

sponsors, are increasingly reluctant to offer diplomatic
support for the more extreme U.S. positions. A growing
nationalist movement in Honduras, rejecting the com-
plete American military domination of that country, is
making life awkward for the contras based across Nica-
ragua’s northern border. And the Contadora nations,
whose efforts have had the full support of Nicaragua, are
increasingly specific in their recognition of U.S. policy as
the major barrier to peace in the Central American region.

Nicaragua was host in early May to a world congress of
the Inter-Parliamentary Union, attended by several hun-
dred parliamentarians from some 120 countries. This as-
sembly was a timely indicator of the degree of inter-
national solidarity that the Nicaraguan revolution has
generated. Motions condemning the illegal U.S. trade
boycott of Nicaragua and the assassination of Linders

- were passed by overwhelming margins, with the support

even of staunch U.S. allies such as the U.K. and West
Germany.

The danger, of course, is that Reagan has never let
public opinion — whether in the United States or in the
world at large — inhibit his military adventures. The
Contragate scandal has shown that Reagan doesn’t let
U.S. law get in his way, either. Friends of Nicaragua will
have to step up their efforts in coming months to prevent
further funding for the contras and direct U.S. military
intervention, and thereby ensure that the current defeat of
the contras is their final defeat.

— ay aecNicA,_-#7aS, SO Strong is popular hatred of the ex-National Guard

SAN FRANCISCO (PDW) — “I
accuse President Ronald Reagan of
being the murderer of Ben Linder,” Dina
Redman, Linder’s close friend in Nicara-
gua, declared to 1,000 mourners crowded
in the Hebst Theatre here May 4.

Just a week after the 27-year-old engi-
neer and his two Nicaraguan co-workers,
Sergio Hernandez and Paulo Rosales,
were killed while working on a hydroe-

leona, more than 1,000 people gathered
in front of the Federal Building for a
candlelight vigil and to denounce the
Reagan administration for its role in the

murders.

lectric project in the village of Cama- .

In Nicaragua, military doctor Fran-
cisco Balladares announced that Lind-
er’s wounds indicated that he was

tortured and shot at close range by con-

tras on April 28. The administration has
claimed Linder was killed in crossfire
between the contras and Nicaraguan mil-
itia.

Dr. Balladares, who examined Linder
at the German Pomares Military Hospi-
tal in Jinotega, Nicaragua, said May 6
that Linder had bullet wounds in the
backs of his legs, pin-like holes in his face
and a bullet wound on the right side of
his head.

An autopsy carried out by Dr. Bayardo

Gonzalez Vargas revealed that Linder
was first immobilized by wounds to his
legs and then killed by a shot to the head.

In San Francisco, Redman told
mourners that Linder “didn’t expect any
notice or praise, just joy at putting his
skill to something needed.” The night the
lights went on for the first time in the
small town of El Cua he had electrified,
she said he told her “how lucky we were
to be in at the beginning of the revolution
and to have a part in it.”

The Nicaraguan government has
awarded Linder the highest honor ever
given to an internationalist, the Order of
Commandante Jose Benito Escobar.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 1987 e 5