This Thursday, April 28, 2022, marks the 35th anniversary of the assassinations of Ben Linder, Sergio Hernandez and Pablo Rosales, all killed in a US funded Contra ambush/attack while working on a small hydroelectric dam in rural northern Nicaragua.
Please join us in a one-hour commemoration via ZOOM to remember and share with each other stories of Ben’s life and legacy. This will NOT be a forum for a discussion about Nicaragua today. This is just a chance to join with others, far and wide, commemorating the lives and deaths of Ben, Sergio and Pablo.
¡Presente! ¡Presente! ¡Presente!
THIS Thursday, April 28, 2022
Times: 8:30 – 9:30 PM – Eastern Time
7:30-8:30 PM – Central Time
6:30-7:30 PM – Mountain/Nicaragua Time
5:30-6:30 PM – Pacific Time
Please use this link to join the Zoom call
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87548170477?pwd=SmhLQ0FWaURsWE5qNm43R1FvQVY2QT09
When you join the Zoom, please introduce yourselves in the chatbox. Maybe when and where you were in Nicaragua? Where are you now? We will have a little facilitation and ask a couple of folks to speak, and then you all can share briefly.
Please share this invitation to anyone interested.
Open Letter to the Nicaraguan Government
This letter is circulating, July 2021, for signatures. It already has signers such as Margaret Randall, Daniel Ellsberg, Holly Near, and many other notables as well as hundreds of volunteers and supporters.
UPDATE: “Since June 13 when Dora María Tellez, Victor Hugo Tinoco, Hugo Torres and other prominent progressive dissidents were arrested and detained, they have not been seen or heard from, and the detentions have continued: another presidential candidate, a journalist, and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro (Jr), brother of Cristiana Chamorro and son of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. In addition to being a vocal member of the only opposition party (in this case, right-wing) that still has legal status , it is thought that Pedro Joaquin’s arrest and detention was “revenge” for the fact that when Orteguista police raided the home of his brother Carlos Fernando Chamorro (ex-director of Barricada and currently director of Confidencial and the most important opposition media consortium) they were unable to arrest Carlos Fernando because he wasn’t in Nicaragua.”
“The goal of this letter – directed to the Ortega-Murillo government – is to add to the cumulative pressure of international opinion on the government to free the 130+ political prisoners and halt the repression. Whatever credibility and moral authority we have comes from being solidarity activists in the U.S. who supported the revolution and opposed U.S. intervention. Some of us lived and worked in Nicaragua during the revolution; all of us opposed (then and now) U.S. government intervention. We now also oppose the actions of the Ortega government and all its attacks on popular organizations, journalists, and democratic rights in general.”
For more information, contact Amy Banks: amymerrillbank@gmail.com If you would like to help with the UK/Europe version, please write to Patrick Welsh: pwelsh60@yahoo.com.
Open Letter to the Nicaraguan government
from U.S. solidarity workers (1979-1990)
June 2021
You can sign by clicking here to fill out the signature page
We, the undersigned, are progressive activists who have been part of the U.S. anti-intervention and solidarity movements that supported the Sandinista revolution starting in the 1970s. Many of us lived and worked in Nicaragua or visited as members of international solidarity delegations and work brigades between 1979 and 1990.
We believed then, and we continue to believe now, in the Nicaraguan people’s right to self-determination. The overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship and the building of a new society were acts of a sovereign people determining their own destiny.
We went to Nicaragua to support the heroic and noble efforts of the Nicaraguan people to rebuild their country into one of justice, equality and democracy.
We also went to witness and oppose the illegal and immoral actions of our own government that violated the Nicaraguan people’s right to self-determination. The U.S. government organized, financed, directed and protected a contra army that killed thousands of civilians, burned schools, health clinics and farms, and targeted assassinations of teachers, doctors, and agronomists. One of the U.S.-backed contra’s victims was our colleague, engineer Benjamin Linder, who was murdered in April 1987 along with his Nicaraguan coworkers Sergio Hernandez and Pablo Rosales while they were building a hydroelectric dam in northern Nicaragua.
We are well aware of – and detest – the long, shameful history of U.S. government intervention in Nicaragua and many other countries in Latin America.
However, the crimes of the U.S. government – past and present – are not the cause of, nor do they justify or excuse, the crimes against humanity committed by the current regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Over the last decade and a half, we have been increasingly disheartened to see how Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have consolidated an autocratic family dynasty bent on staying in power above all else. We have been appalled by the targeting of women’s organizations, independent journalists, and environmentalists and indigenous communities opposing construction of the proposed canal. Controlling all branches of government, we have seen how the regime has totally politicized public institutions and undermined the rule of law.
In 2018, we watched the massive “autoconvocado” social protests that erupted. We saw hundreds of thousands Nicaraguans take to the streets. This massive outpouring was not – and could not be – the result of U.S. intervention. It was a demonstration of self-determination, of Nicaraguans thinking for themselves and taking action on their own behalf.
We were shocked and horrified by the Ortega-Murillo regime’s deadly response to those protests, and to the ever-escalating political repression of civil society and violation of the Nicaraguan people’s basic human and constitutional rights.
And now, during these last few weeks and days, we are outraged by the latest maneuvers to shut down all dissent. We are outraged by the arrest and detention of five prominent potential opposition candidates in the scheduled November 2021 elections, even if we do not agree with their political positions. We are outraged by the arrest and detention of civil society and opposition activists and leaders. And we are outraged by the arrest and detention of historic revolutionaries Dora María Téllez, Hugo Torres and Victor Hugo Tinoco.
Even at the height of the U.S.-directed contra war against Nicaragua, the revolutionary government respected and protected the right of opposition candidates to run in free and fair elections. In 1990, we were surprised and saddened by the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas, but we were also impressed by the peaceful transition of power, a sign of democracy in action.
The Ortega-Murillo government in no way represents the values, principles and goals of the Sandinista revolution we once admired, and it betrays the memory of tens of thousands of Nicaraguans who died for a democratic Nicaragua where its people freely and fairly choose who should lead them.
For these reasons, and as anti-intervention, progressive solidarity workers, we call on the Ortega-Murillo regime to:
- Release the more than 130 political prisoners currently being held, including the pre-candidates, members of the opposition, and historic leaders of the Sandinista revolution;
- Rescind and make null and void the draconian national security law under which these individuals were arrested; and
- Negotiate electoral reforms that will ensure free and fair elections that allow the currently detained pre-candidates to run, and that are internationally observed.
Signed:
Please click here to fill out the signature page.
Welcome TecNica Volunteers and Friends of TecNica!
This website is designed to serve a number of purposes — to facilitate a meeting place for those who were TecNica Volunteers or staff, donors, a Nicaraguan host, or anyone who worked with TecNica in Nicaragua or in countries of Southern Africa to stay in touch as a group, and collect experiences and items that document our unique NGO. Items of interest might include volunteer reports, correspondence, photographs, and other related information. Our primary goal is to document a worthy accomplishment.
John Leek working with Nicaraguan machinist
One objective is to have as many TecNica Volunteers as possible register on this site. The more who register, the more we can find each other, stay in touch, and facilitate a forum for discussion and announcements.
Another objective is to document the work done by TecNica Volunteers in Nicaragua and Southern Africa. Of primary interest are Project Reports, so, please submit any project reports you may have and any personal notes you may have made. Of course, photos would add a great deal to the written information.
Finally, we all have stories to tell. Experiences like this inevitably include chance encounters, instant friendships, and wonderful anecdotes about living in a different culture.
On the page Nicaraguan Projects — Volunteers Summary you can see an overview of the many and diverse types of technical projects in which TecNica Volunteers were engaged in Nicaragua in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. We welcome more volunteers’ descriptions, so add them in the contents section below to convey them to us.
Barbara Atkinson working with a Nicaraguan engineer.
Background
If you are a visitor to this site and would like to learn more about the background of TecNica, please click here to visit our page on the Background of TecNica.
How to Register
To register and be able to contribute to discussions, ask questions, or communicate with people on this site, please click on the link Register in the right navigation column as the first link under “Meta” (metadata). Once you have registered, you will be able to contribute comments and respond to blogs.
TecNica Volunteers’ Stories
Most volunteers had incredible experiences in their placements and during their stay. If you had a memorable experience, for any reason, please share your stories with others.
Here’s an example, from a TecNica Volunteer while in Managua.
Surprise at the Yerba Buena Coffee House by Mary Engle
