|  Ben Linder, a mechanical engineer from Portland, went to northern Nicaragua to bring power to a small village that was outside the national grid by building a micro-hydroelectric plant. He lived in Nicaragua for four years, working on providing environmentally sustainable power and also using his skills as a juggler and unicyclist to promote public health campaigns. In 1987, at age 27, Ben was murdered while doing preparatory work on a second micro hydro plant in the remote mountains of northern Nicaragua. He was one U.S. citizen among thousands of Nicaraguans killed by the Contras, a guerrilla force armed and directed by the U.S. government in its effort to overturn Nicaragua’s Sandinista revolution. The story of Ben’s death in Nicaragua as he volunteered to provide environmentally sustainable power to an impoverished village, brought awareness of the injustice and enormous suffering caused by U.S. support of Contra terrorist activities and also brought to light how green, sustainable energy systems can empower communities. In the town of El Cuá, Ben had completed a small hydroelectric plant, providing light and electricity to the town for the first time. The new project that Ben was working on when he and two Nicaraguan coworkers were killed, a project in which Nicaraguans would be trained as electricians and machinists, was to be a blue print for initiating environmentally sustainable rural development. The project Ben launched was completed after his death in 1994 with the help of is friends, family, and coworkers, and it now provides electricity and drinking water to thousands of people while protecting the watersheds of the Cuá-Bocay region. In Nicaragua, the Association for Rural Dvelopment Workers – Ben Linder (ATDER, a Green Empowerment partner) continues projects that empower the rural poor to improve their lives. In Portland, Ben’s mother, Elisabeth Linder is on Green Empowerment’s advisory council, helping to keep his legacy alive in our continued work towards a better future for Nicaraguans. As is written on Ben’s gravestone in Matagalpa: “La luz que encendió brillará para siempre.”The light he lit will shine forever." Jason Blalock recently created a short film entitled "American/Sandinista" about the work that Ben, Mira Brown, Don Macleay and numerous members of the El Cua community began and that Rebecca Leaf and ATDER-BL continue to present day. To learn more about his film, please visit the America/Sandinista website. For more information, read about the Ben Linder Legacy in the Oregonian, in an article published on 2/11/2000. Read the Willamette Week's article commemorating the 20th anniversary of Ben Linder's death - 4/11/2007. | 
