Yvan Leyvraz

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Yvan Leyvraz (* 1954 in Saint-Cergue , Switzerland ; † July 28, 1986 in Zompopera , Nicaragua ) was a Swiss employee of the Swiss Workers' Relief Organization (SAH, today Solidar Suisse) and part of the international solidarity brigades in Nicaragua after Daniel won the presidential elections Ortega and the Sandinista and the subsequent Contra War .

Use in Nicaragua

Leyvraz came to Nicaragua at the beginning of 1983 as the ambassador of the SAH, where he first joined the workers' brigades. In the summer of 1983 he headed the first Swiss workers brigade building a bridge in the Matagalpa department .

From 1984 he took over responsibility for a Swiss-Nicaraguan construction workers brigade for the Swiss Workers' Relief Organization. He led the establishment of several cooperatives to which farmers from war zones were resettled. One of the brigade's first projects was the Yale Cooperative, which was attacked on May 31, 1986 by the US-backed Contras . From April 1985 he led the construction of several houses in the Wiwilí region , and from March 1986 around El Cuá-Bocay in the Jinotega department . In May 1986 three Nicaraguan technicians from his troops were murdered by the Contras.

On the morning of July 28, 1986, Leyvraz drove from Wiwilí as the driver of one of two pick-ups. At La Zompopera (an area on the upper reaches of the Río Coco between Wiwilí and the city of Jinotega ) they were ambushed by the Contras, where the Leyvraz truck was hit by a reactive anti-tank rifle and left him and his four companions no chance of survival. After Maurice Demierre , who was murdered in February 1986, he was the second Swiss person to be murdered in the international solidarity movement.

Reactions

The Swiss Foreign Ministry regretted the Swiss man's death, but decided not to protest against the United States. Instead, a state secretary even said that he had to admit to the Americans that the murdered Swiss were “left-wing people”.

As a political consequence of the deaths of Leyvraz and Demierre, Switzerland banned any use of state-supported aid projects in certain areas of Nicaragua - including a Swiss aid group.

Varia

The Bernese chansonist Michel Bühler performed Leyvraz in 2007 with chanson Pour Yvan Leyvraz on the album Jusqu'à Quand? dedicated a song.

media

Books

  • Jacques Depallens: "Nicaragua 1986: l'aventure internationaliste de Maurice, Yvan, Joel et Berndt" . CETIM , Geneva 1996, ISBN 2-88053-023-7 .

Movies

  • Olivia Heussler : The Death of Yvan Leyvraz (TV production, Nicaragua, 1986)
  • Kristina Konrad: Our America (Documentary, Germany / Switzerland, 2006) - The film refers to Leyvraz in one section.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joan Kruckewitt: The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua . Seven Stories Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-58322-068-9 , pp. 208 .
  2. ↑ a b Lost Hope, Lasting Memory , Latin America News June 2006
personal data
SURNAME Leyvraz, Yvan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss internationalist and aid worker in Nicaragua
DATE OF BIRTH 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Cergue , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1986
Place of death Zompopera , Nicaragua