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Yvan Leyvraz

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Yvan Leyvraz (born 1954 – 28 July 1986) was a Swiss employée of Solidar Suisse and part of the international solidarity brigades in Nicaragua after the presidential election victory of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinists and the following contra-war. He was the second Swiss who has got killed by the US-supported contras in Nicaragua.

Commitment in Nicaragua

Leyvraz was sent as an employee of Solidar Suisse to Nicaragua at the beginning of 1983 and was working with the workings brigades there. In the summer 1983, he was leading the first Swiss working brigade at the rebuilding of a bridge in Matagalpa.

In 1984, Solidar Suisse took over the responsibility of a Swiss-Nicaraguan construction worker brigade. For them, he led the foundation of several cooperatives for farmers who were resettled out of the war regions. One of the first projects of the brigade was the cooperative of Yale who was attacked by the Contras on 31 May 1986. In April 1985, he was leading the building of several houses in the region of Wiwilí. As of March 1986, he was working around El Cuá-Bocay in the department Jinotega. In May 1986, three of his Nicaraguan technicians got murdered by a group of Contras.

In the morning of 28 July 1986, Leyvraz was the driver of one of two pickups who were leaving Wiwilí. Upon La Zompopera (a region at the headwater of Río Coco between Wiwilí and the city of Jinotega) they were ambushed by the contras and the pick-up of Leyvraz got hit by a anti-tank grenade launcher, leaving him and his four companions no chance to live.[1] He was, after Maurice Demierre, who was murdered in February 1986, the second murdered Swiss of the international solidarity movement in Nicaragua.

Reactions

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs expressed their regrets on the death of Leyvraz but did not officially protest towards the United States. A secretary of state even declared, that he has to admit towards the Americans, that the murdered Swiss people were "leftwing people".[2]

As political consequence of the death of Leyvraz and Demierre, Switzerland banned the commitment of federal supported aid projects in some regions of Nicaragua. This reaction also affected a Swiss auxiliary.[2]

Medias

Books

  • Jacques Depallens: "Nicaragua 1986 : l'aventure internationaliste de Maurice, Yvan, Joel et Berndt". CETIM, Geneva 1996, ISBN 978-2880530235

Movies

  • Olivia Heussler: "Der Tod von Yvan Leyvraz" (engl. "The death of Yvan Leyvraz"; swissgerman TV-production, Nicaragua, 1986)
  • Kristina Konrad: "Unser America" (engl. "Our America"; Documentary, Germany/Switzerland, 2006) - The movie refers to Leyvraz in a chapter.

Varia

The bern-based Chansonier Michel Bühler dedicated 2007 the song "Chanson Pour Yvan Leyvraz" on his album "Jusqu'à Quand?" to Leyvraz.

See also

References

  1. ^ Joan Kruckewitt (2003), The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua, Seven Stories Press, p. 208, ISBN 9781583220689
  2. ^ a b Verlorene Hoffnung, bleibende Erinnerung, Lateinamerika Nachrichten Juni 2006
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