About 800 Swiss volunteered to rebuild Nicaragua after the 1979 Sandinista political uprising against US occupation, and some died in the process. Why did they do it? “I was fascinated by the idea of living in a country where everything was possible,” recalls Roland Sidler, one such volunteer from Switzerland. “Participative democracy was very well established. The government, the people, the intellectuals, the ideologists, the clergy… all worked together to educate the population, give them shelter and sanitation and to launch agricultural reform.” International brigades in Spain and Nicaragua In the 1930s, 40,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries went to Spain to help the Republicans fight against General Franco's rebels. Around 800 were Swiss, 170 of whom died and 420 were penalised by the Swiss authorities for enlisting in a foreign army. There have since been several efforts to clear their records. Nicaragua attracted almost identical numbers of Swiss ...
