Reardoor will not open

[Pavel14]

We have a '94 sidekick 5 door.  The rear door will not open for some reason.  You can lock and unlock with the key but the handle seems to be stuck. Strangely, there is no lever on the inside of the door!   I have exposed the lock mechanism from the inside and pulled/pushed the lever(s) that I can reach (not easy for an old tubby guy).  No luck so far.  Before I cut open the inside door around the lock, can anyone give advice on how to open this stuck door mechanism?  Thanks.

ps: I've removed and repaired 3 of the 4 regular side door locks - they all needed new little compression springs to get things working again...