Arturo Cruz, Jr.

Who is Arturo Cruz, Jr.?

Arturo José Cruz Sequeira is the son of Nicaraguan politician Arturo Cruz. He became involved in the exile politics of the Contra rebels opposing the Sandinista government in the 1980s, and more recently served as the Ambassador of Nicaragua to the United States for two years from 2007 to 2009. Prior to his ambassadorship, Cruz was a Tenured Professor at Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas Business School in Managua, Nicaragua, and a Visiting Professor at the Advanced School of Economics and Business in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Cruz, Jr. is the child of Arturo José Cruz Porras and Consuelo Sequeira Ximénez, the firstborn of seven children. As an idealistic youth, Cruz supported the Sandinistas, only to become disillusioned after they took power. In 1982 he turned to the charismatic Edén Pastora, the former Sandinista commander starting up the rebel Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, only to become disenchanted with him as well. Cruz then became involved in 1985 with UNO, the rebel umbrella group which his father had joined. Trips to Lt. Colonel Oliver North's office at the United States National Security Council brought him into contact with North's secretary, Fawn Hall, with whom he had a well-publicized relationship. After his father's resignation from UNO in March 1987, he attached himself to Aristides Sánchez. Eventually, Cruz left Contra politics, recounting his experience in Memoirs of a Counter-Revolutionary.