Arturo José Cruz Sequeira (born 1953), also known as Arturo Cruz Jr., is a Nicaraguan Contra, diplomat and professor. The son of

Nicaraguan Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and ...

politician

Arturo Cruz Arturo José Cruz Porras (December 18, 1923 – July 9, 2013), sometimes called Arturo Cruz Sr. to distinguish him from his son, was a Nicaraguan banker and technocrat. He became prominent in politics during the Sandinista (FSLN) era. After repea ...

, he became involved in the exile politics of the

Contra Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerla ...

rebels opposing the

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...

(FSLN) government in the 1980s, and later 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 INCAE Business School (an acronym for ''Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas'', English: Central American Institute of Business Administration") is an international business school located at the Walter Kissling Gam campus in ...

Business School in Managua, Nicaragua, and a visiting professor at the Advanced School of Economics and Business in San Salvador, El Salvador. Cruz was a pre-candidate for president in the

2021 Nicaraguan general election General elections were held in Nicaragua on 7 November 2021 to elect the President, the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament. President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front sought re-election, w ...

. On June 5, 2021, he was arrested by the government of

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; ; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician and dictator who has been the president of Nicaragua, co-president of Nicaragua since 18 February 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. He was the 54th an ...

Family and education

Cruz Jr. is the child of Arturo José Cruz Porras and Consuelo Sequeira Ximénez, the firstborn of seven children. He is the cousin, on his father's side, of

commandante

Luis Carrión Cruz use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinat ...

. Cruz Jr. is a graduate of

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, has a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

from the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. The school also maintains campuses in Bologna, Italy and Nanjing, China. The school is devoted to the study of int ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, and in the early 1990s he obtained a Doctorate in Modern History from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Career and politics

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 Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez (November 15, 1936 or January 22, 1937 – June 16, 2020) was a Nicaraguan politician and guerrilla who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change (AC) party in the 2006 general elections. I ...

, 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 (

United Nicaraguan Opposition The United Nicaraguan Opposition (''Unidad Nicaragüense Opositora'', UNO) was a Nicaraguan rebel umbrella group formed in 1985, led by the triumvirate of Adolfo Calero, Alfonso Robelo, and Arturo Cruz. However, the great majority of UNO's mil ...

), the rebel umbrella group which his father had joined. Trips to Lieutenant Colonel

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Sec ...

's office at the

United States National Security Council The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the national security council used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and Foreign relations of the United States, foreign policy matter ...

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 José Aristides Sánchez Herdocia served as a key political figure among the Nicaraguan Contras. Early on, he joined Enrique Bermúdez in efforts to start a rebel opposition to the new Sandinista government, a hand-picked choice of the CIA for ...

. Eventually, Cruz left Contra politics, recounting his experience in ''Memoirs of a Counterrevolutionary'' (

Doubleday Doubleday may refer to: * Doubleday (surname), including a list of people with the name Publishing imprints * Doubleday (publisher), imprint of Knopf Doubleday, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House * Doubleday Canada, imprint of Penguin Random ...

, 1989). In a 1989 review for ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', Art Seidenbaum wrote that the book depicted Cruz as "almost

Holden Caulfield Holden Caulfield (identified as "Holden Morrisey Caulfield" in the story "Slight Rebellion Off Madison", and "Holden V. Caulfield" in ''The Catcher in the Rye'') is a fictional character in the works of author J. D. Salinger. He is most famous f ...

in Nicaragua, looking for the unphony cause and the dedicated leader in a thicket of intrigue, scandal, bloodshed, family grudges and fierce egos." On February 27, 2007, he presented his credentials as Nicaragua's Ambassador to the United States, appointed by recently elected President

. He resigned his post in March 2009 and returned to his teaching position at INCAE. A former Bradley Fellow at the

Hudson Institute Hudson Institute is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation. Kahn ...

in Washington, D.C., Cruz’s academic focus has been the analysis of social, economic, and political trends in Latin America. His book ''Nicaragua’s Conservative Republic 1853–1893'' was published by Palgrave Press and Saint Antony’s College in 2002. In 2003, the work was translated and published in Spanish by the Coleccion Cultural de Centro America. He is also the co-author of ''Varieties of Liberalism in Central America: Nation-States as Works in Progress'' (University of Texas Press, 2007) with Forrest Colburn. His writings and articles on Latin America and the foreign policy of the United States have also appeared in such publications as the ''New Republic'', ''Commentary'', ''New York Times'', ''Washington Post'', ''Los Angeles Times'', and ''SAIS Review''. Cruz is one of the opposition pre-candidates for president in the

, enrolled with the Alliance of Citizens for Liberty (ACxL) party, which by the end of May 2021 was the only remaining opposition party with legal standing to field a candidate in the November general election. On 5 June 2021, the Ortega administration arrested Cruz. He is being detained for allegations he “attacked Nicaraguan society and the rights of the people” in violation of Law 1055, enacted in December 2021, the “law for the defense of the rights of the people to independence, sovereignty, and self-determination for peace”, called the “Guillotine Law” by critics. Cruz is the second candidate to be arrested, following the June 2 arrest of

Cristiana Chamorro Barrios Cristiana Chamorro Barrios (born 25 February 1954) is a Nicaraguan journalist, nonprofit executive and political candidate. Vice-president of '' La Prensa'', she was an aspiring presidential candidate in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election un ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruz, Arturo Jr. 1953 births Living people American University alumni Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Nicaraguan male writers Contras Nicaraguan diplomats Ambassadors of Nicaragua to the United States People of the Nicaraguan Revolution Political prisoners in Nicaragua Nicaraguan prisoners and detainees