Nicaragua

Collections related to Nicaragua constitute a unique archival resource. They include the extensive archive of the main "Contra" group, the Asociación Civica Resistencia Nicaraguense (ACRN) (partially closed); a small but rich collection of manuscripts and correspondence by and related to Carlos Fonseca Amador, generally reputed to be the founder of the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua; as well as letters and unpublished manuscripts by others, including Humberto Ortega, who was defense minister in the Sandinista government during the 1980s; the personal archive of former top Sandinista leader and mayor of Managua, Moisés Hassan; and the more than 12,000 items the Sandinista government censored out of the opposition newspaper La Prensa between 1982 and 1986, collected by Roberto Cardenal Chamorro.

There are extensive oral histories with Edén Pastora, a famous anti-Somoza guerrilla leader, who subsequently served in the Sandinista government and then became a Costa Rica-based Contra; with former Chamorro government official Antonio Ybarra-Rojas; and with U.S. citizen John Hull. Other collections include secret Sandinista government documents that were used by onetime Sandinista army chief-of-staff Roger Miranda in his coauthored book The Civil War in Nicaragua and the personal archives of Alfonso Robelo, Leonel Poveda, and others.