Violeta Chamorro

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President of Nicaragua
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro

In office April 25, 1990 – January 10, 1997
Preceded by	Daniel Ortega
Succeeded by	Arnoldo Alemán

Born	October 18, 1929 (1929-10-18) (age 78) Rivas, Nicaragua
Political party	National Opposition Union

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (born October 18, 1929) is a Nicaraguan political leader and publisher.^[1] She was the forty-eighth President of Nicaragua from April 1990 to January 1997, and the first and to date only woman to hold that office. Chamorro was the second woman elected in her own right as a head of government in North America (behind Eugenia Charles of Dominica), and the first in Latin America by an election.

1 Personal life
2 Early career
3 Presidency
4 Awards
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Personal life

She was born to a wealthy family in the south-western city of Rivas and was educated in the United States.^[1]^[2] In 1952, Chamorro's husband, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, took over the anti-Somoza newspaper La Prensa and was frequently jailed for its content. She took over the newspaper after her husband's assassination on Jan. 10th 1978.

Over the years Chamorro's family has been split into feuding factions, mainly involving politics.^[3] Her son, Pedro Joaquin Jr., was a leader of the Nicaraguan resistance. Carlos Fernando, her other son, was editor in chief of the Sandinista daily Barricada. Chamorro's daughter Cristiana, served as a director of La Prensa and her other daughter, Claudia, served as the Sandinista Ambassador to Costa Rica.^[2] Claudia is married to Edmundo Jarquín, a Nicaragua politician who ran as a presidential candidate in the 2006 elections.

[edit] Early career

La Prensa participated in the Sandinista-led revolution that overthrew the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, and Chamorro became a member of the interim Junta of National Reconstruction that replaced Somoza.^[1] In April 1980, however, she resigned from the junta, angry over Sandinista power in the government.^[3] During the 1980s, Chamorro and La Prensa vigorously attacked Sandinista policies and President Daniel Ortega. In turn, the Sandinistas accused Chamorro of taking money from the United States and thus supporting the US-backed overthrow of the government. La Prensa was also heavily censored by the FSLN during their stay in power.

[edit] Presidency

In 1990, after nearly a decade of civil warfare and economic sanctions, Chamorro became the presidential candidate of the National Opposition Union (UNO),^[4] a coalition of 14 political parties that ran against the Sandinistas in that year's national elections. UNO received 55 percent of the vote, and Chamorro thus defeated Ortega in the presidential election. Although the alliance broke up after the election, Chamorro brought peace to a country that had been divided by war for over 10 years. Many of her reforms concerned the military: obligatory military service was eliminated, the military was reduced by nearly 75%, thousands of weapons were burned, and the name of the national military was changed.^[5] At the same time, Chamorro also worked to liberalize the economy and strengthen political institutions. Chamorro was severely criticized by the opponents on the left for the economic reforms she introduced.

Chamorro left politics after her term, and now lives in her home in Managua.

Chamorro is a playable character in the PC game, Tropico.

[edit] Awards

Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing from the Rochester Institute of Technology.^[6]
1986 - Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.^[7]
1991 - Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy.^[8]
1997 - Path to Peace Award from the Path to Peace Foundation.^[3]
2001 - Award for Leadership in Global Trade^[9]