Violeta Barrios de Chamorro

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro , 1929-, president of Nicaragua (1990-97). Widow of martyred newspaper editor Joaquim Chamorro, she briefly joined the ruling Sandinista junta following the 1979 revolution. Opposed to the direction of the revolution, she resigned and converted the Chamorro family newspaper, La Prensa, into a major opposition organ. She was elected president in an upset victory (1990), becoming the first woman to govern a Central American nation. In office, she instituted a program of national reconciliation, brought an end to the U.S.-backed Contra war, and ended Sandinista control of the military.

Chamorro, Violeta Barrios de (1939– ) Nicaraguan stateswoman, president (1990–96). She entered politics in 1978 when her husband, Pedro Joáin Chamorro, was assassinated. In 1989, supported by the USA, she became leader of the right-wing coalition, the National Opposition Union (UNO). She became president after defeating the Sandinista government in February 1990. Her early presidency was marked by unemployment, strikes and skirmishes between Contra rebels and Sandinista militants. Many of Chamorro's policies were blocked by reactionary elements in the UNO and by members of the Sandinista Liberation Front.