Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua, dead at 95
The first woman to be elected president in the Americas, Chamorro ended the civil war between the Contras and the Sandinista government
Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after decades of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said.
Chamorro, who led the Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children.
As president, Chamorro managed to bring to an end a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the ‘Contras’ fought the leftist Sandinista government.
That conflict made Nicaragua one of the big proxy battlegrounds of the Cold War.
Chamorro put her country on the path to democracy in the difficult years following the Sandinista revolution of 1979, which had toppled the US-backed right-wing regime of Anastasio Somoza.
In a country known for macho culture, Chamorro had a maternal style and was known for her patience and a desire for reconciliation.