Violeta Chamorro

Infobox_President
name=Violeta Barrios de Chamorro


order=President of Nicaragua
term_start= April 25, 1990
term_end= January 10,1997
predecessor=Daniel Ortega
successor=Arnoldo Alemán
birth_date= Birth date and age|1929|10|18|mf=y
birth_place=Rivas, Nicaragua
party= National Opposition Union

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (born October 18, 1929) is a Nicaraguan political leader and publisher.cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Chamorro, Violeta | date= | publisher= | url =http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9360279/Violeta-Chamorro | work =Encyclopædia Britannica | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ] She was the forty-eighth President of Nicaragua, serving from April 1990, when she unseated Daniel Ortega. She was supported by many, including a fourteen-party anti-Sandinista alliance known as the National Opposition Union "(Unión Nacional Opositora, UNO)", an alliance that ranged from conservatives and liberals to communists. She left office in January 1997. She was the first (and to date only) woman to hold that office. Chamorro was the first "elected" female head of government in Latin America (though a number of unelected women had previously led governments in Latin America) and the second North American woman president (after Haiti's Ertha Pascal-Trouillot who took office in an interim capacity earlier that year).

Personal life

She was born to a wealthy family in the south-western city of Rivas and was educated in the United States.cite news | first=John | last=Moody | coauthors= | title=Don't Call Her Comrade; VIOLETA CHAMORRO will answer to dona, but Managua's grande dame, publisher of La Prensa, wants no part of the Sandinistas she once supported | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,957920-2,00.html | work =TIME | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ] 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.cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=1997 - Her Excellency Mrs. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.thepathtopeacefoundation.org/awards_1997.html | work =Path to Peace Foundation | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ] 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. Claudia is married to Edmundo Jarquín, a Nicaragua politician who ran as a presidential candidate in the 2006 elections.

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. In April 1980, however, she resigned from the junta, angry over Sandinista power in the government. 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. In her free time after writing a lot in "La Prensa" she visited her second family in Avondale PA.

Presidency

In 1990, after nearly a decade of civil warfare and economic sanctions, Chamorro became the presidential candidate of the National Opposition Union (UNO), [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Violeta Chamorro | date= | publisher= | url =http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555693/Violeta_Chamorro.html | work =Microsoft Encarta | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ] 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. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Violeta Chamorro: Mission Accomplished? | date= | publisher=Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) | url =http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3001 | work =Envío | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ] 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.

Awards

* Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing from the Rochester Institute of Technology. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to Receive RIT Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing | date= | publisher=Rochester Institute of Technology | url =http://www.rit.edu/news/?r=44884 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ]
*1986 - Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=1986 Louis Lyons Award: Violeta Chamorro | date= | publisher= Harvard University | url =http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/events/honors/lyons/lyonswinners/lyons86.html | work =The Nieman Foundation for Journalism | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ]
*1991 - Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=1991 Democracy Award | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.ned.org/events/demaward/demaward1991.html | work =National Endowment for Democracy | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ]
*1997 - Path to Peace Award from the Path to Peace Foundation.
*2001 - Award for Leadership in Global Trade [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=http://www.abicc.org/awards.htm | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.abicc.org/awards.htm | work =Association of Bi-National Chambers of Commerce in Florida | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-23 | language = ]

References

External links

* [http://www.violetachamorro.org.ni/ Violeta de Chamorro Foundation]