Violeta Barrios de Chamorro 1929–
First Female President of Nicaragua
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro grew up in a wealthy family in the southern Nicaraguan town of Rivas. She was not aware that most of the people in her country had much less money. She also did not realize that they had few freedoms. As she got older, however, she became interested in the problems Nicaraguans faced.
She became the publisher of La Prensa, a pro-democracy newspaper. In it, she championed the causes of democracy and civil rights. She also criticized the dictatorship of the Nicaraguan president, because he was opposed to democracy.
After Nicaragua's dictator government was overthrown in 1979, Barrios de Chamorro hoped that conditions in Nicaragua would improve under the new president. But the new president was also a dictator, and she criticized him in La Prensa.
Barrios de Chamorro decided to run for president herself. She wanted Nicaragua to have a more democratic government. She won the election and in 1990 became the first female president of Nicaragua. As president, she passed some of the reforms she had written about and worked for.
Critical Thinking
In what way did Violeta Barrios de Chamorro affect life in Nicaragua?