Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro (; 18 October 1929 – 14 June 2025) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as the president of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the country's first female president. Previously, she was a member of the Junta of National Reconstruction (, JGRN) from 1979 to 1980.

Her husband, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, was a journalist with his family's newspaper, La Prensa, which he later inherited. As a result of his anti-government stance, he was often jailed or exiled, forcing Chamorro to spend a decade following him abroad or visiting him in jail. When he was assassinated in 1978, Chamorro took over the newspaper. Pedro's murder strengthened the Nicaraguan Revolution and his image, as wielded by his widow, became a powerful symbol for the opposition forces.

Initially, when the Sandinistas were victorious over Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Chamorro fully supported them. She agreed to become part of the provisional government established under the Junta of National Reconstruction. However, when the Junta began moving in a more radical direction and signed agreements with the Soviet Union, Chamorro resigned on 19 April 1980 and returned to the newspaper.

Under her direction, La Prensa continued to criticize the government and its policies despite threats and government-forced shutdowns. When President Daniel Ortega announced that elections would be held in 1990, Chamorro was selected as the candidate for the opposition group known as the National Opposition Union (, UNO). This 14-party alliance ranged from conservatives and liberals to communists and because of ideological differences had difficulty in devising any political platform other than a promise to end the civil war. Despite polls indicating a victory for the incumbent Sandinista President Ortega, Chamorro won the election on 25 February 1990. Her election helped bring an end to the civil war through reconciliation and the demobilization and disarmament of forces belonging to the opposing factions. She was the first elected female head of state in the Americas. She was also the second woman to be elected in her own right as a head of government in the Americas, after Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of Dominica.

Chamorro was sworn into office on 25 April 1990. Chamorro's leadership covered six years marked by economic strife and social unrest, but she was able to compromise with rivals, maintain a constitutional regime, re-establish international banking relationships, and end the hyperinflation that had plagued the country for several years.

After leaving office on 10 January 1997, Chamorro worked on several international peace initiatives until poor health forced her to retire from public life.

Early life

Violeta Barrios Torres was born on 18 October 1929 in Rivas, a small city near the Nicaraguan border with Costa Rica, to Carlos José Barrios Sacasa and Amalia Torres Hurtado. Her family was wealthy and conservative, and although she was often claimed by the U.S. media to have been of the Nicaraguan aristocracy, in truth, her family had large landholdings and cattle; they were more akin to the cattle barons of the western United States than the "Nicaraguan Gloria Vanderbilt" she was sometimes styled as in the American press. they married in December 1950; subsequently, they had five children together. In 1952, on his father's death, Pedro Joaquín inherited the newspaper La Prensa. He took over publishing and under his direction, the paper became a voice of opposition to the Somoza regime. Chamorro Cardenal was frequently jailed between 1952 and 1957 for the content of the paper and in 1957 led a revolt against Somoza. His actions resulted in his exile to Costa Rica, where Chamorro joined him after settling their children with his mother. Two years were spent in Costa Rica, with Pedro writing against the regime and immediately upon their return he was jailed again. Chamorro's life throughout the 1960s and 1970s was a repetitive cycle of reunions with either her husband or children. She followed him; if he was forced to leave, she left the children with family and traveled to be with him; if he was jailed, she was reunited with the children and visited him. Chamorro's earnings from a rental property that her mother had given her gave the couple a steady income. When her husband was assassinated on 10 January 1978, she took over control of the newspaper. She was in Miami at the time of the murder.

Over the years, Chamorro's family was split into feuding factions based upon political association. Two of her children, Pedro and Cristiana, worked at La Prensa, although Pedro left Nicaragua in 1984 to join the Contras. Her other children were active Sandinistas; Claudia was ambassador to Costa Rica and Carlos became the editor of the FSLN daily newspaper Barricada. In spite of the conflicting political views of her children, Chamorro encouraged and hosted family dinners during which she insisted political affiliations were temporarily put aside in the interest of family harmony.

Sandinista Revolution and Junta of National Reconstruction

The assassination of Chamorro's husband sparked the Sandinista Revolution. His image became a symbol of their cause and when Daniel Ortega led the Sandinista guerrillas triumphantly into Managua in July 1979, Chamorro was with them. This directorate, which initially promised an independent judiciary, free elections, free enterprise and a free press, was assisted by an 18-member Cabinet and a 33-member Council, whose membership represented a broad spectrum of Nicaraguan society. After the civil war of 1978–1979 and last-minute transferring of the national treasury to foreign banks by the Somoza regime, the country was devastated, and this facilitated the establishment of a Marxist-style government; however, the Sandinistas soon began taking over television and radio stations and censoring newspapers. Following the lead of the Sandinistas' mentor Fidel Castro, Cuban-style Marxism was implemented and Nicaragua increasingly took on the traits of a police state, in some respects. In others, while the Sandinistas did increase their ties with the Soviet bloc and embraced Marxist philosophy, they announced a non-alignment policy and continued discussions on diplomatic, economic, and military relationships with the United States.

In February 1980, the FSLN signed several accords with the Soviet Union, causing U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who had initially authorized aid to the Sandinista government, to approve CIA support for the opposition forces. On 19 April 1980, Chamorro resigned from the Junta

1990 election

From 1987, a group of 14 political parties began working together in the hope of defeating the Sandinistas in the next election. The campaign also played heavily on her simplicity, her faith, common sense, and the image of her being the "queen-mother" and the wife of a martyr. that she was too religious; and that her coalition was too disorganized, had no money, and was plagued by in-fighting. In reality, her humility and provincial roots worked for her; she had run a family, a business and been part of the original Junta; Her chief appeal though was that she promised peace to a country tired of war. Ortega spent large sums of money, election monitoring teams, and as per the provision of foreign donations, $2 million was paid into the Supreme Electoral Council run by the government. In addition, the CIA covertly paid close to $500,000 (USD) to nearly a hundred Nicaraguans living abroad so they would return home to vote. The aid package ran into difficulties though: one month before the elections, only $400,000 of the money had been sent and it was deposited in accordance with Nicaraguan law into an account at the government-run Central Bank. The vehicles which were provided for in the aid package arrived in Nicaragua, but due to the customs director's vacation, the vehicles were not cleared, nor were tags issued for their use. Three weeks before the election, UNO officials reportedly had received only around $250,000 and accused Ortega's administration of delaying tactics and taking a share off the top. The government countered that the history of the Iran–Contra affair was a basis for caution and that the US itself was creating delays. Since the United States invasion of Panama had frozen Panama's banking system, a spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nicaragua stated that the Ortega Administration had no access to their funds which were deposited in Panamanian banks.

Up to 1990, Nicaragua had lived with forty years of the Somoza dictatorship, through a decade of civil warfare and Sandinista rule, and five years of US imposed economic sanctions. Because the election was to be held in the midst of a civil war, it was important both domestically and internationally that the vote was seen to be legitimate. The Esquipulas Peace Agreement which had been brokered by Arias, called for monitoring of elections by the Organization of American States and the United Nations, among other provisions. The election was the most strictly monitored of any in Latin America and involved 2,578 international observers among them former US president Jimmy Carter; Raúl Alfonsín, former president of Argentina; Alfonso López Michelsen, former president of Colombia; Rodrigo Carazo Odio, former president of Costa Rica, and many Caribbean and US dignitaries.

On 25 February 1990, Chamorro won the election with a 54.7% share of the vote, ousting the incumbent Ortega to become the first elected woman president in the Americas. Her victory came as a surprise to most observers. Ortega and his supporters conceded defeat without argument and observers left only a skeleton staff to assist with the handover of power. The two-month transition period was characterized by the so-called piñata sandinista, a spate of transfers of expropriated and confiscated property into the hands of the FSLN's members and leaders that became a complicated issue for the incoming administration.

Possible explanations for Chamorro's unexpected win include that the Nicaraguan people were disenchanted with the Ortega government, as economic mismanagement, a US embargo, and increased Contra activities in 1987 had, by 1990, decreased per capita GNI to 20 year lows. By November 1989, the White House had announced that the US economic embargo against Nicaragua would continue unless Chamorro won. Also, there had been reports of intimidation from the side of the contras, with a Canadian observer mission claiming that 42 people were killed by the contras in "election violence" in October 1989. This led many commentators to assume that Nicaraguans voted against the Sandinistas out of fear of a continuation of the contra war and economic deprivation. Sandinista analysts confirmed these findings, determining that they had lost touch with what their constituency wanted. Marvin Ortega, who had conducted polls prior to the election, conceded that voters did not vote "with their stomachs", even though the economic situation was dire, but voted against war and the repression of their liberties. Most noteworthy was her official declaration of the end of the war, as it was the pivot upon which all of her other policies depended. She maintained peace by reducing the size and power of the military, ending the national draft, and demobilizing the military. The day she took office, she abolished military conscription and within a few weeks had reduced the size of the Sandinista government's army by half to three-quarters. Demobilization included disbanding the US-backed Contras, thereby leaving the Sandinistas with no one to fight, and creating a highly effective peace. Chamorro also granted unconditional amnesties for political crimes, resulting in little room for protest from the Sandinistas, and enabling a smooth transition of power. One of the ways she secured the co-operation of the Contras was to seek help openly from local officials in collecting weapons from both sides of the conflict. Chamorro integrated some of the former Contra fighters into the rural police services; she established a Civil Inspectorate to investigate claims of police abuses and human rights violations. She also allowed the Sandinistas' agrarian reform movement's redistribution of land to be maintained and expanded it on the Caribbean coast to meet veterans' demands. That action created conflict with the Caribbean indigenous people who had claims to the land, and also infringed on forestry reserves, leading to criticism. but Chamorro retained Daniel Ortega's brother, Humberto Ortega, as a military leader. She claimed the position of Defense Minister and named Humberto Ortega to second-in-command as the Chief of Staff. For this, Chamorro's critics accused her of supporting the Sandinistas, but it proved to be a valuable political move. The president demonstrated that, for the good of the nation, she was willing to compromise in ways that fostered reconciliation. She also appointed three FSLN cabinet members, including one for agrarian reform.

US relations

When Chamorro was elected, President George H. W. Bush removed the embargo that President Ronald Reagan had imposed during Sandinista rule and promised economic aid to the country. In addition, the United States paid off the past-due debts of Nicaragua that were owed to private banks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Some people in Chamorro's campaign team were hoping to get $1 billion in aid from the United States to help rebuild the country after the years of civil war, but the Bush administration instead gave $300 million to the country in the first year of Chamorro's presidency, 1990, and $241 million the year after. Given the devastation that Nicaragua had faced, this aid was not enough to make any serious improvement, and the renegotiated loans created even more debt.thumb|A plaque in Chamorro's Peace Park thanking US President George H. W. Bush for his contribution to the re-establishment of democracy in Nicaragua.

During Chamorro's presidency, US interest in Nicaragua declined, to the point that when Chamorro traveled to the US in April 1991 to ask Congress for more economic aid, few members showed up to listen to her. Because the Sandinistas were no longer a threat and peace talks were being established, US policymakers were much less concerned with Nicaragua than with issues in the Middle East. Hoping to improve relations, Chamorro's administration repealed the law that required the country to seek compensation in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case of Nicaragua v. United States, which had long been contentious, and withdrew the suit.

Economic stability

thumb|Chamorro with US president [[Bill Clinton and Central American presidents in the White House, 30 November 1993]]

Chamorro inherited an economy devastated by civil war and which had been struggling with hyperinflation – at one point, a rate of over 13,000% and stagnant wages.

In the opening months of the Chamorro administration, social programs were cut, including free bus tokens for the education sector, pensions for the elderly and disabled, child care and child development services, and health care initiatives. By 1991 the austerity measures adopted by Chamorro's administration were leading to massive strikes. Chamorro chose to recognize the workers' right to 25% of the shares of privatized state enterprises, despite the disapproval that generated both at home and abroad. The Sandinistas, who had removed some of the businesses from the private sector during their administration, were not in favor of privatization, but they were in favor of workers sharing in the revenues. The far-right of her own coalition was against making labor compromises of any kind. The US embassy and United States Agency for International Development both voiced displeasure at the concessions and speed with which the economic plan was being implemented.

In spite of the other programs implemented, inflation was reduced by the renegotiation of the country's debt (called for by the Lacayo Plan). Through negotiations, Nicaragua was able to obtain a writedown of 75% of their international debt on the condition that they had no arrears.

As noted previously, the US assisted Nicaragua in paying off the past-due debt to the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank through bridge loans, and negotiating a 95% writedown of debts owed to Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. These measures provided the means to end hyperinflation and reopen monetary markets, but they were overshadowed by high unemployment, underemployment and an overall recession. The trade deficit rose and GNP declined, and overall low wages and reductions of education and health services caused poverty to escalate, and social tensions to rise.

Violeta Chamorro's years in power began a period of significant economic and social decline for Nicaragua. From 1990 to 2001, the country fell from 60th to 116th place in the world for human development, as measured by the Human Development Index, and became the poorest country in the Americas after Haiti, according to the United Nations Development Program. Public spending per capita on health fell from $35 in 1989 to $14 in 1995. Medical assistance for childbirth and diagnosis of female cancers were reduced. Child development centers established in the 1980s—which served 75,000 children—were eliminated. On the other hand, infant mortality in 1990 was 53 per 1,000 live births and went down to 37 per 1,000 live births in 1998 during Chamorro's tenure. Life expectancy rose from 62 in 1990 to 64 in 1998. Salvador Martí i Puig and Eduardo Baumeister indicate that between 1993 and 1998 rural poverty declined by 7% from 1,553,000 to 1,517,000. The poverty rate as measured as those living with less than $1.90 a day dropped by 33.33% between 1993 and 1998 from 36.3% to 24.2%. When assessed as those earning less than $3.20 per day, poverty dropped from 58.6% to 48% in the same period.

Constitutional crisis

Besides the economic issues which plagued the country, the constitutional crisis that occurred in 1995 posed a significant threat to maintaining peace. When Chamorro took office, she was governing under the Constitution of 1987, which had been drafted by the Sandinistas and provided for a strong executive branch and a weaker, compliant legislature and judiciary. In 1993, the legislature began to review the constitution to restructure the country's government. After a year of discussion, the changes were submitted to the National Assembly, approved in the first round of voting, and passed in February 1995. The reforms to the Constitution were intended to reduce of the power of the presidency, and included measures to transfer the authority to levy taxes to the legislature, prohibit conscription, guarantee property rights, and curtail the succession of an incumbent or their close family members. the Roman Catholic cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo stepped in as mediator and brokered an accord. Chamorro agreed to publish the new constitution, as required by law, and the Assembly agreed to allow the president to continue to negotiate foreign aid and tax measures, though no longer by decree. One of the most contentious provisions, which banned nepotism, was conceded by Chamorro. Both sides claimed victory, In addition, austerity measures that eliminated free health care made it difficult for the poor to afford care. The Sandinista Workers Central (, CST) stepped in to offer health care and child care to women who could not afford the new government plan. Chamorro did support women's rights to become property holders, and saw such ownership as a protection when divorce or widowhood deprived women of a husband's support. Her administration did not actively prepare or encourage women's participation in political life, nor did she appoint women to government positions.

The economic policies adopted by Chamorro feminized Nicaragua's labor force. While men's employment rate between 1977 and 1985 remained constant at 68%, women's employment outside the home in Nicaragua steadily increased during the same time frame with no reduction in the expectations of simultaneous work within the home. Women's participation in the labor market increased from 26.7% in 1977 to 32% in 1985 and by 1995 was at 36%, one of the highest participation rates in Central America. Though Chamorro's policies changed the nature of the formal work force by introducing more women, the policies did not result in corresponding income increases: wages remained stagnant and changed little over the decade.

The 1992 Sexual Crime Code modifications resulted in winners and losers. Previously, the Penal Code had the penalty for rape specified as 8 to 12 years in prison (compared to 6 to 14 for simple homicide). However, it also defined some lesser sexual crimes in a way designed to protect the interests of fathers and husbands more than of the women themselves; for example, the penalty for "kidnapping of a virgin [...] when her guardians were away or without violence" depended on whether marriage was intended. Victoria González-Rivera writes that prior to the 1992 changes, rape had been considered a private affair, and the law encouraged women to marry their rapists or accept a monetary settlement. UNO women and FSLN women in the National Assembly joined forces after Chamorro won the election and formed a Commission on Women, Youth, Children and the Family; they began to discuss reform of the sexual crimes law. Convincing 18 bipartisan legislators to introduce a reform, they asked for increasing penalties for rape (to 15 to 20 years), decriminalization for abortion if the pregnancy was the result of rape, and decriminalization of consensual sodomy. When the final bill passed, the approved version eliminated the exception for abortion for rape victims. Not only did it not decriminalize sodomy, but it increased the scope of the existing law to include "inducing, promoting or propagandizing" homosexual conduct. Chamorro rejected calls to veto the law and sent it for publication in La Gaceta, a legal requirement for a statute to become law. Lawyers immediately challenged the constitutionality of the law, but on 7 March 1994 the Supreme Court rejected their challenge. The handover of power took place on 10 January 1997.

Chamorro retired from politics after her presidential term ended. In July 1997, she established a foundation bearing her name (), which she chaired, intended to create development projects to strengthen peace initiatives; it ceased operations in Nicaragua in 2021 under pressure from Ortega, who returned to power in 2007.

She left Nicaragua, and the family home in Managua she had shared with her late husband, for Costa Rica in October 2023. During her presidential campaign, she was on crutches most of the time due to a fractured kneecap as a result of her osteoporosis. Her funeral took place on 16 June in the Templo Votivo Santuario Nacional Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, in San José, less than 300 metres from the Nicaraguan Embassy in Costa Rica. Former Costa Rican presidents Óscar Arias and Luis Guillermo Solís attended. She was buried the following day in her uncle's tomb in San José's General Cemetery.

Awards

  • Isaiah Thomas Award in Publishing from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
  • 1986 – Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.
  • 1991 – Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy.
  • 1997 – Path to Peace Award from the Path to Peace Foundation.
  • 2001 – Award for Leadership in Global Trade.

Autobiography

See also

  • Chamorro (family)

Notes

References

Sources

  • Violeta de Chamorro Foundation ()
  • Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish)
  • Violeta Chamorro: New Direction for Nicaragua from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
  • Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish)