Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was a Nicaraguan publisher and politician who was president of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997, the first woman elected president in the Americas. The widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, she briefly sat on the Sandinista junta in 1979–1980 before leading the opposition coalition that defeated Daniel Ortega in February 1990. Her government ended the Contra war, reduced the army and stabilised the economy.