She left him a country that was in better shape than when she took over as president. A Sacasa by birth and a Chamorro by marriage (the rough equivalent, in the United States, of being a descendant of Washington married to a descendant of Jefferson), she never doubted her family's vocation to rule nor the uniftness of others less blessed by high birth. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, known to friends and supporters as "Doña Violeta," was born in the rural southern Nicaraguan town of Rivas in 1930. The unemployment rate was officially estimated at 17 percent, while total unemployment and underemployment may have reached 50 percent. (Violeta Chamorro, Platyhelminthes and Bob Keeshan, respectively, for those playing at home.) He is thought to be the first person to be arrested for sodomy in California. When she first allied herself with the Sandinistas in 1979, it was in part because the revolutionary leaders had cleverly Despite significant foreign debt relief negotiated during the year, the country continued to have a precarious balance of payments position and remained heavily dependent on foreign assistance. attracted to their side a small but distinguished group of Nicaraguan elites, men Chamarro related to socially.Relying on a savvy team of advisers which included a number of her own trusted relatives, she tried to keep UNO truly unified to achieve her goals. Violeta Barrios Torres was born on 18 October 1929 in She attended primary school at the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Sacred Heart of Jesus) school in Rivas and the French school in Over the years, Chamorro's family has been split into feuding factions based upon political association. Between April and December 1992, veterans held a series of strikes in protest of the situation. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Although hampered by lack of campaign financing and not-so-subtle Sandinista interference, Chamorro laboriously put together a loose coalition of 14 political parties and groupings under the banner of UNO (United National Opposition). … "The policy of keeping the contras alive ... also has placed in jeopardy the holding of elections by encouraging contra attacks on the electoral process. "In the macho culture of my country," Chamorro writes in her autobiography The results of the election were electrifying, and almost totally unexpected; the polls proven wrong. She was Central America’s first woman president. 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).Chamorro retired from politics after her presidential term ended in 1997. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaraguan newspaper publisher and politician who served as president of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. Learn more about Chamorro’s life and career, including her tenure in office. Birthdays Today Died on this Date Died in the Last 6 months Died Before Age 30 People Alive Over 85 Lived to 100 By Field By Sex By Cause of Death Added Recently. (U) The President: … The National Assembly prepared the budget, but the president had to be consulted on taxation; Supreme Court vacancies had to be agreed on by both of the other branches of government;Though 15 delegates of her parliament (16%) were women, few advances in women's rights were made during Chamorro's administration.The economic policies adopted by Chamorro feminized Nicaragua's labor force. All of Doña Violeta’s children were home, along with the spouses of Carlos and Cristiana. Dedicated as she was to the ideals and practice of democracy, Chamorro quit the Sandinista Junta within a year and began speaking out against its Marxist rhetoric and increasingly authoritarian rule.In 1989 she agreed to run for the presidency of Nicaragua when the Sandinistas, under pressure from world opinion, announced that they would permit free elections in 1990.

Today in LGBT History – August 13. 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. She had to disarm the Contra revolutionaries and reintegrate them peacefully into Nicaraguan life; gain control of the ideologically Sandinista military (Central America's largest, by far) and radically reduce its size; diminish a still four-digit inflation; combat the nation's staggering unemployment problem; seek rescheduling of the hemisphere's highest per capita foreign debt; negotiate a substantial foreign aid package from the United States; and heal Nicaragua's deep and bitter social and political divisions. Although investment increased, the slow and complicated resolution of confiscated property claims continued to hinder private investment. Few new chief executives have faced such daunting tasks.As a person, Chamorro possessed an arrogance that was perfectly common in someone of her high aristocractic—and Spanish—lineage. The inflation rate was about 11 percent and estimated per capita annual income was $470.Chamorro will take a place in her nation's history, but it remains to be seen whether her reign of democracy was an aberration in Nicaraguan history rather than a harbinger of things to come.The election of Violeta Chamorro and the problems she faced were described by Johanna McGeary, "But Will it Work?" The downside of demobilization was that around 70,000 military personnel were left unemployed. One of seven children of a wealthy ranching family distinguished for its contributions to Nicaraguan politics, Violeta Barrios as a young girl lived an idyllic, protected life in the countryside where she early became an accomplished equestrian. I return to my homeland with emotion to hug and kiss my mother Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, on her sickbed.