-
Birth of Violeta Chamorro
Violetta Chamorro was born on October 18th, 1929. She was born in Rivas, Nicaragua. She was born into a rich family with six other children. -
US education
During her teenage years, Chamorro traveled to Texas and Virginia to further her education. She went to a Catholic school and finished learning english. Violetta went back home after her father suffered a heart attack and died in 1948. -
Family
In 1950, she married the journalist of the La Prensa. His name was Pedro Joaquín Chamorro. He came from a rich family as well. Together they had four children, two boys and two girls. -
Her Husband's Death
Pedro was murdered by two of Somoza’s sons in 1978. Violetta and Pedro had been very active in the revolution to overthrow Somoza. When Pedro was murdered, Violetta continued to write and print the newspaper. -
New Leader
A year later in 1979, Anastacio Somoza Jr. left the country. He left because the movement to stop him was finally working. Violetta was rewarded by being asked to join the Sandinista Governing Junta. before she even was in the position for a year, Violetta quit and decided to go against the government because they were trying to dictate the country. -
Gaining Notice
She started to go speak out against Daniel Ortega and other Sandinista leaders with her newspaper, La Prensa, in 1979. The newspaper called them “The Boys”. She worked against them but did not appear in union with the rebels or the Americans. -
The Resistance
Her resistance was the biggest and most achieved by 1988. She helped the movement more than the rebels did with all their bullets and destruction. The movement grew by thirty-five thousand percent that year. -
Deciding to Run for Office
She agreed to run for Nicaraguan president in 1989. The Sandinistas were under lots of pressure from the rest of the world so they announced that free elections would be allowed next year. Although she did not have very much funding, Violetta managed to united 14 political groups to help her with her election. They were united by one common goal: get the Sandinistas out of powerful positions. -
Family Dividing
In 1989, while two of Violetta’s children helped with the election, the other two were Sandinistas. Cristiana and Pedro Joaquín helped their mother with the newspaper and the election. On the other hand, Claudia and Carlos remained Sandinistas against their mother’s election. -
The United States role in the Election
The United States promised to fund the campaign and the Catholic Church was very supportive. The United Nations sent over a delegation to make sure that the election was fair and not no messed with any votes. The election was scheduled for February 25th 1990. -
Chamorro's broken kneecap
Violeta Chamorro had taken a fall that had resulted in a broken kneecap. She wasn’t able to campaign as much as she would have liked to. She spent more time recovering from her fall than she did campaigning since she wasn’t able to move as quickly or as much. -
Pre Election Polls
Leading up to the election, many polls reported that an avalanche of votes was going to the Sandinistas. Some polls had even came back with results which said that the odds were 2-1 in favor of the Sandinistas. Those polls were just ten days away from the election so it wasn’t looking good for Chamorro. -
Election Results
In the end the predictions were wrong about the election, Violeta Chamorro was the president of Nicaragua. The odds were broken as she won 55% to 41% with the rest going to other smaller parties. Chamorro was sworn into office on April 25th 1990. She had own the election and taken office from Daniel Ortega. -
Problems while in Office
Immediately after gaining office, she had to resolved many issues. One of the such was migrating the Contra revolutionaries back into a peaceful society. One of her main problems was controlling the Sandinista army. Another problem was reducing the country’s debt. -
Leaving Office
In October of 1997, Violeta gave up the office to Arnoldo Aleman in a democratic election. She didn’t want to be reelected. Her presidency lasted six years and six months. She left her country better off than when she took office.
