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The Guardian
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Violeta Chamorro obituary
Like her political contemporary Corazon Aquino in the Philippines, Violeta Chamorro, who has died aged 95, was thrust into the limelight in Nicaragua – and ultimately, in 1990, to the presidency – because a dictator murdered her husband. He was Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, publisher of the family newspaper La Prensa, and for many years a serious irritant to the Somoza dictatorship that ruled in Nicaragua from 1936. After the assassination of Anastasio Somoza García in 1956, Pedro Joaquín was arrested on charges of rebellion and sent into internal exile. Never one for quiet acceptance of his fate, he escaped with Violeta to neighbouring Costa Rica. From there he organised a rebel force that in 1959 attempted to overthrow Anastasio's son Luis, who had succeeded as president. The attempt failed, and Pedro Joaquín was sentenced to a nine-year jail term. On his release, he went back to editing La Prensa. By the late 1960s, Anastasio Jr (also known as Tachito) had taken over from his brother Luis, but the situation in Nicaragua had deteriorated still further. In 1975, Tachito suspended civil rights. Pedro Joaquín not only campaigned against him through La Prensa, but he also took on a political role as head of the Democratic Liberation Union (Udel). Tachito had had enough. In January 1978, he sent his gunmen to machine-gun Pedro Joaquín to death on his way to work. The murder provoked a national uprising which led, the following year, to the overthrow by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of the 40-year-old dictatorship. As Pedro Joaquín's widow, Violeta Chamorro took over the newspaper. With it, she inherited an uncomfortable role as one of the principal leaders of the visible opposition. When the Sandinistas swept to power in July 1979, she became a member of the first, five-member transitional junta that controlled Nicaragua until the election of Daniel Ortega as president in 1984. But her conservative politics soon caused a split with the predominantly Marxist FSLN. Once more she was in opposition. As the rebellion mounted by the US-backed contra rebels grew stronger, the Sandinista government grew correspondingly less tolerant. La Prensa, accused of receiving CIA funds to destabilise the government, was again subjected to censorship. For a year it was closed down altogether. Like many Nicaraguan families, the Chamorros themselves were deeply divided. Of Violeta's four children, two were pro-Sandinista and two anti. Carlos Fernando edited the FSLN daily Barricada, and his sister Claudia was a Sandinista diplomat. Cristiana remained at La Prensa, while Pedro Joaquín Jr became a member of the contra leadership. The country's other main paper, the independent but pro-government Nuevo Diario, was edited by their uncle, Xavier. In the 1990 general election, held against a background of war, the FSLN faced a heterogeneous coalition of anti-Sandinista forces, ranging from communists to the far right. Known as the UNO, this shaky front needed a candidate capable of ousting Ortega — and the only viable option was Violeta Chamorro, who had little genuine political experience. One of the seven children of Amalia Torres and Carlos Barrios Sacasa, she was born into a well-to-do farming family in the southern town of Rivas. Sent as a teenager to a Catholic girls' school in the US before her marriage in 1950 to Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, she had acquired a knowledge of English and a certain grasp of world affairs. But perhaps her principal asset at the time of the 1990 election – leaving aside support from Washington – was her grandmotherly demeanour and apparent absence of guile. Much to the astonishment of most observers — not least the Sandinistas themselves – she beat Ortega handsomely and became the first elected female president in Latin American history. It was an unenviable job. More than a decade of war, coming on top of dictatorship, had wrecked what little infrastructure existed and reduced living standards in Nicaragua to the levels of the 30s. Forty per cent of the workforce was unemployed and there was a huge foreign debt. Inflation stood at more than 13,000%. Chamorro faced a hostile, mainly pro-FSLN, union movement, which staged a series of strikes, and a huge contra force, sceptical of her intentions. The Sandinista leaders used the transition period to transfer large amounts of state property into their own, private hands. Nonetheless, the new president could not govern without them. She agreed to leave Ortega's brother Humberto in charge of the army, provoking a split in the UNO coalition from which it did not recover. Throughout her seven-year term she was in effect obliged to rule in alliance with the FSLN, under the guidance of her politically savvy son-in-law, Antonio Lacayo – a de facto prime minister. Within months, she succeeded in persuading most of the contras to demobilise, in exchange for an offer of land. Ending the war, and beginning the process of national reconciliation, was probably her most lasting achievement. On the economic front she was not so successful. Her policies were based on the revival of the prostrate private sector and on a public sector reform programme that followed the standard, free-market, International Monetary Fund recipe. Burdened by debt and underdevelopment, plagued by natural disasters that included both drought and floods, Nicaragua stubbornly refused to advance, and by the end of Chamorro's term it seemed just as firmly stuck at the bottom of the Latin American pile. In January 1997, Chamorro handed the presidency to Arnoldo Alemán. It was only the second time in the country's history that one elected president had been succeeded by another. The celebration, however, was short-lived: within a few years Alemán was facing corruption charges, and in 2007 Ortega returned to office, and imposed a harsh crackdown on any opposition. Chamorro herself retired from active politics, though her family remained involved in public life. Since 2023 she had been receiving medical care in Costa Rica. She is survived by her children, and 12 grandchildren. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, politician and newspaper proprietor, born 18 October 1929; died 14 June 2025
Straits Times
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Nicaragua's first female president Chamorro dies at 95
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the first female president of Nicaragua, died early Saturday morning in Costa Rica at the age of 95, her family announced in a statement. Chamorro, an unlikely leader whose rise to power was fueled by her husband's murder, served as president from 1990-1997. She championed regional development and peace after years of a violent civil war, but her presidency was hampered by runaway inflation and economic hardship. After suffering a stroke in 2018, Chamorro left public life due to a tumor and subsequent ailments. In October 2023, under constant medical care, she moved to Costa Rica, where two of her exiled children reside: Cristiana and Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios. A son, Pedro Joaquín, and daughter, Claudia Lucia live in the U.S. "Doña Violeta passed away peacefully, surrounded by the love and affection of her children and the people who provided her with extraordinary care," her four children said in a statement. The former president will be temporarily buried in the Costa Rican capital "until Nicaragua once again becomes a republic, and her patriotic legacy can be honored in a free and democratic country," her children said. POLITICAL CAREER Born on October 18, 1929 to a wealthy family in the southern city of Rivas, she was an unlikely recruit for the rebel cause. Educated in private schools in the United States, her education was interrupted when her father died of lung cancer. Shortly after returning home, Violeta Barrios Torres met and married Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, the owner and editor of La Prensa newspaper and a staunch opponent of the dictator Somoza. Chamorro was imprisoned several times and exiled. His death in 1978 accelerated the popular uprising against Somoza, led by the Sandinista guerrillas who overthrew him a year later. It also elevated "Doña Violeta," who at the time had little political experience, to the forefront of national politics. "I gave myself to (politics) so that Pedro and Nicaragua could triumph through me," she wrote in her memoirs, "Dreams of the Heart." After the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, her rejection of the dictatorship led her to participate in the first Government Junta of National Reconstruction, where she met the then—and still current—President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, leader of the revolutionary process of that time. Dissatisfied with the direction things were taking, Barrios de Chamorro resigned from the Junta, which had been dominated by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), and criticized them through La Prensa, turning her into one of the strongest critics of the government. Later, the journalist joined a coalition of 14 parties that was united only by their shared rejection of the Sandinista government. In 1989, Chamorro ran for president of Nicaragua for the opposition coalition and won the election with 54% of the vote, becoming the first woman elected to president in all of the Americas. "I will return to the people the right to elect their leaders through fair and open elections. And, above all, I will offer honesty, not only in appearance but also in practice," she announced at the time. Her victory ended the military conflict in Nicaragua by disarming some 20,000 rebels, known as "contras," mostly peasants recruited for a war that enjoyed military and economic support from the United States. She also reduced the Sandinista army from more than 100,000 to about 12,000 men, changing its name to the National Army and initiating its professionalization. Chamorro's critics considered her not an authentic politician, but rather the wife of a rebel journalist who died for her cause while she compromised his ideals. However, she was widely praised for ending the war and overseeing the first peaceful transition of power in Nicaraguan history. Once in government, Chamorro reversed some of the measures adopted by the FSLN. She implemented a plan of fiscal austerity and privatization of public companies, while also negotiating with the FSLN to maintain some of the revolution's achievements. Upon taking office in April 1990, Chamorro took over a country dealing with a recession, a trade deficit, massive foreign debt and runaway inflation that hampered her administration. In addition, the Sandinistas, led by Ortega, from the opposition, sabotaged her administration with constant strikes and uprisings. "She was aware of the role she had to play in an impoverished country devastated by war; she always made it clear that her goal was to achieve peace and reconciliation," said Jose Davila, former Nicaraguan ambassador to Germany during her administration. In January 1997, after her term ended and she was no longer eligible for reelection, Barrios de Chamorro retired from politics. Ortega retook power in 2007 and has since dissent and imprisoned critics, leading thousands to flee, including Chamorro's family. One of her four children, Cristiana Chamorro, ran for president in the 2021 elections, but her bid was thwarted by the Ortega government. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
eNCA
05-05-2025
- Politics
- eNCA
Nicaragua says quitting UNESCO over press prize award
SAM JOSE - Nicaragua has notified UNESCO of its withdrawal from the organisation in response to its press prize going to a Nicaraguan newspaper in exile, local media reported. UNESCO handed its annual award to Nicaragua's oldest newspaper, La Prensa, whose staff have been forced to publish from abroad as President Daniel Ortega tightens his grip on power. In a statement carried by Nicaraguan media, Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke said UNESCO's decision was "unacceptable and inadmissible." He claimed in a statement carried by media that the newspaper was in the service of the United States and condoned US interference in the country. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement that Nicaragua's decision would "deprive Nicaragua's population of the benefits of a cooperation focused notably on education and culture." But the agency's role was also "to defend the freedom of expression everywhere," Azoulay said. La Prensa, a title almost 100 years old, has been publishing online since Nicaraguan police in 2021 stormed its premises and arrested its manager, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro. A Nicaraguan court in 2022 sentenced Holmann to nine years in jail, then in 2023 deported him to the United States. Ortega, 79, first served as president from 1985 to 1990 as a former guerrilla hero before returning to power in 2007. Since then Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of opponents. In a statement, Ortega's government said the decision to award the newspaper was "shameful" and described the outlet as "a diabolical expression of traitorous anti-patriotic feeling against Nicaragua." Writing on social media, Holmann said authorities' outrage over the award "gives greater strength to the recognition" of the paper. Nicaragua has shut down more than 5,000 non-governmental organisations since the 2018 mass protests, in which the United Nations estimates more than 300 people died.
Hindustan Times
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Nicaragua quits UNESCO over a press freedom award
The United Nations agency that promotes education, science and culture and also works for the preservation of outstanding cultural and natural heritage around the world is abruptly losing one of its 194 member states. It marks a blow to the Paris-based body that is also in US President Donald Trump 's crosshairs. Nicaragua angrily announced its withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in a letter that UNESCO's director general, Audrey Azoulay, said she received Sunday morning. In the letter seen by The Associated Press, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke denounced the awarding of a UNESCO press freedom prize to a Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa. The prize jury hailed the newspaper's work in the face of 'severe repression' and reporting from exile that 'courageously keeps the flame of press freedom alive" in the Central American country. Nicaragua's government, led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, has been cracking down on dissent since it violently repressed protests in 2018, claiming they were backed by foreign powers that sought his overthrow. In his letter to UNESCO, Jaentschke claimed La Prensa is a pro-US media and 'represents the vile betrayal against our Motherland.' Here's a look at the dispute: UNESCO member states created the World Press Freedom Prize in 1997. The only UN prize awarded to journalists, it is named after Colombian newspaper journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, who was assassinated in Colombia's capital, Bogota, in 1986. An international jury of media professionals that recommended La Prensa for the 2025 award on Saturday said through its chairman that the newspaper, founded almost a century ago in 1926, 'has made courageous efforts to report the truth to the people of Nicaragua." UNESCO said that 'since 2021, following the imprisonment and expulsion of its leaders from the country as well as the confiscation of its assets, La Prensa has continued to inform the Nicaraguan population online, with most of its team in exile and operating from Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, Germany and the United States.' Some other recent laureates included Belarus' top independent journalists' organization, recognized in 2022, and, in 2019, journalists Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, who were jailed in Myanmar for their reporting on the military's brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. Jaentschke's letter said UNESCO recognition for La Prensa was 'undeserved' and that the agency's actions were 'unacceptable and inadmissible.' The minister alleged, without offering evidence, that La Prensa has promoted US military and political intervention in Nicaragua. 'It is deeply shameful that UNESCO appears as the promoter, and obviously as an accomplice, of an action that offends and attacks the deepest Values of Nicaragua's National Identity and Culture," his signed and stamped letter said. Nicaragua's government later issued a statement that echoed Jaentschke's claims. 'When UNESCO gives prominence to the traitors, slaves, and lackeys of colonialism and imperialism, it totally abandons any sense of objectivity,' it said. In a statement announcing Nicaragua's decision to leave, Azoulay said, 'UNESCO is fully within its mandate when it defends freedom of expression and press freedom around the world.' 'I regret this decision, which will deprive the people of Nicaragua of the benefits of cooperation, particularly in the fields of education and culture," she said. In his first presidency, Donald Trump looked dimly on Ortega's rule. In 2018, Trump signed into law a bill to cut off resources to the government of Nicaragua. But he's also not been much of a fan of UNESCO. In an executive order in February, Trump called for a review of American involvement in the agency. In his first presidency, Trump's administration in 2017 announced that the US would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later. The United States formally rejoined UNESCO in 2023 after a five-year absence, under the presidency of Joe Biden.
Los Angeles Times
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Nicaragua withdraws from UNESCO in protest of press freedom award
PARIS — UNESCO on Sunday announced the withdrawal of Nicaragua from the U.N. cultural and educational body because of the awarding of its prize celebrating press freedom to a Nicaraguan newspaper. Nicaragua announced its withdrawal from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in a letter that UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said she received Sunday morning. In the letter, seen by the Associated Press, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke denounced the awarding of a UNESCO press freedom prize to La Prensa. The prize jury hailed the newspaper's work in the face of 'severe repression' and reporting from exile that 'courageously keeps the flame of press freedom alive' in the Central American country. Nicaragua's government, led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, has been cracking down on dissent since it violently repressed protests in 2018, claiming the rallies were backed by foreign powers that sought his overthrow. In his letter to UNESCO, Jaentschke claimed La Prensa is a pro-U.S. news outlet and 'represents the vile betrayal against our Motherland.' Nicaragua was one of 194 member states in the United Nations agency, which promotes education, science and culture and works for the preservation of outstanding cultural and natural heritage around the world. Its departure comes at a time UNESCO is also in President Trump's crosshairs. Here's a look at the dispute: UNESCO member states created the World Press Freedom Prize in 1997. The only U.N. prize awarded to journalists, it is named after Colombian newspaper journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, who was assassinated in Bogota, the capital, in 1986. An international jury of media professionals that recommended La Prensa for the 2025 award on Saturday said through its chairman that the newspaper, founded in 1926, 'has made courageous efforts to report the truth to the people of Nicaragua.' UNESCO said that 'since 2021, following the imprisonment and expulsion of its leaders from the country as well as the confiscation of its assets, La Prensa has continued to inform the Nicaraguan population online, with most of its team in exile and operating from Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, Germany and the United States.' Other recent laureates include Belarus' top independent journalists' organization, recognized in 2022, and, in 2019, journalists Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, who were jailed in Myanmar for their reporting on the military's brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. Jaentschke's letter said that UNESCO recognition for La Prensa was 'undeserved' and that the agency's actions were 'unacceptable and inadmissible.' The minister alleged, without offering evidence, that La Prensa has promoted U.S. military and political intervention in Nicaragua. 'It is deeply shameful that UNESCO appears as the promoter, and obviously as an accomplice, of an action that offends and attacks the deepest Values of Nicaragua's National Identity and Culture,' his signed and stamped letter said. In a statement announcing Nicaragua's decision to leave, Azoulay said that 'UNESCO is fully within its mandate when it defends freedom of expression and press freedom around the world.' 'I regret this decision, which will deprive the people of Nicaragua of the benefits of cooperation, particularly in the fields of education and culture,' she said. In his first term, Trump looked dimly on Ortega's rule. In 2018, Trump signed into law a bill to cut off resources to the government of Nicaragua. But he has also been critical of UNESCO. In an executive order in February, Trump called for a review of U.S. involvement in the agency. His previous administration in 2017 announced that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later. The United States formally rejoined UNESCO in 2023 after a five-year absence, under the Biden administration.
