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Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro (born 18 October 1929) is a Nicaraguan politician, former president and publisher, known for ending the Contra War, the final chapter of the Nicaraguan Revolution, and bringing peace to the country. She was the first and, to date, only woman to hold the position of president in Nicaragua. Born into a landed family in southern Nicaragua, Chamorro was partially educated in the United States. After returning to her home country, she married and raised a family. Her husband, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, was a journalist working at 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 sparked 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 García, Chamorro fully supported them. She agreed to become part of the provisional government established under the Junta of National Reconstruction ((スペイン語:Junta de Gobierno de Reconstrucción Nacional), JGRN); however, when the Junta began moving in a more radical direction and signed agreements with the Soviet Union, Chamorro resigned 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 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 ((スペイン語:Unión Nacional Opositora), UNO). This 14-party alliance ranged from conservatives and liberals to communists and because of idealistic differences had difficulty in devising any political platform other than a promise to end the war. Despite polls indicating a victory for the incumbent Sandinista President Ortega, Chamorro won the election on 25 February 1990, becoming the first elected female head of state in the Americas. When Chamorro was sworn in to office on 25 April 1990, it was the first time in more than five decades that a peaceful transition of power had occurred in Nicaragua and the first time that one elected president had given way to another. She inherited a hyperinflated, war-torn economy, but she was able to end the war and establish a lasting peace. Chamorro's leadership covered six difficult 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 and was wealthy and conservative, and although she has often been claimed by reporters such as Richard Boudreaux of the ''The Los Angeles Times'', Garrick Utley of NBC, Stephen Kinzer of ''The New York Times'', Lee Hockstader of ''The Washington Post'', and other papers to be part 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. She attended primary school at the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Sacred Heart of Jesus) school in Rivas and the French school in Granada. Barrios began her secondary education at the Colegio La Inmaculada in Managua〔 and then transferred to an American boarding school, as her parents wanted her to perfect her English. She first attended Our Lady of the Lake Catholic High School for Girls in San Antonio, Texas, and then in 1945 changed to Blackstone College for Girls in Virginia.〔 In June 1947, her father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and though he died before she could make it home, she returned to Nicaragua, without graduating in the United States. She met Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal in 1949, they married in December 1950; subsequently, they had five children together. In 1952, on his father's death, Chamorro's husband 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. Over the years, Chamorro's family has been 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Violeta Chamorro」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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