Nicaragua's former President Violeta Chamorro dies at 95, family says

Violeta Chamorro, an unassuming homemaker who was thrust into politics by her husband's assassination and stunned the world by ousting the ruling Sandinista party in presidential elections and ending Nicaragua's civil war, has died, her family said in a statement on Saturday. She was 95.

The country's first female president, known as Dona Violeta to both supporters and detractors, she presided over the Central American nation's uneasy transition to peace after nearly a decade of conflict between the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega and US-backed Contra rebels.

At nearly seven years, Chamorro's was the longest single term ever served by a democratically elected Nicaraguan leader, and when it was over she handed over the presidential sash to an elected civilian successor - a relative rarity for a country with a long history of strongman rule, revolution and deep political polarisation.

Chamorro died in San Jose, Costa Rica, according to the family's statement shared by her son, Carlos Chamorro, on X. (AP)