Violeta Chamorro: When principles and elegance say goodbye
By: Beatrice E. Rangel - 16/06/2025
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If we had to encapsulate Violeta Barrios de Chamorro's legacy, we would have to begin by saying that she managed to overcome the prejudices that held women back in Latin America until the end of the 20th century and shed the trappings of a widow to assume leadership of Nicaragua's democratization. Her leadership style harmoniously combined firmness with elegance. Her affection for the Nicaraguan people oozed from every pore of her skin. Her leadership of society imprinted Nicaragua's democratization with a maternal seal that served to heal wounds, challenge the past, and look to the future. She negotiated peace at the end of a brutal civil war and restored democratic institutions. Her presidency marked an unusual peaceful political transition in a region often marred by dictatorships and conflict. Her personal and public integrity stands out in a continent where corruption is rife.
More than once, I had the privilege of accompanying her, representing a democratic government in Venezuela, to activities aimed at strengthening the democratic center and paving the way for youth to enter public service. Her keen and perceptive mind always took advantage of these encounters to identify new avenues for pursuing peace in Central America and development in Nicaragua. Once, I accompanied her to a meeting in the Montelimar resort where one of the many meetings was being held to finalize aspects of the Central American peace treaties. While I was in an office to send a report to the then-President of Venezuela, Carlos Andrés Pérez, representatives of the Salvadoran guerrilla group Farabundo Martí National Liberation Army appeared and asked me to take them to greet her. When I arrived at her offices and asked if she would be willing to see them, she replied, “Yes, because only God knows if they’ll show up later. These people are very elusive.” When I introduced them to her, she looked at them carefully and said to one of them, “Look, you’re a member of the Cardenal family and therefore my family. Sit down there because I’m going to hear your confession. I need to know what you all really want because people can’t keep dying in vain. This peace must be achieved!” At that moment, I left the group, thinking that confessions, when they’re public, cease to be confessions. Hours later, she told me, “Now I have the whole picture crystal clear. And I’m going to bring that boy down from the mountains so he can go to university.” I believe this anecdote portrays Dona Violeta’s leadership style better than a thousand words. She had the firmness of a head of state, but she wrapped it in a cloak of affection and understanding that predisposed her interlocutors to move toward consensus and away from conflict. Her elegant figure and soft, velvety voice completed the appeal of an indomitable woman who defied her family by marrying a journalist instead of a landowner; her husband by taking over the management of the family estate; the Sandinistas when she realized their Marxist bias; and the leaders of all the parties that formed the coalition that brought her to power, known as UNO. And despite having successfully fought all these battles, she never ceased to be the elegant, courteous, and benevolent lady who wins the hearts of all Nicaraguans.
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