Violeta Chamorro, an unassuming homemaker who was thrust into national 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,

Latin America’s first elected female president won a surprise victory over Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega and demobilized army troops.

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,