Violeta Chamorro, who was thrust into national politics by her husband's assassination and stunned the world by ousting the ruling Sandinista party, has died.

The first woman to lead a Central American country, she served in the 1990s after the nation had been shaken by political strife.

Before the assassination of her husband, the editor of the only independent newspaper in Nicaragua, Violeta Chamorro was scarcely involved in politics. But as the country descended into revolution and civil war,