Former Nicaraguan president chosen for Isaiah Thomas Award

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, former president of Nicaragua and a long-time editor of La Prensa (The Press), Nicaragua's evening newspaper, will receive the 1998 Isaiah Thomas Award in Newspaper Management from the School of Printing Management and Sciences. The award will be presented during an evening ceremony May 4.

The printing school annually presents the Isaiah Thomas Award—named for one of America's great patriot printers—to recognize outstanding contributions to the newspaper industry. Chamorro will be the 19th recipient of the award.

A native of Rivas, Nicaragua, Chamorro graduated from Blackstone College for Women in Virginia. Following the assassination of her husband, Dr. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, in 1978, she conducted an international campaign denouncing the atrocities and human rights violations committed by the Somoza regime, as her lawyer/journalist husband did for 30 years before her.

As chair of the board of directors and editor-in-chief of La Prensa, Chamorro conducted an intense national campaign, her stand considered a decisive factor in the eventual overthrow of the Somoza regime. She was elected a member of the Government Junta upon the victory of the Sandinista Revolution that disposed the Somoza dictatorship in July 1979. Nine months after having assumed power, Chamorro resigned from the Government Junta because of departures from the original government program.

She returned to La Prensa and led a movement for peace, democracy and the liberty of Nicaragua.

From 1980 to 1986, Chamorro and La Prensa were the target of unremitting persecution on the part of the Sandinista government. Yet, Chamorro's newspaper remained the sole medium of independent communication in Nicaragua and is hailed as a factor in the triumph of peace and democracy in the country. Editorials at the time helped advance freedom of expression and assisted in making free elections possible.

In September 1989, Chamorro was nominated as the presidential candidate in the February 1990 general election by the Union Nacional Opositora, an alliance of 14 political parties. She was elected president by a majority of votes on Feb. 25, 1990, and took office on April 25 of the same year. Chamorro completed her term of seven years on Jan. 10, 1997, with the honor of having been the first Nicaraguan president in this century to have transmitted power to a new civilian president through free and open elections.

She now serves as president of the board of directors of the recently founded Fundacion Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, which focuses on improving the practice of journalism in Central America.