Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaragua's first female president who ended a brutal civil war and oversaw the country's transition to democracy in the 1990s, died peacefully in Costa Rica on June 14 at the age of 95,

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — 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.

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