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,

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.

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,