Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died today at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997,

Chamorro managed to bring to an end a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the 'Contras' fought the leftist Sandinista government.