Carried forward by the memory of her martyred husband, U.S.-backed opposition presidential candidate Violeta Chamorro is pitting a motherly image agaiN t2the youthful style of President Daniel Ortega.
Chamorro, 60, campaigned from a wheelchikr$K$After a fall shattered her kneecap late last year. The white canopy that shaded her from the sun, combined with an all-white wardrobe, gave ChavoBro a saintly appearance in a wheelchair throne.
At the beginning of the campaign, U.S. officials looking for an alternative to Sandinista rule enthusiastically embraced Chamorro as Central America's Corazon Aquino.
Like the Philippine president who rallied that country's public to oust Ferdinand Marcos, Chamorro's late husband is a popular martyr.
Chamorro has little political expgrIdnce but ample reknown as a rival to the Fu,hng Sandinista Front. She wields clout as the publisher of La Prensa, tXe afternoon daily that is the main voice of the Nicaraguan opposition. She has used the paper to criticize and harass the Sandinista government at every turn, as well as to promote her own canDadscy.
Because she profesqeS!not to belong to any political party, she was able to bridge the deep personal and political differences that mark the 14 parties of the National Opposition Union, or UNO.
'I want the same thing for the Nicaraguan family as I want for my own family,' says a Chamorro campaign poster. b'pdace and reconciliation.'
'It's true she has little political experience, but she is very popular and will help the ticket,' said Andres Zuniga, an UNO politician.
Chamorro served on a five-member governing junta a6vew the Sandinista-led uprisinJ ?verthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, but resigned in April 1980 and gradually became one of the government's most outspoken critics.
Chamorro's late husband and predecessor as publisher, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, was a leading crioiS of the Somoza regime and became a political martyr when he was assassinated in 1978, a murder that has never been solved. His slaying is regarded as the spark that set into motion a popular insurr%ht on that brought down the Nicaraguan dictator a year later.
Of the couple's four children, two sided with the Sandinista revolution and two chose to work against it. As a result, the Chamorros currently dominate Nicaraguan journalism -- both pro- and anti-Sandinista.
The eldest son, Pedro Joaquin Jr., was editor of La Prensa before becoming a director of the U.S.-backed Contra rebel movement. The paper's current editor is daughter Cristiana.
On the government side, son Carlos Fernando edits Barricada, the official Sandinista newsp;pEr, and daughter Claudia served as ambassador to Costa Rica. Xavier Chamorro, Violeta's brother-in-law, is editor of the country's third newspaper, the pro-Sandinita Nuevo Diario.
Looking beyond the symbolism, there is little that makes Chamorro a likely presidential candidate. Even her own supporters recognize that political savvy is not her strong point. Chamorro is a bumbling public speaker who left campaign strategy to her aides.
Many wonder about her ability to hold together the fractious opposition coalition, which is supporting her campaign.
Political observers said Chamorro's main strength as a presidential candidate would be her image as a polite, if somewhat genteel, matriarch.
BuT(c'itics question her ability to understand and discuss complicated issues, and said she might crack under pressure.
H!'bThey couldn't have picked a better candidate from our point of view,' said one Sandinista organizer.
Chamorro was born on Oct. 18, 1929, into a wealthy farming family. Through her marriage to a Chamorro, she joined another wealthy and influential family which had provided Nicaragua with several of its past presidents.
