Miriam Argüello Morales (February 22, 1927 – February 7, 2019) was a politician from Nicaragua. A lawyer by training, she was the first woman to become president of the

National Assembly of Nicaragua The National Assembly ( es, Asamblea Nacional) is the legislative branch of the government of Nicaragua founded in 1986 to replace the bicameral National Congress of Nicaragua, which consisted of two chambers. Composition The Nicaraguan legi ...

, where she served as a deputy for 22 years. She was elected Assembly president in 1990, defeating

Alfredo César Aguirre Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon name Alfred (name), Alfred and a common Italian language, Italian, Galician language, Galician, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. People with the given na ...

though he had the support of Nicaraguan President

Violeta Chamorro Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro (; 18 October 1929) is a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and, as of 2022, only woman to hold the position of president of Nicaragua. Born into ...

. However, César prevailed the following year, replacing Argüello in 1991. In 1996, Argüello ran for President of Nicaragua as a member of the

Popular Conservative Alliance The Popular Conservative Alliance ( - APC) is a right-wing conservative Nicaraguan political party. The APC split from the Democratic Conservative Party (PCD) in 1984 when Miriam Argüello led a group opposed to the PCD's position on whether to ...

(APC). Though in the previous term, both the Presidency and Vice-Presidency had been held by women--Chamorro and Julia Mena Rivera, respectively--few other women served in the Chamorro administration and in 1996 Argüello was the lone woman among 23 presidential candidates. In 2007, Argüello allied with the

Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cé ...

(FSLN), but broke again with the ruling party in 2012 over the re-election of FSLN leader Daniel Ortega as President, saying the Supreme Court's ruling allowing Ortega a third term violated the Nicaraguan Constitution as well as legal precedent barring anyone from serving three terms as President or serving for two consecutive terms.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arguello, Miriam 1927 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Nicaraguan lawyers 20th-century Nicaraguan women politicians 20th-century Nicaraguan politicians Members of the National Assembly (Nicaragua) Presidents of the National Assembly (Nicaragua) Sandinista National Liberation Front politicians Nicaraguan women lawyers