Elected or appointed female presidents in Latin America

As of October 2024 ^[update] , 14 women in 11 countries ^[1] have served as constitutional president of their country.

Contents

• Elected or appointed female presidents in Latin America
• Political spectrum
• Assumption of power
• Election
• Male mentors
• Friendships
• List of leaders
• References

Political spectrum

Most of these women are part of the pink tide movement. Leaders such as Bachelet, Fernandez de Kirchner, Rousseff, Castro, and Sheinbaum Pardo all fall under this movement. The pink tide movement is on the left of the spectrum and includes ideologies such as socialism of the 21st century, democratic socialism, Left-wing populism, anti-neoliberalism, and left-wing nationalism. Although the majority of these women leaders are to the left of center, some classify themselves as centrists or conservatives. Bolivia's Jeanine Añez is an example of this. Upon assuming Bolivia's presidency during the 2019 Bolivian political crisis, she held up a Protestant bible as a symbol of conservatism. Other leaders such as Boluarte have been described as "political chameleons".^{[ by whom? ]}

Assumption of power

Isabel Martinez de Peron was woman in the world to hold the title of president of an any country, though not the first to be head of government. Rather than being elected to the position of president, she assumed the presidency following the death of president Juan Peron, under who she served both as First Lady, and vice president. This is a common situation. Of 13 women, 5 assumed the presidency in the absence of a president. These leaders include Peron, Gueiler, Arteaga, Añez, and Boluarte.

Election

Of 13 individual women, 8 were elected to power at least once, the first being Violeta Chamorro in the 1990 Nicaraguan general election in which she defeated Daniel Ortega. Centrists like Laura Chinchilla have also been elected. Bachelet, Fernandez de Kirchner, and Rousseff are the only three to have been to a second term and the former two the only to complete two terms. Although only a few have been elected, many more have run. A notable candidate is Sandra Torres of Guatemala who has been the candidate for her National Unity of Hope party in three consecutive elections, and attempted to run in the 2011 Guatemalan general election but was barred from doing so as she was married to the incumbent president, Alvaro Colom. ^[2] The 2024 Mexican general election saw two women running for the presidency –it delivered an overwhelming majority of the vote to for Governor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo against her opponent; business woman and senator Xochitl Galvez. ^[3]

Male mentors

Despite electoral success and progress for women's representation in politics, there is an undeniable trend that can be observed in all 5 of the pink tide leaders. It is that they run to succeed an immensely popular and politically successful male president. Often these male mentors have groomed these women for years to take over for them when their terms are over. the most notable examples of this are in Brazil and more recently, Mexico. In 2010, incumbent Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hand selected his chief of staff Dilma Rousseff to run in the 2010 Brazilian general election as the candidate for Lula's Worker's Party. ^[4] She won the election and reelection in 2014. In Mexico, incumbent president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was succeeded by his long time ally and Governor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. They are not only close politically, some leaders are even married to former presidents. This was the case in Argentina during the 2007 Argentine general election in which incumbent president Nestor Kirchner was succeeded by his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Notably, the previously mentioned Perones were also married making both of Argentina's women presidents also former First Ladies. Current Honduran president, Xiomara Castro is also a former First Lady. She is married to former president Manuel Zelaya who was overthrown in the 2009 Honduran coup d'état. ^[5]

Friendships

Being on the same side of the political spectrum and having similar histories fighting conservative military dictatorships, many of these leaders developed close friendships that crossed language barriers. Most notably, Bachelet, Fernandez de Kirchner, and Rousseff were all in office during the same time from Bachelet's second inauguration in 2014, until Fernandez de Kirchner left office in December 2015. The three are known to have close working and personal friendships. ^[6] Today, a similar friendship has seemed to develop between Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and Honduran president Xiomara Castro. The two are of have similar governments and policies and with a close geographic proximity to each other, they will likely be seen together many times over the next several years.

List of leaders

This list includes women who were elected by national popular vote, or ascended to their country's presidency. The list does not include women who served as interim or acting head of state such as El Salvador's Claudia Rodriguez de Guevara. ^[7] This list has a strict definition of Latin America (Hispanic or Portuguese speaking countries in continental Latin America) This list excludes countries in the Caribbean such as Haiti and French speaking countries on the continent such as French Guiana, or multi cultural and lingual countries like Belize.

Name	Portrait	Country	Office	Mandate start	Mandate end	Term length	Head of state or government	Executive or non-executive
Isabel Perón		Argentina	President	1 July 1974	24 March 1976	1 year, 267 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Lidia Gueiler		Bolivia	President	16 November 1979	17 July 1980	244 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Violeta Chamorro		Nicaragua	President	25 April 1990	1 January 1997	6 years, 260 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Rosalía Arteaga		Ecuador	President	9 February 1997	11 February 1997	2 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Mireya Moscoso		Panama	President	1 September 1999	1 September 2004	5 years, 0 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Michelle Bachelet		Chile	President	11 March 2006	11 March 2010	4 years	Head of state and government	Executive
				11 March 2014	11 March 2018	4 years
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner		Argentina	President	10 December 2007	10 December 2015	8 years, 0 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Laura Chinchilla		Costa Rica	President	8 May 2010	8 May 2014	4 years, 0 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Dilma Rousseff		Brazil	President	1 January 2011	31 August 2016	5 years, 243 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Jeanine Áñez		Bolivia	President	12 November 2019	8 November 2020	362 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Xiomara Castro		Honduras	President	27 January 2022	27 January 2026	4 years, 1 day	Head of state and government	Executive
Dina Boluarte		Peru	President	7 December 2022	10 October 2025	2 years, 307 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Claudia Sheinbaum		Mexico	President	1 October 2024	Incumbent	1 year, 119 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Rosario Murillo		Nicaragua	Co-president	18 February 2025	Incumbent	344 days	Head of state and government	Executive
Delcy Rodriguez		Venezuela	President	3 January 2026	Incumbent	25 days	Head of state and government	Executive

References