osta Rica has elected its first woman president, marking another political milestone for women in Latin America.
Laura Chinchilla, from the centrist ruling party, won 47 per cent of the vote in a crowded field in Sunday's poll, further eroding the region's reputation as a bastion of machismo and patriarchy.
''Wives and working women continue overcoming barriers to make a greater Costa Rica,'' the 50-year-old said in her acceptance speech. Ms Chinchilla is the fifth woman elected president in Latin America in the past two decades.
Source:
www.theage.com.au/world/first-woman-leader-for-costa-rica-20100209-npoc.html
