# List of female presidents in Latin America
## Elected or appointed female presidents in Latin America

Despite having a well known culture of machismo, Latin America has made huge strides in women's political representation. As of October 2024, 14 women in 11 countrieshave served as constitutional president of their country.

## 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 like
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. Apon assuming Bolivia's presidency during the 2019 Bolivian political crisis, held up a Protestant bible as a symbol of conservatism. Other leaders such as Boluarte have been described as political chameleons.

## Assumption of power

Isabel Martinez de Peron has the distinction of being the first 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. 5 of these elected women fall under the pink tide movement as previously mentioned. 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; The Constitution of Guatemala bars immediate family members of the incumbent president to run in elections.Mexico is a notable example of two women running for the presidency. The 2024 Mexican general election 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.

## 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. 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.

## 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. 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. 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 | Country | Office | Mandate start | Mandate end | Term length | Head of state or government | Executive or non-executive |
| Isabel Martinez de Perón | Argentina | President | 1 July 1974 | 24 March 1976 | 1 year, 267 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Lidia Gueiler Tejada | Bolivia | President | 16 November 1979 | 17 July 1980 | 244 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro | Nicaragua | President | 25 April 1990 | 1 January 1997 | 6 years, 260 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Rosalía Arteaga Serrano | Ecuador | President | 9 February 1997 | 11 February 1997 | 2 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Mireya Moscoso Rodriguez | 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 |
| Michelle Bachelet | Chile | President | 11 March 2014 | 11 March 2018 | 4 years | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner | Argentina | President | 10 December 2007 | 10 December 2015 | 8 years, 0 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Laura Chinchilla Miranda | 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 Añez | Bolivia | President | 12 November 2019 | 8 November 2020 | 362 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Xiomara Castro de Zelaya | Honduras | President | 7 January 2022 | Incumbent | 3 years, 6 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Dina Boluarte Zegarra | Peru | President | 7 December 2022 | Incumbent | 2 years, 57 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo | Mexico | President | 1 October 2024 | Incumbent | 124 days | Head of state and government | Executive |
| Rosario Murillo | Nicaragua | Co-president | 30 January 2025 | Incumbent | 3 days | Head of state and government | Executive |