FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER MARGARET THATCHER DIES

London, Apr 8 (EFE).- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died from a stroke, her spokesman, Lord Bell, said Monday. She was 87.

"It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning," Lord Bell said.

Thatcher, known as the "Iron Lady" because of her tough leadership style, was the United Kingdom's first female prime minister.

The conservative former prime minister, who was in office from 1979 to 1990, introduced free-market reforms in Britain, privatizing state-owned companies and dismantling the socialist system implemented after World War II by the Labor Party.

Thatcher led Britain to victory over Argentina in the 1982 Falklands War.

The former prime minister, who entered politics in 1959 with her election to Parliament from Finchley, in London, had suffered from Alzheimer's disease and had a series of strokes in recent years.

Thatcher, born Margaret Hilda Roberts, had a meteoric rise in politics after being elected to Parliament, taking the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1975 from Prime Minister Edward Heath, who was in office from 1970 to 1974.

She led the Tories to victory in the 1979 general elections and again in 1983 and 1987.

Thatcher, who was born on Oct. 13, 1925, in the northern English city of Grantham, came from a middle class family.