I just want to start a thread about her here. She's a brave woman should be remembered
María Santos Gorrostieta Salazar (1976 – 15 November 2012) was a Mexican physician and politician of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). From 2008 to 2011, she served as mayor of Tiquicheo, a small town in the Mexican state of Michoacán. In spite of three failed assassination attempts during her tenure as mayor, Gorrostieta Salazar continued to be outspoken in the fight against organized crime. In a fourth attack, Gorrostieta Salazar was kidnapped and assassinated by suspected drug traffickers on 15 November 2012. Michoacán is home to several violent drug trafficking organizations such as La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar Cartel.
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Career
Gorrostieta Salazar was born in 1976 in Tiquicheo, a small town in the state of Michoacán, Mexico.[1] She attended the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Morelia and earned a PhD in medicine.[2][3]
She began her political career by joining the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and from 2008 to 2011, she served as the mayor of Tiquicheo.[4] While in office, she survived three assassination attempts.[5] She ran for the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union, but she did not get elected and returned to her office as mayor. After some differences with the PRI, which had urged her to resign, Gorrostieta Salazar left the party and joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in August 2010.[6][7] She said her Catholic faith influenced her approach to her duties as a politician.[8] She has been described as a "heroine of the 21st century" for her opposition to Mexico's drug cartels and for refusing to take bribes.[8]
She had three children with her first husband, José Sánchez Chávez. After he was killed in the October 2009 attack, Gorrostieta Salazar later married Nereo Patiño Delgado.[7][A 1]
Assassination attempts
Background
In 2008, Gorrostieta Salazar was elected mayor of Tiquicheo. Several drug trafficking organizations, particularly the La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar Cartel, are based in the area.[10][11][12] Michoacán is a leading producer of marijuana and opium poppy, making it a lucrative route for smugglers taking narcotics into the United States.[13] Despite receiving threats, Gorrostieta Salazar publicly denounced the activities of these groups. The drug cartels, which are constantly fighting each other for territorial control, often target mayors who confront them. Other mayors, however, are corrupted and bribed by the cartels.[8][14] Mexico has more than 2,500 municipalities, many of which are far from the capital cities and lack amenities available in other parts of the country. Many of these areas are plagued with drug-related violence, so the political parties have faced difficulties finding people interested in holding the post of mayor.[15]
It was in Michoacán that Felipe Calderón launched the country's first military-led operation in the ongoing drug war, just ten days after he took office on 11 December 2006. The military campaign spread to other states in Mexico, eventually including over 50,000 federal agents. After years of past administrations taking a passive stance against the drug cartels, Calderón had decided it was time for the government to "flex its muscles."[16] Violence exploded in Michoacán and across the country, leaving a death toll of about 60,000 (perhaps even more than 100,000) in six years.[A 2] Numerous journalists and mayors have been killed since the start of the drug war, and some members of the Mexican Armed Forces and the Federal police have been accused of human rights abuses and causing forced disappearances.[16] The organized crime groups have diversified their criminal agendas, no longer focusing solely on drug trafficking; many of them operate kidnapping rings and extortion and protection rackets, and engage in piracy, and human trafficking. The cartels in Michoacán force the local population to pay for "protection", spy, and report suspicious activities and law enforcement presence.[16][19]
Calderón argued that if he had not acted, Mexico would have become a "narco-state," where the drug trafficking organizations impose law at their will.[16] "I am sure that the Mexicans of tomorrow will remember these days as the moment when the country took the decision to defend itself, with all its force, against a voracious criminal phenomenon of translational dimensions," Calderón said on 20 November 2012 at a ceremony for fallen soldiers.[16] His successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, has pledged to continue the fight, but plans to adjust the strategy to reduce the level of violence.[16]








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