María Santos Gorrostieta Salazar

María Santos Gorrostieta Salazar (1976 – 15 November 2012) was a Mexican politician who served as mayor of Tiquicheo, in Michoacán, from 2008 to 2011. Despite three assassination attempts during her tenure, she continued to be outspoken against organized crime. In a fourth attack, she was kidnapped and assassinated by suspected drug traffickers on 15 November 2012. Michoacán was home to several violent drug trafficking organizations such as La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar Cartel. Gorrostieta, a physician, had been a member of the PRI and left it for lack of support after the attacks. She had then become a member of the PRD.

Career Gorrostieta Salazar was born in 1976 in Tiquicheo, a small town in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. She attended the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Morelia and earned a PhD in medicine.

She began her political career by joining the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and from 2008 to 2011, she served as the mayor of Tiquicheo. While in office, she survived three assassination attempts. She said her Catholic faith influenced her approach to her duties as a politician. 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. |group=A

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. Michoacán is a leading producer of marijuana and opium poppy, making it a lucrative route for smugglers taking narcotics into the United States. 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. 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.

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." 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. 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.

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. On 16 January 2009, in the rural area of El Limón de Papatzindán, the couple was attacked by armed assailants and received minor injuries that did not prevent them from continuing their public lives. The next attack occurred on 15 October 2009, when Gorrostieta Salazar was ambushed while driving through El Limón de Papatzindán with her husband. Also injured were the driver of the vehicle, who was shot twice; Marbella Reyes Ortoño, head of the Institute of Women in Tiquicheo; and Fanny Almazán Gómez, a journalist from El Sol de Morelia. She publicly displayed her wounds in photographs published in an issue of Contacto Ciudadano magazine, and repeated her statement that she would continue her work.

Gorrostieta Salazar left the PRI and joined the PRD in August 2010, stating that the PRI had not supported her after the attacks. She ran for election to the National Congress with the PRD, but failed to get elected. At the end of her term as mayor, Gorrostieta Salazar retired from politics. She returned to private life, remarried, and dedicated her time to raise her three children: Malusi, José, and Deysi. Her police protection came to an end when her mayoral term expired in 2011. |group=A On 15 November, police identified the body after farm workers from the rural community of San Juan Tararameo in Cuitzeo found the corpse on their way to work.

Post-mortem reports indicated that she died of a traumatic brain injury, the result of severe blows to the head. The governor of Michoacán said that organized crime was undoubtedly involved. Gorrostieta Salazar was buried alongside her husband José Sánchez Chávez in a tomb at a local cemetery in Tiquicheo, her hometown.