Dr. Maria Santos Gorrostieta MD, age 36, was a former mayor of the small Mexican town of Tiquicheo (2008-2012) and became famous for her refusal to be cowed by the drug gangs battling for control of the western state of Michoacan. Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT) abducted the mayor in front of her young daughter, they tortured and eventually murdered her and the LCT Cartel dumped her mutilated body by the side of the road as a message to any future politician who would stand up to them.
Did their tactics work? The answer is a resounding YES!
During her term as mayor, she survived at least two assassination attempts, including one that killed her husband Jose and another that left her body peppered with bullet holes and scars.
Although Mexico has been a producer of, and transit route for, illegal drugs for decades, in recent years the country has found itself caught up in violent turf wars between powerful and well-financed cartels. In 2006 Mexico’s newly-elected President Felipe Calderon launched a military assault on the gangs. But although some key players have been killed or captured, the carnage has continued. Indeed some claim it has got worse, due to splits between formerly allied cartels. Official estimates say 50,000 people have been killed since the crackdown began, but others put the toll at twice that. (Daily Mail)
The unassuming hamlet where Dr. Santos presided sits on the smuggling route between the Port of Lazaro Cardenas and the Mexican interior. Most Cocaine and methamphetamine precursors that land on Mexico's West Coast pass through the ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas. LCT controls Lazaro Cardenas and jealously guards it's transportation corridors.
In October 2009 a group of gunmen shot her at least seven times in an ambush in which her husband was killed. Three months later, another armed gang opened fire on her brother’s car while she was in the passenger seat. Shortly afterwards she made the front pages after she went public with photographs of her wounds in Tiquicheo’s municipal newsletter. “I wanted to show you my wounded, mutilated body,” she wrote, “because I’m not ashamed of it. It’s living testimony that I am a strong and righteous woman, and despite my wounds, I’m still on my feet.”
The Mexico City Daily has also said that there were at least two other assassination attempts that she never reported.
On November 12, according to the newspaper El Universal, Maria Santos Gorrostieta was driving her young daughter to school in the city of Morelia when she was ambushed by a gang of armed men who pulled her from her car and beat her up in full view of passers-by. Witnessess described how she begged the men to leave her child alone and then got into her abductors’ car, leaving her daughter, screaming but unharmed, in the road.
Five days later the badly mutilated body of a woman, who had evidently been tortured before she was killed, was found dumped by a roadside. It was later identified as Maria Santos Gorrostieta.
"Her brave defiance may have cost the mother-of-three her life. The official cause of death was a blow to the head but she had been stabbed, her legs and hands had been bound and her waist and chest were covered in burns, suggesting she had been tortured." (Gateway Pundit)
Granularity-
I have asked people who I know in LCT why they (the cartel) tortured and murdered Alcalde Dr. Santos, who was the mayor when they abducted, tortured and murdered her. (There are accounts out there that she was a former mayor and that's not the case) The simple reply was, "She didn't agree to play ball. We offered her money and she refused. We didn't treat her any worse than we treated anyone else who didn't go along with the reality. We tried to explain it to her again and again. Finally we did what we had to do."
Over the next while, I'm going to see what else I can find about the motivation for this murder, but I think that I understand why LCT had to eliminate her. Cartels rule (particularly in Michoacan and Gurrero) through fear. If somebody, particularly a woman, stands up against them, and prevails, their grip on the area vanishes. MEXGOV has boasted that La Familia Michoacan has been eliminated, but it's obvious that LFM, and it's child, LCT, has not. LCT can put between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in the field on short notice, carrying a mixture of military and civilian weapons. They know Michoacan and they are very difficult to eradicate.
It's also possible that Dr. Santos' murder was somehow approved (US Military Slang: Fragged) by the local MEXGOV people in Michoacan who had been taking pay-offs from LCT all along. Dr. Santos made them look bad. If that's true, don't hold your breath for a resolution to the kidnap-torture-Murder.
Over the next while, I'm going to see what else I can find about the motivation for this murder, but I think that I understand why LCT had to eliminate her. Cartels rule (particularly in Michoacan and Gurrero) through fear. If somebody, particularly a woman, stands up against them, and prevails, their grip on the area vanishes. MEXGOV has boasted that La Familia Michoacan has been eliminated, but it's obvious that LFM, and it's child, LCT, has not. LCT can put between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in the field on short notice, carrying a mixture of military and civilian weapons. They know Michoacan and they are very difficult to eradicate.
It's also possible that Dr. Santos' murder was somehow approved (US Military Slang: Fragged) by the local MEXGOV people in Michoacan who had been taking pay-offs from LCT all along. Dr. Santos made them look bad. If that's true, don't hold your breath for a resolution to the kidnap-torture-Murder.
