[1] In early October 2010, Tancítaro's mayor Gustavo Sánchez was found beaten to death with his hands tied behind his back.
In nearby Ciudad Juárez in October 2010, a gang killed over a dozen people, including children, at a birthday party.
Several police officers in Ciudad Juárez have been abducted or killed,[4] and Práxedis G. Guerrero's previous chief, Manuel Castro, was tortured and beheaded a year earlier.
After a year without a police chief, 20-year-old Marisol Valles García, who was a student working on a degree in criminology at the University of Guadalajara,[1][5] was the only person willing to accept the job.
[4][7] Within two weeks Valles García began receiving threatening phone calls with offers to work for the cartels.
A play called "So Go the Ghosts of Mexico" by Matthew Paul Olmos, based on her experiences, opened at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Manhattan, in April 2013.