[2] Between 1982 and 1985, she served as the Secretary of Public Education of Veracruz, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she primarily served in electoral and PRI political positions, including as a regional coordinator for the Veracruz State Electoral Commission between 1987 and 1988, and as the state secretary general (1989–92) and director (1992–95) of the PRI's Council for the Integration of Women.

[2] In 2000, voters in Veracruz elected Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, a retired captain, ex-governor and former head of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad, as one of their senators.

However, he was in ill health, and though he took the oath of office on 1 September, it was Guzmán Lagunes, as his alternate, who filled the seat after he died on 30 October.

[1] After several years out of public life, Guzmán resurfaced in 2010 when new governor Javier Duarte appointed her to be the Secretary of Civil Protection in Veracruz.

[1] Additionally, she is a secretary of the Mesa de Decanos of the Chamber of Deputies, a ceremonial institution whose members are the longest-tenured federal legislators.