Samuel Ocaña García (2 August 1931 – 31 December 2024) was a Mexican politician and doctor who served as the governor of Sonora from 1979 to 1985 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
[1] Ocaña returned to Sonora once again in 1961, settling in Navojoa, where he founded and directed the Regional Hospital of Pulmonary and Thoracic Surgery.
[7] Ocaña was also able to receive approval from then-Governor Carlos Armando Biebrich for the construction of a new municipal palace in Navojoa in 1975, though the project was not completed until 1979.
[1] In December 1975, shortly before completing his term as municipal president, Ocaña accepted a position as the Sonora undersecretary of government for the administration of newly-elected governor Alejandro Carrillo Marcor [es].
[4][8][14] Ocaña collaborated with noted writer Gerardo Cornejo Murrieta to create El Colegio de Sonora [es], an institution of higher education specializing in social sciences and humanities research, in 1982.
[15][16] He was also remembered for his contributions to education and hydraulic infrastructure, as well as for negotiating with Ford Motor Company to open the Hermosillo Stamping and Assembly plant.
[14] Shortly thereafter, he was named the first rector of the Universidad de la Sierra, a public university in Moctezuma created by Governor Armando López Nogales.
[24] His brother, Gilberto, was arrested by federal officials and charged with drug trafficking in October 1986 after the Mexican Army discovered several acres of marijuana fields on properties he owned in southern Sonora.