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Take Two

20-year-old Mexican beauty queen killed in drug cartel shoot out

By Take Two Staff
Published Nov 28, 2012
In this April 26, 2012 photo, Maria Susana Flores Gamez poses for a photo for a story about upcoming representation of Mexico at a beauty pageant in China, in Culiacan, Mexico. Flores, who was voted the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in a beauty pageant in February, was killed in northern Mexico on Nov. 24, 2012 during a running gun battle between soldiers and the gang of drug traffickers she was traveling with.
In this April 26, 2012 photo, Maria Susana Flores Gamez poses for a photo for a story about upcoming representation of Mexico at a beauty pageant in China, in Culiacan, Mexico. Flores, who was voted the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in a beauty pageant in February, was killed in northern Mexico on Nov. 24, 2012 during a running gun battle between soldiers and the gang of drug traffickers she was traveling with.
(
Gladys Serrano/AP
)
In this April 26, 2012 photo, Maria Susana Flores Gamez poses for a photo for a story about her upcoming participation in a beauty pageant in China, in Culiacan, Mexico. Flores, who was voted the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in a beauty pageant in February, was killed in northern Mexico on Nov. 24, 2012 during a running gun battle between soldiers and the gang of drug traffickers she was traveling with. (AP Photo/El Debate, Gladys Serrano)
In this April 26, 2012 photo, Maria Susana Flores Gamez poses for a photo for a story about her upcoming participation in a beauty pageant in China, in Culiacan, Mexico. Flores, who was voted the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in a beauty pageant in February, was killed in northern Mexico on Nov. 24, 2012 during a running gun battle between soldiers and the gang of drug traffickers she was traveling with.
(
Gladys Serrano/AP
)

Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.

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20-year-old Mexican beauty queen killed in drug cartel shoot out

A 20-year-old beauty queen was killed in Sinaloa, Mexico this past weekend in a gun battle between suspected drug traffickers and the military. Authorities say Maria Susana Flores Gamez was used as a human shield in the face off.

According to the attorney general's office, Flores Gamez, who was crowned 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in February, exited a car with a gun in her hands while other gunmen hid behind her. This is not the first time a beauty queen has gotten mixed up with the drug cartels.

Jose Carlos Cisneros Guzman, an ethnographer at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. He's been writing on the role of women in the cartels and he joins us now.