(CNN) -- A Mexican beauty queen was killed during a
weekend shootout in Sinaloa, a northern state known for drug-fueled
violence, authorities said Monday.
Maria Susana Flores
Gamez, 20, was the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa. She was killed Saturday in a
gun battle between military troops and suspected criminals in the
municipality of Mocorito. Two others were also killed.
Maria Susana Flores
Gamez, 20, was the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa. She was killed Saturday in a
gun battle between military troops and suspected criminals in the
municipality of Mocorito. Two others were also killed.
Sinaloa State Attorney
General Marco Antonio Higuera said a rifle was found near the beauty
queen's body, but it was not clear whether she had fired it. It was also
not clear who shot her.
"All we know is that it
happened during a confrontation that the army had with criminals, and
that she was with the group of criminals," he told reporters, according
to a transcript from his office.
Four people were detained, he said, and authorities seized various weapons, drugs and vehicles.
Flores Gamez was a
student of communications. She was crowned Woman of Sinaloa in February,
beating more than a dozen young women for the title.
In addition to the Woman
of Sinaloa pageant, Flores Gamez had participated in the 2012 Our
Sinaloa
Beauty contest. Organizers of that pageant released a statement
upon news of her death, offering condolences to the family, which
received her body Monday.
"We are dismayed by the
news -- a beautiful young person, happy, and with a big future ahead of
her, " the pageant organizers said. "Rest in peace Susy."
The beauty queen is not the first in Mexico to make headlines for something other than her good looks.
In 2008, Laura Zuniga, who was then the reigning Our Sinaloa Beauty, was taken into custody along with seven men.
They had been traveling
in two vehicles that contained AR-15 assault rifles, 38 specials, 9mm
handguns, cartridges and $50,000 in cash, Luis Carlos Najera Gutierrez
de Velazco, secretary of public security for the state of Jalisco, said
then.
She was subsequently released.
More than 47,500 people
have died across Mexico in drug-related violence since December 2006,
when
President Felipe Calderon took office and announced plans to deploy
federal troops to help the government's fight against organized crime.
According to Mexico's
National Human Rights Commission, more than 5,300 people have
disappeared throughout the country in that same time, and the bodies of
9,000 dead have not been identified.
CNN
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