Maria De Lourdes Santiago

Maria De Lourdes Santiago is a young Puerto Rican woman who is a member of the PIP (Puerto Rican Independist Party).

She is expected by many to become the first woman in that party to run for Governor, possibly challenging Sila Maria Calderon (who was the first woman Governor of Puerto Rico in history herself) for the 2004 elections.

Santiago is a writer of a column that is published on the El Nuevo Dia newspaper, and she was recently arrested in Vieques for illegally trespassing military facilities to protest the military's bomb testings in that city. She spent one month in jail as part of her sentence.

Santiago has a degree in theater, and she is also a lawyer.