Editing María de Lourdes Santiago (section)

==Career==
From 1997 to 2000, she worked as a [[legal counsel]] for [[Victor García San Inocencio]] while he served in the [[House of Representatives of Puerto Rico]], and for [[Manuel Rodríguez Orellana]] and  [[Fernando Martín García]] while they served as [[Senate of Puerto Rico|Senator]]s.<ref name="auto"/>

In January 2001, she was elected as vice-president of her political party, and in 2003 announced her candidacy as Senator for the [[Puerto Rico General Elections of 2004]].  On November 2, 2004, Santiago was elected, becoming the first woman to represent the Puerto Rican Independence Party in Puerto Rico's Senate.<ref name="auto"/>

As a senator, Santiago has been involved in women's, mental health and special education issues, among others.<ref name="auto2"/>

Santiago is the writer of a column that is published in the ''[[El Vocero]]'' newspaper. She was arrested during the [[Navy-Vieques protests]] for illegally trespassing military facilities to protest the [[United States Armed Forces|United States military]]'s bombing practice in [[Vieques]]. She spent one month in jail as part of her sentence.<ref name="auto2"/>