STR
She sat behind bulletproof glass and traveled with bodyguards. Songs were written in her honor and Mexican drug lords hired her to represent them in court. Silvia Raquenel Villanueva survived four attempts on her life, but not the fifth, as she was gunned down Sunday in the northern Mexican city of Guadalajara (where three-party talks between President Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and Canadian PM Stephen Harper began Monday). In a profile last fall, The New York Times described Raquenel as Mexico's most prominent "narco abogada" who represented some of the country's most dangerous men—dirty cops and drug runners among them. "I can presume that God wants me to continue working in what I've always done," she said then. "I'm a lawyer for people who really need one."