Elba Esther Gordillo

Elba Esther Gordillo Morales (February 6, 1945) is a Mexican politician who has been the leader of the 1.4-million strong National Education Workers' Union (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, or SNTE), the largest labor union in Latin America, since 1989. She was formerly affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI) until 2005, when left and founded the New Alliance Party (Partido Nueva Alianza, or PANAL), which is currently led by her grandson Luis Castro Obregón. Gordillo was arrested by the Mexican authorities on 26 February 2013 on charges of embezzlement and organized crime.

Gordillo has held considerable influence over governments and individual Presidents by persuading her union members to vote as a single bloc and suppress enemies.

Early life
Elba Esther Gordillo was born on 6 February 1945, in Comitán, Chiapas.

Career
Gordillo joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1970, at the height of its "dirty war". She has occupied several PRI positions including Secretary of Organization of the National Executive Council (1986–1987), General Secretary of the Council of National Popular Organizations (1997–2002), and General Secretary of the National Executive Council, the second highest position within the party.

Gordillo then became one of the most powerful women in Mexican politics. She was the head of the PRI faction in the Chamber of Deputies, but after a political war with Roberto Madrazo, she lost that position when a slim majority of 118 PRI deputies voted to oust Gordillo as head of their 224-seat faction in the lower house. Gordillo was forced out of the congress leadership presumably because her political ambitions clashed with those of Madrazo regarding the presidential elections of 2006. Heightened political pressure and illness pushed Gordillo out from public life for about a year, though she did hold on to her post as the PRI secretary general.

In early 2005 Gordillo returned to public life and Roberto Madrazo greeted her with open arms. According to PRI rules, Gordillo, as secretary general of the party, should have replaced Madrazo when he stepped down; but, in a surprise move, Mariano Palacios Alcocer took Madrazo's position instead of Gordillo, who publicly broke with Madrazo just few days before Palacios Alcocer's election. Gordillo accused Madrazo of trying to bribe her with the party's presidency in exchange for supporting his candidacy; she also said that Madrazo had no respect for democracy and just wanted to assure himself of the nomination and was breaking party rules to impose a party leader of his own choosing.

The day that Mariano Palacios Alcocer was elected, Gordillo filed a complaint with a federal electoral tribunal asking for protection of her political rights, but the tribunal ruled against her. On 19 September and as a result of the dispute with Madrazo, Gordillo resigned her Secretary General position in the PRI but decided to continue her affiliation with the party. On 13 July 2006, two weeks after the federal elections, the PRI announced her expulsion from its ranks for having supported the National Action Party and for attacking and slandering the PRI's leaders and candidates.

Arrest
Gordillo was arrested by the Mexican authorities on 26 February 2013 after her private jet in which she had travelled from California landed at the Toluca airport near the capital. She was arrested for allegedly embezzling $2 billion pesos ($156,816,000 USD or €119,242,600 euros) from the Mexican National Educational Workers Union (SNTE). Prosecutors argue she would not have been able to make several purchases on her salary. ($31,398 pesos or $2,459 USD per month. ) She has been charged with embezzlement and organized crime.

The national public schools had been a system dominated by Gordillo's union in which teaching positions could be sold or inherited.

Personal life
Elba Esther Gordillo is notorious for wearing luxury brands such as Hermès and Chanel. She has allegedly spent $2.1 million USD at a Neiman Marcus department store in San Diego between March 2009 and January 2012. Gordillo allegedly used the money on properties, including in the US, a private jet, art work and plastic surgeries. She has allegedly amassed some 10 properties, including a $1.7 million USD home in San Diego, California, that she claims belongs to her mother and other family members. In 2008, she bought 59 new Hummer vehicles to give her aides, only to raffle them off when the media brought the purchase to light.