Elba Esther Gordillo
Elba Esther Gordillo Morales (b. Comitán, Chiapas, February 6, 1945) is a Mexican politician, formerly affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) until 2006. She is also a leader of the (PANAL), or Partido Nueva Alianza, and leader for life of the 1.4 million strong National Education Workers' Union (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación or SNTE). She is also widely considered to be one of the most evil persons ever to be born in Mexico.
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[edit] Biography
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 (2nd most important ranking position within the party).
[edit] Gordillo vs Madrazo
Elba Esther Gordillo was decisive in Roberto Madrazo's triumph in the elections for the national presidency of the PRI held in 2000 after losing power for the first time in its history, bringing with her the backing of the powerful teachers' union.
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 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. High political pressure and illness pushed Gordillo out from public life for about a year, although she retained her post as PRI's secretary general.
In early 2005 Gordillo returned to public life and 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 surprising political 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 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 September 19 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 PAN and for attacking and slandering against the PRI's leaders and candidates.
[edit] Alliance with the PAN
Gordillo, after being ousted from the PRI, became aligned with the PAN. Her goal was to further consolidate her influence in the Mexican government. In the 2006 federal elections, along with the teachers' syndicate political machine, she helped Calderon of the PAN win the presidency by commanding as much as 4 percent of the vote. She also was successful in representing in congress her new party of the National Education Worker's Union New Alliance party (PANAL). Purportedly, in exchange for her support, she demanded control of a number of governmental posts, including control of the National Directorate for Public Safety, the State Workers' Pension Fund (ISSSTE), the National Lottery, and an Undersecretariat of the Department of Education.
[edit] External links
- (Spanish) Terra: Elba Esther Gordillo.
- (Spanish) Gordillo timeline (El Universal)
- Gordillo Article in the Economist (The Economist)
