Elba Esther Gordillo

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Elba Esther Gordillo Morales (b. Comitán, Chiapas, 6 February 1945) is a Mexican politician formerly affiliated to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and leader of the National Education Workers' Union (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación or SNTE).

[edit] Biography

Born in the state of Chiapas, Gordillo has used her education and experience as a teacher to work for social change in Mexico's political and public arenas. She has been a member of the National Education Workers' Union since 1960. She was elected General Secretary of this union in April 1989; in March 2004 she became the national leader.

In 1970 Gordillo joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). She has occupied several positions in the PRI 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 Excecutive Council (2nd most important ranking position within the party).

Gordillo has also served in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate.

[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 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 affliation with the party.

Some of Gordillo's followers in the National Education Worker's Union have founded the New Alliance party (PANAL). On 13 July 2006, two weeks after the federal elections, the PRI announced her expulsion from its ranks for having supported the PANAL and for attacking and slandering against the PRI's leaders and candidates.