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'The Teacher' charged with misusing members' funds after arrest seen by some as political move by new president

Jo Tuckman | The Guardian
Wednesday 27 February 2013 21.05 GMT



Mexico City - She is known simply as The Teacher, a union boss of such legendary influence that she was credited with putting a president in office and, until this week, so untouchable she flaunted her apparently dubious wealth with abandon. Now Elba Esther Gordillo is behind bars over the alleged embezzlement of stratospheric amounts of union funds.

Gordillo, leader of the 1.5 million-strong national teachers' union in Mexico, was arrested on Tuesday evening after the private jet in which she had travelled from California landed at an airport near the capital. She spent the night in a Mexico City jail before appearing in court where she was formally read the charges of "operations with resources of illicit origin" and "organised crime".

She appeared with two other detainees linked to the case and was told she was not eligible for bail. Visible only vaguely through bars separating the prison from the court, and, when asked if she had any questions, she shrugged and said: "No."

The judge in the case has an initial period of 72 hours to determine whether to indict Gordillo, although this could be extended for a further three days.

With the aid of complicated diagrams, the attorney general, Jesús Murillo, laid out a triangulation scheme in which nearly 2,000m pesos (close to £100m) was funnelled out of union bank accounts in Mexico into other accounts at home and abroad of three associates and a business, and then used to finance Gordillo's legendarily expensive tastes, from luxury homes to plastic surgery.

The money allegedly includes up to $3m (£2m) spent in the luxury US department store Neiman Marcus, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on plastic surgery in California.

The smoothness of the arrest contrasts with the drama of the fall that is being interpreted in Mexico as an assertion of authority by the incoming president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and his Institutional Revolutionary party, or PRI, returned to the power it lost in 2000 after 71 uninterrupted years at the helm.

It is also seen as a message of caution to other so-called de facto powers, ranging from feudal-style governors to television giants, who had filled the power vacuums left by the weakened presidency of the intervening 12 years.

"Peña Nieto chose [Gordillo] first, I think because of her emblematic nature, and because it is politically convenient. That's valid, but it shouldn't be limited to that," former foreign minister Jorge Castañeda told MVS radio.

One of the few public figures now prepared to admit a friendship with Gordillo, Castañeda added that the union leader's "excesses, bad taste and sometimes offensive behaviour" should not lead to the presumption of guilt.

Gordillo is an ideal target. The 68-year-old was not only mounting active opposition to a key education reform largely designed to deal with sub-standard teaching by prising the sector out of union control, but had also accumulated a battery of enemies across the political spectrum and among the intellectual and journalistic elite over her 24 years at the head of the union.

At the same time, she had become a national figure of ridicule. Her extravagant designer outfits lay uneasily with the low salaries of the teachers, and she was mercilessly mocked for her, at times rather odd, personal appearance, born of repeated plastic surgery and chronic illness.

The Teacher's near mythical reputation for subterfuge also provided fantastic stories, including the claim that she once held off an imminent attempt to depose her in the late 1990s with the help of a witchcraft ceremony up a Nigerian mountain in which she was clothed with the pelt of a white lion that had been skinned alive.

In her most recent interview, earlier this month, a television news anchor usually known for her soft interviews asked her how she felt about being "the most hated woman in Mexico". Gordillo responded: "Nobody is more loved by their own."

The union did not immediately respond to the arrest of the woman named its leader-for-life several years ago. While she has always had to face dissidence, Gordillo maintained support through adept negotiations of above-average improvements in wages and conditions for teachers.

She also kept a tight hold on the leadership in ways that reputedly ranged from a network of female spies charged with seducing collaborators she suspected of disloyalty, to extravagant gifts. During a conference in 2008, she distributed a fleet of hummers to regional bosses.

Gordillo was made head of the union in 1989 by then president Carlos Salinas, at a time when her predecessor and former mentor was struggling to control a wave of dissidence after 17 years in the job. She struggled through the next administration headed by President Zedillo, but came into her own in the weaker governments of the post-PRI period.

Gordillo became a personal friend and trusted adviser of Vicente Fox of the National Action party, or PAN, after he became president in 2000. At the same time she cemented her independent political power base with the creation of the New Alliance party, or Panal, which is credited by many with helping Felipe Calderón, also of PAN, win a wafer-thin victory in the 2006 presidential elections. This allowed her to negotiate further quotas of power during his administration.

With the 2012 elections on the horizon, Gordillo's party negotiated an alliance with the PRI, but when that broke down many predicted her days were numbered. The voices of doom got louder when Peña Nieto kicked off his administration with an education reform proposal. Gordillo was arrested a day after the president signed the reform into law.

Few analysts take seriously the repeated official denials that politics played any part in the decision to go after Gordillo, who clearly suspected something was brewing herself, if not exactly what.

At a speech delivered on her 68th birthday earlier this month, she said: "I want to die with the epitaph: Here lies a warrior. She died like a warrior."

The allegations

Mexican authorities are investigating the alleged embezzlement of 1,978m pesos ($154m at today's exchange rate) of union funds by Elba Esther Gordillo and close associates between 2008 and early 2012. It claims to have incontrovertible evidence linking the cash to:

• $3m in numerous transfers to the luxury US department store Neiman Marcus.

• $2m transferred to bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in the name of a company 99% owned by Gordillo's mother. The company bought two properties with the money in California.

• $1.4m in transfers to a private jet company called Ademex.

• $17,260 to plastic surgery clinics in California.

Gordillo's reported income from 2009 to2012 was 1.1m pesos ($86,000).

source...

Most of us expats living down here cannot appreciate or comprehend the profound hate most of Mexico has felt in regards to this woman now for nearly three decades. In a widely viewed television interview she gave just days before her arrest, she was asked to her face "how it feels to be the most hated woman in Mexico".

She outlasted four previous Mexican presidents and I honestly don't know how Peña Nieto was able to pull this off politically. The legal means were always there - even people on the streets knew what was going on - but her political clout was so powerful she was considered untouchable.

Until now...

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

Most of us expats living down here cannot appreciate or comprehend the profound hate most of Mexico has felt in regards to this woman now for nearly three decades. In a widely viewed television interview she gave just days before her arrest, she was asked to her face "how it feels to be the most hated woman in Mexico".

She outlasted four previous Mexican presidents and I honestly don't know how Peña Nieto was able to pull this off politically. The legal means were always there - even people on the streets knew what was going on - but her political clout was so powerful she was considered untouchable.

Until now...

Alonzo tells me she has been openly corrupt for a long time, which crippled the education system for decades. The fact she lived a $150MIllion USD lifestyle on a teachers salary really pisses them off. There is a difference between people knowing/suspecting she was corrupt to seeing her with a private plane, many mansions in the tony areas San Diego and enjoying a $2Million Neiman-Marcus shopping spree. They always hated her, now they have a good reason.

It will be interesting to watch how this plays out. The prosecutors claim they have only had the chance to review a few of the accounts she controlled with over 80 left to scrutinize but what they found already was enough to bring charges and arrest her. What I have seen on the news the last couple of days makes it quite obvious that this has been going on for a very, very long time.

Not only are Gordillo and her cohorts liable, but the long chain of prosecutors and hacienda bureaucrats who looked the other way, for so long will soon be put on public trial in the press.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving person! It's too bad Fox and Calderon aren't in handcuffs for "looking the other way"...while she was building her "retirement fund" and not improving the educational system for her fellow citizens.

Originally Posted by Ralph

Couldn't happen to a more deserving person! It's too bad Fox and Calderon aren't in handcuffs for "looking the other way"...while she was building her "retirement fund" and not improving the educational system for her fellow citizens.

And that is exactly what kept her in power - elected officials not willing to suffer the political fallout from taking her / her strong union on. This does fly in the face of all the allegations hurled by the "Panistas" against Peña Nieto of representing the party of corruption from Mexico's past.

Like him or not, Peña Nieto has started off his presidency in an extremely smart way, starting with the "Pacto por Mexico", which will help break down the political obstacles to passing his much needed reforms. Without that pact he would not have been able to get the education reforms through and would probably not have been able to bring down Gordillo...

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

And that is exactly what kept her in power - elected officials not willing to suffer the political fallout from taking her / her strong union on. This does fly in the face of all the allegations hurled by the "Panistas" against Peña Nieto of representing the party of corruption from Mexico's past.

Like him or not, Peña Nieto has started off his presidency in an extremely smart way, starting with the "Pacto por Mexico", which will help break down the political obstacles to passing his much needed reforms. Without that pact he would not have been able to get the education reforms through and would probably not have been able to bring down Gordillo...

It's probably wishful thinking....but I'm hoping Pena Nieto is committed to helping Mexico(unlike almost all previous presidents)...rather than just "helping" himself. The good people of Mexico deserve better!

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

And that is exactly what kept her in power - elected officials not willing to suffer the political fallout from taking her / her strong union on. This does fly in the face of all the allegations hurled by the "Panistas" against Peña Nieto of representing the party of corruption from Mexico's past.

Like him or not, Peña Nieto has started off his presidency in an extremely smart way, starting with the "Pacto por Mexico", which will help break down the political obstacles to passing his much needed reforms. Without that pact he would not have been able to get the education reforms through and would probably not have been able to bring down Gordillo...

I hope Pena Nieto realizes social change is a marathon, not a sprint. He has along way to go but made it up the first big hill quite quickly.

I guess I will have to re-think my opinion of Peña Nieto.

Originally Posted by CDN_JOHNNY

I guess I will have to re-think my opinion of Peña Nieto.

Enjoy a few more buckets of popcorn and give him more time.

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

Like him or not, Peña Nieto has started off his presidency in an extremely smart way, starting with the "Pacto por Mexico", which will help break down the political obstacles to passing his much needed reforms. Without that pact he would not have been able to get the education reforms through and would probably not have been able to bring down Gordillo...

This move is not unprecedented. When Carlos Gotari Salinas was elected one of his first moves was to jail the all-popwerful head of the oil workers union on corruption charges. The dude was in jail for 6 years and only released once the new presidency (Zedillo's IIRC) began. During the time when there was not a powerful oil workers union boss, Salinas was able to do whatever he needed with no obstruction. And if you know anything about Salinas you probably know he was corrupt to the core and is the president that sat down with the cartels and essentially sold Mexico down the drug river. Salinas is also one of Peña Nietos mentors and advisors. 2 months back in power and the PRI strong-arm tactics are back on display, or so it would seem.

Certainly Gordillo is one of the most powerful, and rightfully despised, women in Mexico. With her safely in jail, Peña-Nieto can do what he pleases in education (and god knows the Mexican education system needs extreme reform). But his actions also send a very powerful message to, not only, other union bosses, but businessmen and those in positions of power that were achieved through manipulation and corruption. Rumor has it that he's going after the monopolies in telecommunications, i.e. phone and television service next. And that can only mean Carlos Slim.

PNs actions in jailing Sra Gordillo need to be seen as a message to his rivals that he - The President, and by default, the PRI - is in control and all powerful, and that they'd better toe the line with him, or else. The big question remains...is this a return to PRI-historic times or is Peña-Nieto truly interested in systemic change and moving Mexico into at least the 20th century?

This was brought forth on another forum and really "another interesting analysis". . . .

http://www.aljazeera.com/...133273815849909.html

My response was then and is now . . . . . .


Another interesting analysis indeed! as was said in the article and answering the question that started popping up in my mind . . .. . . When do the cartels start getting "involved" here?

As your referenced article so aptly pointed out . . . .

"No one knows exactly how many schools, teachers or students exist because the 1.5 million-member union controls the education system. No official census of schools, teachers and students is carried out.

The payroll is believed to have thousands of phantom teachers and once included the leader of a major drug cartel in the western state of Michoacán."

The collusion between the cartels and this slaughter of “Mexican education” was bound to be connected and come to life in one form or another.

As someone has said the apple doesn’t drop far from the tree. I think a connection to the Wal-Mart scandal will also be able to be traced back to votes influenced so that Wal-Mart could build within sight of one of the most beautiful Mexican historical sites in Mexico City. And on and on . . . . . .

If indeed the Mexican government ever does get a real hold on good education for Mexican children, I would say that there will be no stopping México from becoming a very real, high economic contender at the end of the first generation of Mexican students under this “new sweeping reform” of Mexican education.

I hope this move sufficiently motivates the average Mexican family to get up and support this effort by writing letters, thousands and thousands of support letters to their local, city state and federal politicians endorsing this move. What a different and much better México this can make for the average family here.

My personal belief is if this really does come to fruition and sweeping changes in Mexican education is really made that in the future after positive results have been realized, there could be some very strong efforts put forth to drop a name into the Pulitzer Prize applications of one Mexican politician . . .. . and rightfully so. This can be México’s “shot that was heard around the world.”I believe this man has started one hell of a snow ball rolling downhill!

A good education and decent wages without corruption being necessary to provide for one’s family will without a doubt reduce illegal migration to the USA and other countries. A decent education for their children is without a doubt one of the prime reasons Mexican illegal’s migrate North.

I sincerely hope this kind of sweeping reform reaches out not only in education, but also in the Pemex unions, construction companies, and especially various city, state and federal government agencies. Roll Tide” or in this case “Roll on México”! Bravo, Bravo!

Just my 2 centavos worth,

Robt65

Robt65, the link didn't work.

I think this investigation has just hit the "tip of the iceberg". It's going to get even more interesting when certain politicians are implicated. There are going to be more than a few "old grudges" finally settled.
It's a crime to steal from anyone.....but to "steal" a proper education from an entire generation of children is appalling!

Originally Posted by Ralph

I think this investigation has just hit the "tip of the iceberg". It's going to get even more interesting when certain politicians are implicated. There are going to be more than a few "old grudges" finally settled.
It's a crime to steal from anyone.....but to "steal" a proper education from an entire generation of children is appalling!

I think you are right. No one shelters that amount of money without taking care of their friends. All the crooks seem to sing like canaries once caught. I think Gordillo has already claimed to have medical problems and is seeking special treatment. She looked just fine (for Chucky) sitting on her Coronado balcony.

Originally Posted by Ralph

I think this investigation has just hit the "tip of the iceberg". It's going to get even more interesting when certain politicians are implicated. There are going to be more than a few "old grudges" finally settled.
It's a crime to steal from anyone.....but to "steal" a proper education from an entire generation of children is appalling!

The Teachers Unions in the good Ole U.S.A. have ben systematicaly Stealing the future of Students for a long time

Originally Posted by J.P.

The Teachers Unions in the good Ole U.S.A. have been systematically Stealing the future of Students for a long time

Unions are unions and they serve themselves first, then their members. What is criminal is Gordillo preventing what $156MIllion could have done for Méxican schools. The literacy rate is sad and a secondaria education (9th grade) is still considered "good enough" in many areas. More young people are now going to college and beyond, but they have to have had access to good and inspirational teacher at a young age to get there- and that's why this stings.

Originally Posted by Woooosh

Unions are unions and they serve themselves first, then their members. What is criminal is Gordillo preventing what $156MIllion could have done for Méxican schools. The literacy rate is sad and a secondaria education (9th grade) is still considered "good enough" in many areas. More young people are now going to college and beyond, but they have to have had access to good and inspirational teacher at a young age to get there- and that's why this stings.

Yes I know all about the self serving. I am a lifetime Union Member. I heard all my working life what a bunch of Thieves they were . I personaly admire a good thief and my rational was I can lead a hell of a lot better life by being hooked up with this bunch of thieves than the other bunch. After all we all have life choices dont we .

Originally Posted by J.P.

The Teachers Unions in the good Ole U.S.A. have ben systematicaly Stealing the future of Students for a long time

I have to agree. It's a good thing they don't have as much power as the Mexican Teachers Union used to have.
I shake my head every time I hear about a teachers strike. They tell the whole country "It's for the students". Bull*#@*! It's for the TEACHERS!! It's like bus drivers going on strike and saying "It's for the passengers"!!

Originally Posted by Ralph

I have to agree. It's a good thing they don't have as much power as the Mexican Teachers Union used to have.
I shake my head every time I hear about a teachers strike. They tell the whole country "It's for the students". Bull*#@*! It's for the TEACHERS!! It's like bus drivers going on strike and saying "It's for the passengers"!!

I've spent 30+ years working in education (classified, not certificated), 12 in K-12 and the rest in higher ed (colleges & university). The American educational system is based on an antiquated model from the elary 1900s that assumed that the bulk of the students were going to stay on the family farm, or work in factories. Therefore, the system really only needed to educate students up to the 8th or 9th grade, after that they would return to the farm or go into a factory. Clearly, that dynamic hasn't existed for quite some time, yet the American educational system clings to it like white on rice.

The current educational model has taught students to take tests, but it hasn't taught them to think critically. As long as teacher performance (such as it is) is tied to test scores and results, all they're going to teach are the answers to the test, or how to take it in order to pass. Outcomes are important but not at the expense of logic, reaonsing skill and the ability to problem solve. Sadly, that is now foreign territory for most K-12 systems these days