Elba Esther Gordillo
PEOPLE PROFILE is published every Tuesday and describes the professional background of key people emerging in the political and economic scenario.
Who is Elba Esther Gordillo?
She is the leader of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional in the lower chamber of congress in Mexico. She is also number two (secretary general) in the PRI.
Why watch her?
She is the most powerful woman in Mexico. The PRI is the biggest party in the
lower chamber, with 222 of the 496 seats currently awarded: four seats are
subject to re-runs. She is close to Marta Sahagún the wife of President Vicente
Fox and was thus assumed to be able to push through a workable alliance in
congress between the PRI and Fox's Partido Acción Nacional. This assumption is
now under threat because of the government's apparent determination to prosecute
the Priísta politicians involved in the fraud which took US$160m from the state
oil company in 2002. Most of this money was used to finance the PRI's election
campaign that year.
This spat weakens Elba Esther's command of the PRI in the lower chamber. Her
main rival is the former governor of Sonora, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, who
withdrew after losing the first round of the election to lead the PRI in the
lower chamber. If the spat spins out of control, Elba Esther and Fox are likely
to find themselves lame ducks. If Elba Esther can assert her control of the PRI
in the lower chamber, she will have a major role in shaping the second half of
the Fox administration.
The file
Born: 1945, in Comitán, Chiapas.
Career:
She made her name as the leader of the teachers' union in Mexico, the SNTE, which she headed from 1989 to 1995. This is Latin America's biggest union and a pillar of the PRI.
She was first elected as a deputy in 1979. She has also served as a senator and again as a deputy.
Timeline:
1960 Joined the teachers' union
1971 onwards. Holds a succession of full time jobs in the SNTE
1979 Elected to the Cámara de Diputados for the first time
1985 Elected again to the Cámara de Diputados
1986 Sent by the national executive of the PRI to Chihuahua to ensure that the Priísta Francisco Baeza did not lose the governorship to Francisco Barrio, now the PAN leader in the lower chamber. Barrio was cheated of victory. As a result, the PAN's national president went on a hunger strike for 40 days in protest.
1989 President of the teachers' union, the SNTE, appointed by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. She may have been the lover of her predecessor as president, Carlos Jongitud Barrios, who was certainly her mentor. Gordillo refuses to comment on whether they were more than good friends. Jongitud was dismissed by Salinas and replaced by Gordillo.
1994 Elected to the senate, chairs senate education committee
1995 Gives up leadership of the SNTE, though she remains a powerful, (some would say dominating) influence on the union, controlling its finances. This is important because the union's income is US$9m a month.
1996 Moves on to the influential post of president of the CNOP, the
PRI organisation which marshals PRI-supporting organisations into a movement.
She tried to prevent Beltrones succeeding her, but failed.
2003 Elected again to the Cámara de Diputados
Strong points:
Tough. She herself admits that she is no angel and has lived well, but she says
that she has never robbed or killed anyone. Her fiercest critics in the SNTE
would dispute this: she only just avoided being charged with murdering dissident
members of the SNTE in Michoacán. She knows everyone who counts politically in
Mexico. The recent book drawn from her telephone conversations, 'Elba of Troy or
lady MacBeth Gordillo?' shows her links to all the movers and shakers.
Weak points:
She is a product of the old style machine politics beloved by the PRI. She also
has a lot of enemies inside the PRI. She is poor at delegating and picking
acolytes. She is at odds with Roberto Madrazo the party leader, and has crossed
Manlio Fabio Beltrones on several occasions. She has also annoyed Priístas by
breaking party rules in holding both the leadership of the party in the lower
chamber and the secretary generalship. One (US) political analyst famously
described her as Jimmy Hoffa in a dress. Hoffa was a famously corrupt union
leader.
Prospects:
The next 10 days will test her mettle. There is a special session of congress on
17 September which will decide whether to strip a PRI senator of his immunity.
If she can keep the party together without falling out with the PAN, she will
have proved herself to be the country's key power broker. She may yet be a
candidate for the presidency in 2006.