Jailed Mexico Teachers' Union Leader Elba Gordillo Denied Home Detention Katherine Corcoran - The Associated Press
go to original August 25, 2015

In this photo released by Mexico's federal court system, the head of Mexico's powerful teachers' union, Elba Esther Gordillo, stands behind bars as she appears for a hearing at a federal prison in Mexico City, in February, 2013. (AP/Juzgado Sexto de Distrito en Procesos Penales Federales)

After Mexico's most famous prisoner, drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, tunneled his way out of a maximum security facility last month, its second-most famous prisoner has been denied home detention by a Mexican federal court.

Former teachers' union head Elba Esther Gordillo, once a feared political operator who has been in jail since 2013 on charges of embezzlement and organized crime, had requested home detention for health reasons. She is 70 years old, the age at which under Mexican law prisoners can be considered for serving jail time at home.

But the 6th Court of Federal Criminal Proceedings said in a ruling made public Sunday that her team failed to provide sufficient evidence that a home detention would not allow her to escape.

...As head of the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers, Gordillo was known for her designer clothes, flamboyant spending and ability to swing presidential elections with votes from her teachers' union and the political party she founded.

She was arrested Feb. 26, 2013, as she returned to Mexico City on a private jet from her home near San Diego. At the time, she was gearing up protests against President Enrique Pena Nieto's proposed education form, which has since become law and is still being implemented.

Gordillo was charged with embezzling 2 billion pesos (about $125 million in today's dollars) from the union she has led for nearly a quarter century. She is still awaiting trial.

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