Heads Rolling - Mexico May Finally be Ready to Face the Plague of Corruption Emily Liedel - America Economia/Worldcrunch
go to original March 11, 2013

A Union boss known as Mexico's most powerful woman was arrested last month on charges of corruption. Elba Esther Gordillo is accused of embezzeling more than 160 million dollars from the country's teachers' union. She's suspected of using the money on everything from property to plastic surgery. Al Jazeera's Rachel Levin reports from Mexico City. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

MEXICO CITY - There are many possible interpretations of the sudden and public imprisonment of the extravagant Elba Esther Gordillo, who until a couple of days ago was the president of the Mexican teachers’ union, and who is accused of having embezzled $160 million from the union.

Gordillo is known throughout Mexico as “The Teacher,” and she didn’t hide her luxurious lifestyle, so it was well known that she was living from more than just her union salary. She is addicted to plastic surgery and travels incessantly.

She was arrested while disembarking from a private plane on the way home from one of her properties in La Jolla, an expensive neighborhood of San Diego, California. The following day, more details of her extravagant life came to light, such as a $2 million account with high-end U.S. retailer Nieman Marcus. Gordillo also paid a Nigerian psychic to tell her future – a service that cost $45,000.

It’s doubtful the Nigerian psychic predicted Gordillo would be arrested by the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) government that came to power in the beginning of 2013. It is equally unlikely that the psychic told her that her detention would coincide with an educational reform that, among other things, takes power away from the union she led.

The various conspiracy theories swirling in Mexican politics are accusing new President Enrique Peña Nieto of making a number of spectacular changes without really making any true reforms. But the government’s decision to decapitate the teachers’ union and imprison its corrupt president is a sign that Peña Nieto is on the right track.

Read the whole story at Worldcrunch

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