A Mexican teachers’ leader has been accused of embezzling tens of millions from her union to pay for property, private aircraft, plastic surgery and other luxuries.
Elba Esther Gordillo (68), head of the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers, was arrested as she landed near Mexico City on a private flight and taken to Santa Martha Acatitla prison.
The fall of one of the country’s most divisive characters comes with the return to power of Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, which previously ruled for 71 years and once helped Gordillo consolidate her power. She was arrested a day after president Enrique Pena Nieto signed into law reforms designed to dismantle a system she controlled.– (AP)