The Dead Poets Society

Elba Esther Gordillo, leader of the teachers’ union, giving a speech (from Azteca Noticias).

This week has been one of the most agitated for the Mexican press: on Tuesday, the leader of the public schools teachers’ union (SNTE), Elba Esther Gordillo, was detained under charges of embezzlement, and money laundering.

La Maestra (the Professor), as she is more widely known, had been for 24 years the head of the union that frequently is referred to as the largest in Latin America, measured by number of members. She was the intermediary between the government and elementary and high school professors, obtaining substantial benefits for them. Among these are secure teaching positions (not subject to firing due to bad performance), better salaries than those of other state workers of similar hierarchical level (the Constitution establishes that the state will offer free education; thus, it hires professors, considering them bureaucrats), personal favors, and, to the leaders of sections of the union, paid cruises, deluxe cars (after a meeting she gave away 59 Hummers), or iPads. Otherwise said, it was an almost textbook example of a patrimonial union founded on the fees required from unionized teachers.

Next to this, as leader of the teachers Gordillo had an enormous negotiation power in education policy affairs, having the last word in relevant decisions, ranging from which professor would be appointed to what school, or the design of the curricula for elementary and high schools. What is more, during the administration of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) despite major criticism her son-in-law was appointed Under Secretary of Public Education (allegedly, in exchange of the support she, by means of SNTE, gave to Calderón’s campaign).

In addition to a charismatic personality, her power can be better understood as deriving from the position the SNTE had in the old PRI authoritarian regime. The party had three major support groups: peasants, workers, and bureaucrats, each of them organized in a union. By large, that of state workers consisted mostly of teachers. Usually, top members of each of those unions had high positions within the party or were elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Given the privileged access to resources they could enjoy, either they became powerful allies to the President, or enemies. In fact, Gordillo arrived to the leadership of SNTE because the government (arguably, President Carlos Salinas gave the instruction to do so) deposed its previous head, Carlos Jongitud. Gordillo then established a close relationship with the government and the PRI, being its Secretary General and member of the Chamber of Deputies in 2003. However, the president of the party, Roberto Madrazo, decided not to support the fiscal reform initiative she was working in alongside President Vicente Fox (2000-2006), who belonged to another party. The quarrel reached such a level that she was expelled from the PRI under the pretext of treason; in 2005, she introduced a new party.

No one thinks that the arrest of Gordillo was undeserved or unjustified. Very frequently she showed off that she adored using clothes and accessories from designers whose products were well beyond the reach of the salary of any teacher (allegedly, she spent 3 million dollars in the Neiman Marcus store, paid with a credit card). Furthermore, the governments of Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón (both members of the opposition National Action Party) have received critiques for not having acted against her.

The only problem in the arrest is, as was common during the authoritarian regime under the PRI, the political use of justice. Days before the detention, President Peña Nieto (from the PRI) presented a new education law, to which Gordillo fiercely opposed. Now behind the bars, she will represent no problem. This mirrors the detention in 1989 of the leader of Pemex (the state-owned oil company) workers’ union, Joaquín Hernández, reportedly because he was against the privatization reforms the government was implementing. Hernández, just like Gordillo, was a patrimonialist union leader. The current leader of the Pemex workers’ union, Carlos Romero Deschamps (again, member of the Chamber of Deputies for the PRI), is thought of being guilty of embezzlement. The question is: will Gordillo’s detention be a single case, or will corrupt union leaders be targeted?