MEXICO CITY - Elba Esther Gordillo, the 67-year-old "life president" of the national teachers' union in Mexico, rarely ventures out in public without clothes and designer handbags from Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton and Hermes.
It bears the wealth and power, and they can go through the gates of Los Pinos, the Mexican White House, at any time. Sitting presidents and fear of his court.
Consistently as the least popular of the nation's most prominent figures in the ranks, friends and enemies know him simply as "Elba Esther" and "The Master".
His style is opaque and the strong hand and the personal wealth amassed, they emphasize the old Mexico of corrupt power and privilege in the 20th Century has reigned in his pockets as the nation inches toward modernity.
A native of Chiapas state in rural Mexico to the south, rose from a humble position Gordillo in a primary school in Nezahualcoyotl, a suburb of Mexico through the ranks of the largest union in Latin America to finally depressed sidekick and mistress of the union leaders. In 1989, knocked the then president, Carlos Salinas de Gortari him, the teachers' union, a backbone of strength for the Institutional Revolutionary Party - conducting PRI in its Spanish initials - he reigned from 1929 to 2000 and is expected to preside over the vote on first July to recover.
Significantly, the PRI candidate in 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto, the only of those who have the presidency, which has not committed to spending Gordillo on taking office.
Gordillo hoarse, made his passion and talent for his favorite plastic surgeon's scalpel it easy subject for cartoonists, but as the head of the union, Gordillo shows the calculation of steel to keep enemies out of balance, based on reasonable politicians in office and is serving the they consider potential internal opponents.
"It exile, if you tell yourself," said Aldo Munoz, an education researcher at the Autonomous University of Mexico State. "It brings together teams of people who are in confrontation. There are four people who send hate one another to perform a service."
She also has showers fans with generosity. In 2006, the newspaper Reforma Gordillo had 125 unionized teachers and subordinates, with their children during a seven-day cruise in the Pacific aboard the Pride of Hawaii, and later, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
When the media revealed it had ordered 59 lobsters to his senior staff in 2008, they announced that they had a raffle vehicles and pay for the renovation of 10 schools.
Critics speak of her in harsh tones and wild. A columnist in the newspaper El Universal, Lydia Cacho, the label 23 April as "one of the most malignant cancers" in Mexico. Foro In a televised debate in February, responded analyst Denise Dresser quick question, what would it Gordillo. "It pains me to say, but I think the general feeling that they die, perhaps in the next plastic surgery "
Gordillo has remained faithful, after they threw the PRI from power, as the party general secretary, and also as deputy federal and senator. But if the PRI candidate badly trailing edge of the presidential campaign of 2006, it triggered the second great schism in the party to meet its 83-year history. They took their support - and the Union - the party of Felipe Calderon's center-right National Action, the exchange for promises of jobs for family members and its main allies. The betrayal allowed Calderon to win by the narrowest margin in modern Mexican history squeak.
Gordillo has a nominal salary as director of the school, the equivalent of $ 2,070 per month, but his wealth far exceeds the salary which would allow.
Journalistic investigations over the years have identified 64 houses in Mexico City, office buildings, ranches and rural properties abroad, which are probably linked to Gordillo or her immediate family. Among them is a six-room house in La Jolla, California, Gordillo purchased nearly 1.7 million, according to a report in March in Mexico weekly Proceso. The house has seven bathrooms, a three-car garage, swimming pool and a private dock on the river, the magazine reported.
Gordillo talks to reporters only on rare occasions. His office declined requests for an interview during a period of six months and said she was too busy.
Political analysts say Gordillo possible departure from the political scene is not necessarily the beginning of an enlightened and democratic leadership.
"If we will send Elba Esther Jupiter, the person who takes his place, just do the same if the rules remain the same," Jorge Javier Romero, a political scientist at the Autonomous Metropolitan University, said.
"That's not it. This is an institutional problem."
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