Striking teachers attack offices of major political parties in southern Mexico state

The Washington Post, 4/24/13

Striking teachers in Mexico’s Guerrero state attacked the offices of four political parties and a building of the state’s education department Wednesday after the legislature approved an education reform without meeting their demands.

Dozens of teachers carrying sticks and stones smashed windows, spray-painted insults at President Enrique Pena Nieto on walls and destroyed computers and furniture. They set fire to the state headquarters of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and another building. No injuries were reported as the teachers, some masked, ran wild after a protest march in the state capital of Chilpancingo.

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Mexico’s Arrest of Teachers Union Head Part of a Much Bigger Story

World Politics Review, 2/28/2013

Elba Esther Gordillo, the leader of the most powerful teachers union in Mexico, was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of embezzling millions in union funds for personal expenses, including paying for private property and plastic surgery.

The arrest of the Gordillo, known throughout Mexico simply as “La Maestra,” or “The Teacher” and previously seen as being above the law, came a day after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a sweeping educational reform that the union she led had opposed. …

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Arrest of union boss rivets Mexico

Los Angeles Times, 2/27/2013

The reversal of fortune could not have been more striking. And for many Mexicans, the images, broadcast live on national television Wednesday, could not have been more unexpected.

Here, once again, was Elba Esther Gordillo, the powerful boss of Mexico’s massive, sclerotic teachers union. But instead of the image Mexicans were used to — Gordillo standing in front of adoring followers, defiantly speechifying, dressed to the nines — her famous face was now barely visible through the bars of a Mexico City jail.

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Mexico Sends Hint With Union Arrest

The Wall Street Journal, 2/27/2013

The arrest on corruption charges of the head of Mexico’s teachers union was widely seen Wednesday as a double win for President Enrique Peña Nieto, striking a blow against a controversial political figure and reasserting state authority over special interests. Elba Esther Gordillo, one of the country’s most powerful political figures of the past two decades, appeared in a televised courtroom inside a grim Mexico City prison to hear charges of money laundering and organized crime read out against her.

The government alleges Ms. Gordillo, arrested Tuesday, embezzled as much as $160 million from the coffers of the public teachers’ union. The somber-looking union leader declined to speak to the court, except to say it was a matter for her lawyers. Her lawyers didn’t speak in court, nor could they be reached for comment.

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