Early Life and Career
Gordillo joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1970 at the height of its "Dirty War". She has occupied several PRI positions including Secretary of Organization of the National Executive Council (1986–1987), General Secretary of the Council of National Popular Organizations (1997–2002), and General Secretary of the National Executive Council (2nd most important ranking position within the party).
Gordillo then became one of the most powerful women in Mexican politics. She was the head of the PRI faction in the Chamber of Deputies, but after a political war with Madrazo she lost that position when a slim majority of 118 PRI deputies voted to oust Gordillo as head of their 224 seat faction in the lower house. Gordillo was forced out of the congress leadership presumably because her political ambitions clashed with those of Madrazo regarding the presidential elections of 2006. High political pressure and illness pushed Gordillo out from public life for about a year, although she retained her post as PRI's secretary general.
In early 2005 Gordillo returned to public life and Madrazo greeted her with open arms. According to PRI rules, Gordillo, as secretary general of the party, should have replaced Madrazo when he stepped down; but, in a surprising political move, Mariano Palacios Alcocer took Madrazo's position instead of Gordillo, who publicly broke with Madrazo just few days before Palacios Alcocer's election. Gordillo accused Madrazo of trying to bribe her with the party's presidency in exchange for supporting his candidacy; she also said that Madrazo had no respect for democracy and just wanted to assure himself of the nomination and was breaking party rules to impose a party leader of his own choosing.
The day that Mariano Palacios was elected, Gordillo filed a complaint with a federal electoral tribunal asking for protection of her political rights, but the tribunal ruled against her. On September 19 and as a result of the dispute with Madrazo, Gordillo resigned her Secretary General position in the PRI but decided to continue her affiliation with the party. On 13 July 2006, two weeks after the federal elections, the PRI announced her expulsion from its ranks for having supported the PAN and for attacking and slandering against the PRI's leaders and candidates.
Read more about this topic: Elba Esther Gordillo
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