Elba Esther Gordillo,Mexican Union Leader Arrested - Tuesday Feb 26,2013

Elba Esther Gordillo,Mexican SNTE Union Leader, known as Mexico's most powerful woman, has been arrested on corruption charges.

Elba Esther Gordillo, who has led Mexico's high-profile national teachers union for more than two decades, was in federal custody after she was arrested at an airport outside Mexico City on Tuesday, the country's attorney general told reporters.

Investigators from Mexico's treasury found that 2.6 billion pesos (more than $200 million) had been routed from union funds into private bank accounts abroad, including some managed by Gordillo, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said.

Some of the money was used to pay for $17,000 in plastic surgery, more than $2 million in purchases at a Neiman Marcus department store and a house in San Diego, California, prosecutors said.

Elba Esther Gordillo, who runs the 1.5 million-member Mexican teachers' union, is alleged to have embezzled more than $156m from union funds

For more than 20 years she has led the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE)With an estimated 1.5 million members, the SNTE is considered Latin America's most powerful union.Elba Esther Gordillo was expelled from Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2006 and helped found the New Alliance party.

Controversial Union Leader

• Elba Esther Gordillo rose from humble origins in rural Chiapas state
• Leads the SNTE teachers' union, with an estimated 1.5 million members
• Has held post for more than 20 years
• Prosecutors have never brought a charge against her despite numerous fraud allegations
• Expelled from President Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2006 for forming her own party
• Accused by prosecutors in February 2013 of "systematic embezzlement" of union accounts between 2008 and 2012