Scandal erupts over power of Mexican union leader (AP)



FILE - This May 12, 2003 file photo shows Elba Esther Gordillo, then secretary general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) speak at a news conference with foreign correspondents in Mexico City. Gordillo is probably Mexico's most powerful woman, president for life of the nation's biggest union and a potential kingmaker in next year's presidential election. Now she's fighting allegations from a former ally that she tried to extort nearly $2 million a month from a federal agency in a scandal that has raised questions about how far reform has taken root in Mexico following the 2000 ouster of the long-ruling PRI. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)AP - Elba Esther Gordillo is probably Mexico's most powerful woman, president of the nation's biggest union and a potential kingmaker in next year's presidential election.