Overview
- The Concejo Deliberante of Saavedra voted 11–2 on Friday, October 23, to approve the work of an investigative commission and to qualify the findings as grave, formally moving the procedure toward a new special session to consider suspension or removal.
- The commission was created after Mayor Matías Nebot publicly said at a July 17 talk that he had been recovering from cocaine addiction and had gone '308 days' without using, a statement opponents say implies use while he held office.
- Opposition blocs say the timing of Nebot’s admission raises questions about his capacity to govern and allege possible involvement in illegal drug commercialization, while supporters argue the inquiry lacks a concrete, legally punishable act.
- Nebot attended the open, crowded and tense session with his lawyers, who accused the council of pursuing a political effort to oust him and defended his recovery as a health matter; the next procedural vote is expected in early November.
- Under the Ley Orgánica de las Municipalidades the council can judge, suspend preventively and remove municipal chiefs, but approval on Friday does not itself remove Nebot and any sanction will depend on the outcome of the upcoming deliberative vote.