welcome to macondo

i couldn't have dreamt up a better macondo anecdote, both tragic and absurd. this one comes from a little blurb on the front page of today's Página/12:

Las Cañadas is a town in the province of Córdoba with less than 400 inhabitants, with its houses scattered in the mountains. For some time now, the provincial government has suspected that the local government, led by Alejandro Cortés of the Radical Party, had disappeared. A visit from the provincial ministry confirmed it: "Officials did not find any of the authorities; not the president, nor the secretary, nor the treasurer. They went to different houses in the rural area and no one was able to say where they were," said Mirta Mussi, Subsecretary of Municipalities. The public prosecutor's office is now investigating the institutional situation of the town. And looking for its authorities.