🚨 HIGH-IMPACT CASE — PROVINCE OF BUENOS AIRES — MAY 18, 2026

The teenager was savagely assaulted by Leonardo Marcelino while lying wounded on a stretcher, under the passive gaze of police and health personnel. The aggressor is a fugitive and has a previous conviction for aggravated sexual abuse. The case, labeled as culpable homicide, could be reclassified. Chascomús demands justice.

📅  Tuesday, May 19, 2026   ⏱️  Reading Time: 6 minutes   📌  Chascomús, Buenos Aires, Argentina   ✍️  Research Writing

The Buenos Aires city of Chascomús was dismayed after a succession of events that ended the life of Kevin Martínez, a 15-year-old teenager with no criminal record. The day began with a traffic accident and escalated to become, according to his family and the lawyer who represents them, a homicide committed in full view of police and health personnel.

On Tuesday, May 13, Kevin was traveling as a passenger on a Honda XR 150 motorcycle driven by S.M., another 17-year-old boy, when both were hit on the corner of Jacarandá and Julián Quintana streets by a Ford Ka driven by María Antonella Saint Jean, a 25-year-old woman. The impact was violent and left the two minors seriously injured on the pavement.

The SAME personnel arrived at the scene and prioritized the care of S.M., whose condition was critical: he lost a leg due to his injuries. Kevin, on the other hand, remained immobilized on a stretcher on the public road, conscious, with a broken leg and visibly scared, waiting to be transferred.

It was at that moment of extreme vulnerability that the episode that has shaken all of Argentina occurred. Leonardo Marcelino, a merchant who lived a few meters from the corner of the accident, approached the injured teenager and began a brutal aggression. According to the case and can be seen in the images obtained by witnesses, the man repeatedly hit Kevin on the head with his fists, grabbed him by the neck and put a knee on his body.

It all happened while the minor was asking for help. In the videos that circulate, Kevin's voice is clearly heard begging for "help" and asking to be released, while some neighbors reproached the aggressor for his attitude. Police officers, municipal personnel and health workers were at the scene. However, no one intervened in time to stop the beating.

The reason alleged by Marcelino, according to hypotheses that circulated among neighbors and were picked up by media such as C5N, is that he accused the teenager of having stolen the motorcycle on which he was riding. However, Kevin's own family and the judicial investigation agree on a critical point: so far there is no element in the file that links the teenager to that robbery.

After the blows, Kevin was completely unconscious. It was then that he was finally put in the ambulance. The aggressor slowly withdrew before the eyes of those present and escaped from the scene. Since that moment, Leonardo Marcelino has remained a fugitive from justice and is intensely sought by the Buenos Aires police.

Kevin Martínez was transferred to the Franchín Sanatorium, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Almagro, where he agonized for two days. He died on Thursday, May 15. The preliminary autopsy established "polytrauma" and "internal bleeding" as the cause of death. Forensic sources consulted by Infobae pointed out that, so far, these injuries are compatible with the crash into the car.

However, the family and their lawyer refute that conclusion. The lawyer categorically stated that "there is no doubt that the cause of death is the blows" and that the scientific expertise in progress will be decisive. According to his words, the traffic accident "is very far from causing death" to the teenager.

A version that circulated on social networks and was picked up by C5N journalists indicates that Kevin would have suffered a collapse of the skull as a result of the blows. This hypothesis, if confirmed by an expert, would radically transform the cover of the case and the criminal responsibilities involved.

One of the most disturbing facts of the case is the judicial history of Leonardo Marcelino. The family's lawyer revealed to the press that Marcelino was recently sentenced by the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) No. 1 of Dolores to a sentence of between 12 and 15 years in prison for aggravated sexual abuse.

Despite this, Marcelino was free at the time of the event and, after committing the attack, he managed to escape. At the close of this edition, the Buenos Aires police are looking for him intensely. He is the only person that the Justice Department directly links to the beating, but he has not yet registered a formal charge for Kevin's death.

As shocking as the aggression itself is the conduct of the police officers present. The videos show that the agents observed how Marcelino beat the injured teenager without intervening with the speed that the case demanded. Kevin's father, Marcos, told the press: "I saw the video a thousand times and I can't find an explanation. The pain is so great that I don't understand why the justice system didn't act while there."

The mother, Romina, added: "There were officers and enough people to hold him and keep him from approaching." The family's lawyer announced that he will request that the "criminal responsibility" of the police officers and ambulance personnel who witnessed the attack be investigated. The Municipality of Chascomús acknowledged in a statement that "the actions of police personnel must be evaluated."

According to the lawyer, "there was a network of complicity regarding the definitive cause of death" and said that "if they had acted as they should, this would not have happened." He also questioned that Kevin had been handcuffed on the stretcher despite being seriously injured, describing such treatment as humiliating and unjustified.

Those who knew Kevin Martínez paint the portrait of a normal, lovable teenager without conflicts with the law. His grandmother, in dialogue with TN, described him as "a very companion" and "an excellent boy." His mother, Romina, declared that "he was beautiful, cheerful; all the noise around him was for joy" and added: "There are no words. I have no consolation. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that we have to fight for justice."

Judicial sources consulted by Infobae confirmed that Kevin Martínez did not have any criminal record. The only connection with the stolen vehicle was circumstantial: he was traveling as a passenger on a motorcycle that had an active kidnapping order since May 9. It is unknown if the teenager knew that the motorcycle was stolen.

This Monday, May 18, at 4 p.m., family, friends, neighbors and citizens from all over the country who followed the case call for a peaceful march in Chascomús. The mobilization will depart from Misiones 81, the home of the Martínez family, and will go to the local police station.

•        Time: 4:00 p.m., Monday, May 18, 2026

•        Starting point: Misiones 81, Chascomús

•        Destination: local police station of Chascomús

•        Slogan: "We don't want violence, we want justice"

The judicial investigation was in charge of prosecutor Daniela María Bertoletti Tramuja, head of UFID No. 9 of Chascomús, who delegated police tasks to the local Departmental Subdelegation of Investigations. The only one formally charged so far is the driver of the Ford Ka, María Antonella Saint Jean, whose case is labeled as culpable homicide. He remained at the scene after the accident.

Leonardo Marcelino, the aggressor who escaped, has not yet been arrested or formally charged at the time of going to press, although the prosecutor's office is analyzing multiple accusations. The final results of the autopsy and the scientific expertise will be key to determining whether the cover escalates to intentional homicide and how many people – including police and health personnel – should be criminally liable.

The other teenager who was traveling on the motorcycle, S.M., 17, is still hospitalized in serious condition and had a leg amputated. Unlike Kevin, he does have a record for robbery.

🔍 RELATED SEARCH TERMS

Kevin Martínez Chascomús • Chascomús adolescent beating • Leonardo Marcelino fugitive • justice Kevin Martínez • Chascomús motorcycle accident • Buenos Aires manslaughter • Chascomús 18 de Mayo march • young man run over Buenos Aires • UFID Chascomús • prosecutor Bertoletti Tramuja • police violence Buenos Aires

📰 Note prepared with information from Infobae, Minuto Uno, Ámbito , Crónica, La Noticia 1 and Diario Nuevo Día • Update: 18/05/2026

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🔴 BREAKING NEWS — SPORTS POLICE

ROBBERY OF DEL POTRO IN TANDIL

Thieves ransacked his house in the Don Bosco neighborhood and took trophies, medals, historical rackets and objects of deep sentimental value

🗓️ May 16, 2026 ⏱️ Reading Time: ~8 minutes 📍 Tandil, Buenos Aires

On the night of Friday, May 15, 2026, criminals entered the home of Juan Martín Del Potro in the Don Bosco neighborhood of Tandil and took part of the history of Argentine tennis. Trophies, Olympic medals, rackets of historic matches, jewelry, watches and the wedding ring of his deceased father are among the stolen goods. The robbery, discovered by his mother Patricia Lucas when she returned home, shocked the entire country.

The police investigation reconstructs the events as follows: the assailants waited for the moment when the property was empty. They entered after breaking one of the windows of the house and, once inside, they took the time necessary to go through practically all the rooms with a precision that surprised the investigators.

Local media such as El Diario de Tandil and La Voz de Tandil pointed out from the first hours a detail that the police took as a central line of investigation: the criminals seemed to know exactly where the most valuable objects were stored. This suggests the possibility that they had prior information about the family's movements and about the contents of the house.

It was Patricia Lucas, mother of the former tennis player, who discovered the disaster when she returned home. He found the interior of the house completely scrambled and the damage caused by the forced entry. He immediately filed a complaint with the authorities, who appeared at the scene to carry out expert reports and deploy a search operation in the area.

More than a common robbery, what happened in Don Bosco's house was the looting of a private sports museum. Each stolen object has a name, a date, a match and a story behind it. The stolen goods, as confirmed by sources close to the investigation and local media, include:

The main line of investigation handled by the Buenos Aires Police officers points to a robbery with "prior intelligence". The term technical describes those crimes that are not opportunistic but planned: criminals gather information about the property, its occupants, its routines and the value of what is inside before acting.

Three elements support this hypothesis:

1️⃣ The accuracy of the route: the thieves checked specific sectors of the house, without the erratic pattern typical of an improvised robbery.

2️⃣ The selective objective: among the thousands of possible objects in a house, they chose those of greater symbolic and economic value, which implies prior knowledge.

3️⃣ The exact timing: they acted when the house was completely empty, including Patricia Lucas, which suggests prior surveillance of the family movements.

The investigation now aims to determine if there was any type of internal complicity or if the criminals were able to collect information through third parties with access to the property or family environment.

To understand the magnitude of the robbery, you have to understand who Juan Martín Del Potro is. The 37-year-old from Tandil is considered one of the best Argentine tennis players in history, along with Guillermo Vilas. His professional career, which began in 2005, was an epic journey between glory, devastating injuries and impossible returns.

His most important achievements

But his story would not be what it is without injuries. He added more than five and a half years of involuntary parpara between 2010 and 2022, lost 14 Grand Slams due to physical problems, reached 1045 in the ranking and returned from there to win a Masters 1000 and reach the final of the US Open again. That is not only made by an athlete: it is made by a symbol.

The retreat and his life in Tandil

On February 8, 2022, Del Potro played his last professional match at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires against Federico Delbonis, in front of his mother who saw him play for the first time. Since then, Tandil has been the center of his life again. The Tower that toured the world always returned to the mountains, to the mural by Avellaneda and Richieri that immortalized him in the city, and to the tranquility that fame never took away from him.

The house in the Don Bosco neighborhood was not just a property: it was the repository of an unrepeatable sporting life. It was where I kept what can never be bought or replaced.

The news went viral within hours. Infobae, La Nación, Ámbito , Canal 26, media from Spain and all of Latin America replicated the information. Social networks exploded with messages of solidarity with Del Potro and indignation in the face of a fact that transcends common insecurity: they did not steal a television, they stole part of a country's sports heritage.

The robbery revived the debate on insecurity in medium-sized cities in the interior of Buenos Aires. Tandil, known for its tranquility in the mountains, became the center of a discussion this week that the country cannot avoid.

This is not the first case in which an Argentine public figure suffers a theft that goes beyond the material. The list of athletes, artists and personalities victimized in their homes is long and painful. But the case of Del Potro has an additional dimension: what was stolen cannot be valued or replaced in the market. A US Open trophy, an Olympic medal, a racket with which the Davis Cup point was won: they are unique objects in the world, linked to a moment and a person.

The legal question is also complex: how is a Grand Slam trophy valued for a criminal case? What is the price of an Olympic medal with historical load? Experts must determine market values for objects that strictly do not have a market.

Cases of theft of trophies and historical sports objects in the world show mixed results. In some cases, the objects appear months or years later in international auctions, antique shops or online sales platforms. In others, they disappear forever in private collections.

International organizations such as Interpol maintain databases of stolen cultural and sports objects. The possibility that some of Del Potro's trophies may try to be marketed abroad means that the investigation potentially has an international reach.

The ATP, the USOC (North American Olympic body) and the Argentine Olympic Committee could collaborate with documentation that proves the authenticity and origin of the trophies and medals, facilitating their identification if they appear on the market.

Juan Martín Del Potro survived five wrist operations, years of uncertainty, the loneliness of empty dressing rooms and the weight of carrying the hopes of millions. He survived all that. But his father's alliance cannot be recovered with surgery or training. That object, and all the others, are part of a history that Argentina built over decades of love for tennis.

Robbery in Tandil hurts twice: it hurts like the crime that it is, and it hurts as a metaphor for something deeper. The insecurity that does not even respect its own heroes. The vulnerability of what we considered safe. And the possibility, still open, that a part of our sporting history is no longer anywhere.

This article was prepared with information published in the May 15 and 16, 2026 editions of the following media, plus biographical and statistical data from specialized sources:

• Infobae (05/16/2026) — Juan Martín del Potro's house in Tandil was robbed

• Ámbito Financiero (16/05/2026) — Del Potro's house robbed: trophies, rackets and medals were taken

• La Nación / El Día (16/05/2026) — Del Potro, another victim of insecurity

• Channel 26 (05/16/2026) — Juan Martín del Potro, victim of insecurity in Tandil

• Panorama Newspaper (05/16/2026) — Insecurity in Tandil: Juan Martín del Potro's house robbed

• Break Point (05/16/2026) — Del Potro's house in Tandil robbed: trophies, medals and historic rackets

• Mendoza Post (05/16/2026) — Del Potro's house robbed: historical objects

• Diario Río Negro (05/02/2022) — Del Potro's most remembered titles in a career full of glory

• Wikipedia EN — Juan Martín del Potro (statistical and biographical history)

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 ⛽️ SPECIAL REPORT • ECONOMY & ENERGY

YPF INCREASES FUEL PRICES

1% FROM MIDNIGHT

Everything that gasoline prices rose in 2026 and what may come

✏️ Redacción Economía • May 14, 2026 |  ⏱️ Estimated reading: 7 min

🖼️ See image: YPF service station — Reuters / Agustin Marcarian

YPF service station — Reuters / Agustin Marcarian

📌 QUICK EVENT FILE

  💥  THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT SHOOK THE PUMPS

The flag oil company is adjusting again. YPF confirmed this Wednesday, May 13, that from midnight on Thursday its fuels will cost 1% more throughout the country. The news, although contained in its percentage, comes loaded with context: it is the first official price movement since the beginning of the war in the Middle East and anticipates new turbulence on the Argentine energy horizon.

The announcement was made by the president and CEO of the company, Horacio Marín, through his social networks, in a message that combined the austerity of technical language with a wink to consumers: along with the 1% increase, he confirmed an extension of the 'price buffer' mechanism for 45 more days, the shield that YPF uses not to directly transfer the fluctuations of the international barrel to the pump.

The measure did not fall from the sky. It is the result of weeks of cross-pressure between the escalation of Brent oil – which has been consistently trading above USD 100 since the end of February – the contraction in consumption registered in the interior of the country and the need of Javier Milei's government to sustain the disinflationary narrative that has been the axis of its economic management.

With a market share of more than 55%, YPF is not just another company: it is the thermometer that sets the pace at which the entire industry moves. When the state oil company rises, Axion Energy and Shell usually follow. When it freezes, the sector also moderates. For this reason, Marín's every move is read in macroeconomic terms, not just in business terms.

  📅  ALL 2026 INCREASES: THE COMPLETE MAP

To understand why this Thursday's 1% matters, you have to look at the road traveled. The following is the complete history of fuel increases in 2026, reconstructed with data from consulting firms, specialized media and pump records:

The most revealing photo is provided by a field data from Trelew, Chubut: in January 2026, the liter of super gasoline marked $ 1,040 at YPF. As of May 5, that same station marked $1,906. A jump of 83.27% – equivalent to $866 more per liter – in just four months. With the 1% on May 14, the number is already around 85% of the cumulative increase since January.

The fuel price index of the consulting firm EcoGo (base January 2025 = 100) confirms this with another perspective: the indicator went from 136.3 on February 26 to 167.8 on April 27, 2026, a rise of 22.9% in just two months. The biggest jump occurred in the first half of March, when the war in the Middle East became a structural variable in the global energy market.

🖼️ See image: Price poster at YPF station — Agency

Price poster at YPF station — Agency

  🔥  CURRENT PRICES BY BRAND IN CABA (POST-UP, 14/5)

Note: YPF values are estimated after applying 1% on May 13 prices. Those of competitors reflect the survey of the last week and may vary according to time and season. Source: Infobae / EcoGo.

  🛡️  THE BUFFER: HOW YPF'S SHIELD WORKS

The mechanism that YPF baptized as the 'price buffer' – or buffer – is, in essence, a voluntary decision by the company not to transfer to the pump the sudden variations of the Brent barrel during a certain period. It is not a legal freeze or a regulation of the State: it is a commercial promise of the company to its customers.

How does it work in practice? YPF internally creates a 'clearing account': when Brent rises and the company absorbs that difference without passing it on to the price, the debt is recorded. When the barrel goes down – or when the buffer period ends – the company will be able to recover that margin with future adjustments, as long as the market allows it.

The first buffer was activated on April 1, 2026, when the pumps in the interior showed a worrying drop in consumption. The decision also served as a signal to the market: other companies moderated their pace of adjustment by taking the position of the sector leader as a reference. Now, 45 days later – and just 27 days after the original announcement, which implies that the buffer was cut prematurely – YPF makes the small adjustment of 1% and relaunches the mechanism for another round of 45 days.

The unknown is what will happen when this new deadline, projected for June 28, 2026, expires. It all depends on Hormuz.

  🌍  THE WORLD THAT MOVES ARGENTINE PUMPS

No analysis of local prices makes sense without understanding the geography of the conflict that is shaping them. Since February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched military operations on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz – a strategic corridor through which about 20% of the world's oil and gas trade transits – has been practically paralyzed.

The effect was immediate: the barrel of Brent, which closed at USD 73.20 on February 27, climbed to USD 102 in the following days. By April 30, when the government published Decree 302/2026 updating taxes, Brent was already touching USD 122 intraday – its highest level since March 2022 – and WTI was above USD 108. Trump, according to AFP, had declared that the naval blockade of Iran was "more effective than bombing".

For Argentina, the shock has a positive side that analysts do not lose sight of: higher international energy prices could improve export revenues by up to USD 5,000 million during 2026, according to Daniel Dreizzen of Aleph Energy. Vaca Muerta, in this scenario, becomes a strategic asset of the first order.

  💸  THE BLOW TO THE POCKETBOOK: INFLATION, CONSUMPTION AND PURCHASING POWER

Fuels account for 3.8% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). At first glance, it seems little. But the knock-on effect is devastating: gasoline and diesel are not only consumed in the car's tank; they are transferred to freight, food, passenger transport, the cost of almost any good that requires distribution.

Every 10% increase at the pumps impacts 0.36 percentage points directly on the CPI, according to analysts from the Economy & Energy team. In March 2026, the average increase was 7.3%, which added at least 0.3 points to the monthly indicator at a time when the government was betting on showing downward inflation.

The consumption data confirms the diagnosis: in March 2026, fuel sales fell 1.8% year-on-year and 3.1% in the daily average compared to February, according to the Ministry of Energy. The fall hit differently: super gasoline fell 4.1% year-on-year, while premium versions – consumed by sectors with greater purchasing power – grew 2.7%. A market that is segmented is a market that bleeds from below.

YPF was the only large company to overcome this trend with year-on-year growth (+1%), thanks to its more contained pricing policy. With 55.4% of the volume marketed in March, the oil company showed that moderation has commercial benefits, at least for the duration of the war.

🖼️ See image: Gasoline pump in CABA — Infobae / Adrián Escandar

Gasoline pump in CABA — Infobae / Adrián Escandar

  🔭  PROJECTION: HOW MUCH HIGHER CAN GASOLINE RISE?

The question that no one can answer with certainty, but that everyone is trying: how far will the price of fuel go in Argentina? The answer depends on variables that are linked together: the evolution of Brent, the duration of the conflict in the Middle East, the government's fiscal policy and YPF's commercial decisions.

Analysts at Economía & Energía pointed out in April that prices at the pump "have not yet reached values that allow us to face an export parity price of crude oil close to USD 100 per barrel." That means, in simple terms, that there is a price lag that the market will eventually want to correct. The refiners themselves speak of a gap of between 20% and 25%.

The buffer that expires around June 28, 2026 will be the moment of truth. YPF said that it will evaluate 'how to incorporate the price increases in case they occur in a scenario of war and volatility'. The clearing account accumulated during the buffer months must be settled in some way.

An additional element to monitor: Decree 302/2026 deferred the remaining tax increases of the CPI for the first half of the year until June. That means that an additional tax hike on gasoline and diesel is already scheduled for next month, regardless of what happens with Brent. The perfect storm could arrive in July.

Milei's government, caught between its disinflationary commitment and the logic of a deregulated energy market, has little room for direct action. It can continue to postpone taxes – as it did in May – and trust that YPF will maintain its role as price anchor. But every day that Brent remains above $100, that bet comes at a cost that eventually someone will pay: the company or the consumer.

 🛠️ THE COMPLEMENTARY MEASURES THAT NO ONE COUNTED ON

The Executive's strategy in the face of the energy shock was not reduced to delegating to YPF. There were at least three additional measures that went almost unnoticed in the public debate:

●      Tax postponement: The government avoided applying the planned tax increases on fuels in April. It moved them to May (Decree 302/2026) and promised to apply only 0.5% in that month, with the rest deferred to June.

●      Flexibility of ethanol cuts: The Ministry of Energy authorized a voluntary increase in the percentage of ethanol in gasoline to 15% – above the mandatory minimum – with the explicit objective of reducing domestic costs in the face of the oil shock.

●      Relaxation of quality standards: The government took measures to temporarily relax some fuel quality standards, allowing blends that lower the cost of production without affecting the general operation of the vehicle fleet.

●      Active micropricing: YPF maintained its system of daily micro-adjustments differentiated by schedule, corridor and region, optimizing margins without applying visible generalized increases.

  🕰️  TIMELINE: 2026 FUELS IN 8 MOMENTS

🔍 ADVANCED SEO OPTIMIZATION — BLOG SALUD DEL BOLSILLO

🏷️ Keywords:  #YPF2026 #AumentoCombustibles #PrecioNafta #BufferYPF #InflacionArgentina #GuerraIran #PetroleoBrent #EconomiaArgentina #SaludDelBolsillo #NaftaMayo2026

📎 SOURCES AND REFERENCES

• Infobae — YPF will increase the price of fuel (13/5/2026)

• El Cronista — Fuel increases: when prices will rise

• Infobae — Naphtha and diesel stabilized 23% above pre-war

• Profile — Government updated fuel tax May 2026

• LA NACIÓN — Increases at the pump hit consumption in March

• Infobae — How YPF's price buffer works

• Diario Jornada — So far in 2026, gasoline has increased 83%

• IARAF — Purchasing Power Report on Gasoline Wages, April 2026

⛽️ Blog Salud del Bolsillo • Argentina • May 2026 ⛽️

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⚠️ EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH

ADORNI CASE

ACCUSATIONS, AUDIOS AND REPERCUSSIONS

POLICIES IN THE MILEI GOVERNMENT

The case for alleged illicit enrichment involving the Chief of Staff continues to generate headlines, statements and tension in the Casa Rosada

―  May 2026 |  Argentina |  Journalistic Investigation  ―

From the statement of a contractor who claims to have received $245,000 in cash without issuing a single invoice, to the lifting of tax secrecy by Judge Ariel Lijo, to the indictment of former chief adviser Demian Reidel for the use of corporate cards of Nucleoeléctrica Argentina: the ruling party is facing a judicial storm with its epicenter in the office of the man who was the face of the government before the press.

This is the complete coverage of the case, with the facts verified, the protagonists identified and the map of the political repercussions that continue to grow.

――――――――――――

The cause was not born overnight. Its roots go back to irregularities detected in the evolution of the assets of the civil servant during the exercise of his office:

💰 Real estate under the magnifying glass

The heart of the investigation are five properties that the Justice has on its radar, distributed between the Federal Capital, the suburbs and the Province of Buenos Aires. The operations show a pattern that prosecutor Pollicita seeks to reconstruct with precision: an evolution of assets that would not coincide with the declared income of the official.

The properties investigated include the lot in the country Indio Cuá (Exaltación de la Cruz), an apartment in Caballito acquired as an official, a property on Asamblea Avenue mortgaged in November 2025, and a property in La Plata where the official's mother resides.

📱 The audios and chats that feed the cause

The most resonant chapter came with the statement of contractor Matías Tabar, who upon leaving Comodoro Py handed over his cell phone to the Justice. Inside the device: WhatsApp conversations with Adorni himself.

According to reconstructions published by Clarín and El Economista, the Chief of Staff would have contacted Tabar before his testimony. The dialogue exhibited to the investigators includes at least one message that set off alarms in the court: "All this is political," Adorni reportedly told the builder. Tabar, advised by lawyers, cut off the communication: "They told me that we don't have to have any more communication between us."

"Let's tell the whole truth."
 — Adorni to Tabar — WhatsApp message analyzed by the Justice

The sequence of chats prompted Congresswoman Marcela Pagano — who had already denounced the Nucleoeléctrica case — to request Adorni's preventive detention, applying the Irurzun doctrine: the judicial precedent that enabled the preventive detention of officials due to the risk of hindering the investigation using their institutional power.

⛔ Can Adorni be arrested?

The short answer is: not immediately. Constitutionalists consulted by El Cronista explain that, since the Chief of Staff is an official susceptible to impeachment, the immunity law first requires his dismissal so that he can be arrested. The mechanism is the "motion of censure" of Article 101, never applied since it was established in the constitutional reform of 1994.

He can, however, be called for questioning. And if the investigation advances towards a formal indictment, the expert report of Tabar's cell phone and the reports of the DATIF will be decisive.

――――――――――――

🔎 Another Adorni: that's how the media headlined him

On the same day that Adorni broke the silence in a streaming, federal prosecutor Ramiro González issued a resolution that added a new layer to the scandal: the indictment of Demian Reidel, former chief of advisors to President Javier Milei and former director of Nucleoeléctrica Argentina S.A., the state-owned company in charge of managing the country's nuclear power plants.

The paradox is huge: the expenses that led to the indictment were exposed in the management report that Manuel Adorni presented to the Chamber of Deputies. The document, of more than 50 pages, details operations with corporate cards in pesos and dollars that include consumption in nightclubs in Madrid, beach services in Valencia, hairdressers, free shops, clothing stores, hotels and restaurants in cities such as Amsterdam, Miami, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro and Vienna.

🗣️ Reidel's defense

Reidel, through his account on the social network X, denied having made personal expenses with the corporate card. He stated that the articles mix data from all the company's cards and that trying to assign the consumption to it is "absolute bad faith".

The company, meanwhile, reacted immediately: its new president, Juan Martín Campos, announced the elimination of the use of corporate cards for trips at Nucleoeléctrica Argentina. A gesture that, paradoxically, shows that the mechanism existed and that no one had questioned it before.

――――――――――――

📉 The impact on the numbers of the ruling party

It took the government almost two months to admit what the pollsters were already showing: the Adorni case had a negative impact on the image indicators of the libertarian administration. An Ad Hoc study counted 2.5 million mentions of Adorni in the last 59 days. An analysis by Monitor Digital indicates that controversy concentrates 41.15% of the mentions of the Executive, well above the $LIBRA cause (29.05%) and the ANDIS cause (11.59%).

The drop in President Milei's image exceeds 10 points, especially among his electoral hard core, according to government sources consulted by Infobae. A single day — that of Tabar's testimony — generated more than 124,000 mentions of the Chief of Staff on social networks.

"It's not linear, but the joke is very easy."
 — Source from the libertarian environment — cited by Infobae

📣 Villarruel and the message that generated speculation

One of the most commented episodes of the week was the message of Vice President Victoria Villarruel on her social networks. Although he did not make direct accusations or mention the Adorni case explicitly, different political sectors interpreted his publication as a gesture of distance at a time when the crisis of the Chief of Staff is beginning to impact the image of the Government.

Villarruel's message was added to a series of signals within the ruling party that generate concern about the internal cohesion of the triangle of power that surrounds the President.

📌 Congress: motion of censure and arrest warrants

The Peronist bloc in Congress announced the promotion of a motion of censure against Adorni, a mechanism provided for in Article 101 of the National Constitution but never applied since its creation in 1994. The mechanism would require an absolute majority of the Chamber of Deputies to remove the Chief of Staff.

For her part, Deputy Pagano escalated her judicial offensive: after promoting the complaints for Nucleoeléctrica, she presented the arrest request based on the Irurzun doctrine, arguing that Adorni would have pressured the witness Tabar through WhatsApp and offered benefits to modify his testimony.

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📁 Adorni's report as a boomerang

One of the most striking elements of the judicial saga is that the expenses of Nucleoeléctrica's corporate cards came to light through the management report that Adorni presented to Congress. The document, conceived as an exercise in institutional transparency, became the link that connected the Chief of Staff with a new case and with the indictment of his former colleague Reidel.

💡 The paradox of the key witness

Tabar's situation also illuminates a well-known judicial dynamic: the witness who delivers compromising evidence, including private communications of the investigated, can become the axis of the entire case. The expert examination of the contractor's cell phone and the analysis of his conversations with Adorni will set the pace of the file in the coming weeks.

Criminal lawyers consulted by specialized media agree that the case "will surely escalate" and that Adorni's public explanations "further complicate his situation." Lawyer Lucas Bianco, of the Association of Criminal Lawyers, was more direct: he considered an eventual prosecution "almost imminent".

🏛️ The political-institutional limbo

Adorni occupies an ambiguous institutional position: he is both the government's media spokesman and its second-highest-ranking official. His removal would require a process that the government cannot promote without acknowledging the damage, while his permanence continues to fuel an image crisis that erodes the president's political capital.

At Casa Rosada they are confident that the 2026 World Cup and the economic rebound will change the cycle. "Manuel is firm and stays," they repeat from the nucleus near Milei. But Justice advances at its own pace.

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All claims in this review are supported by primary sources and reference media:

  🔗  Infobae — Lijo lifts Adorni's tax secrecy before ARBA (May 2026)

  🔗  Infobae — The Government admits the impact of the Adorni case (May 2026)

  🔗  La Nación — Justice lifted Adorni's tax and banking secrecy (April 2026)

  🔗  El Cronista — Details of the Adorni case (May 2026)

  🔗  El Economista — The chats between Adorni and contractor Tabar

  🔗  Critical Voices — Tabar declared payments of USD 245,000 (May 2026)

  🔗  MercoPress — Pagano requests Adorni's arrest — Irurzun doctrine

  🔗  Judicial Time — Reidel's indictment for Nucleoeléctrica corporate card

  🔗  Infobae — Reidel indicted for corruption in Nucleoeléctrica (May 2026)

  🔗  Tiempo Judicial — Adorni: "They beat me because I'm a piece of Milei"

"Justice is going to clarify everything. And I'm going to talk a lot there."
— Manuel Adorni, Chief of Staff

The Adorni case is, in many ways, the reflection of a contradiction that runs through Milei's government: the promise of transparency and "chainsaw" to public spending collides with a judicial reality that involves figures of the Executive itself in investigations for unjustified expenses, corporate cards used in luxury destinations and properties acquired with funds of unaccredited origin.

The case is still open. The expert examination of Tabar's cell phone, the analysis of the DATIF, the pending statements of new witnesses and the eventual formal prosecution will mark the next chapters of a file that, as the Government itself admits, shows no signs of cooling down.

Meanwhile, Adorni remains in office. And Justice, at its own pace.

— End of report —

Posted on May 9, 2026 | Verified Sources | Ongoing coverage

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