n.
(Spanish; " municipal council ")
Fundamental unit of local government in colonial Latin America.
It was responsible for all ordinary aspects of municipal government, including policing, sanitation, taxation, price and wage regulation, and the administration of justice. Its jurisdiction extended beyond the city to the surrounding hamlets and countryside. By the mid-16th century appointments to cabildos were usually made by the Spanish crown and could be sold or inherited. Cabildos were often corrupt, but cabildos abiertos (open town meetings) were important to the Latin American independence movement of the early 19th century.