Argentinian President's advisor Fernando Cerimedo's detention in Bolivia. Photo: X/AygunBoDigital.
Fernando Cerimedo, personal advisor to Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz and co-founder of La Derecha Diario with Javier Negre, has been detained at the Santa Cruz de la Sierra airport as he attempted to board an Aerolíneas Argentinas flight to Buenos Aires. Authorities linked him to an assassination attempt on his ex-partner, lawyer Nadia Beller, who stated in her initial declarations that she feared for her life and connected Cerimedo to the CIA.
Cerimedo’s arrest this Tuesday, August 18, is a scandal that has shocked Bolivians, who are questioning the government involvement with Cerimedo, which is also under scrutiny for its handling of a worsening economic crisis.
Two men disguised as delivery drivers inflicted three gunshot wounds on Beller at the entrance of a hotel; but she survived, escaping to a hospital where she told reporters she had a “sentimental problem” with the Argentinian advisor. In the clinic, she gave an extensive interview to DTV channel, stating that Cerimedo wanted to “get rid of her” because she had evidence of serious corruption involving the advisor, President Paz’s wife, María Elena Urquidi, and her family. She mentioned ongoing investigations into illicit activities, such as the smuggling of a gold shipment out of the country.
A witness video shows the attackers taking the Beller’s cell phone. Beller had also been part of Paz’s advisory team but distanced herself some time ago. According to Beller, the phone contained some of the evidence of the corruption she was condemning, but she still possessed other files that could corroborate her claims. She stated that she feared for her life and did not trust the police or authorities who, according to her, “answer to Cerimedo,” whom she even linked to the US empire’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She also revealed that she was four weeks pregnant with her ex-partner’s child.
Marco Antonio Oviedo, the Bolivian minister of government security, declared that Cerimedo is the “main suspect” in the hitman attack against Beller, who is an active participant in Bolivian political debate and collaborated with Rodrigo Paz’s campaign for the second presidential round in October 2025, which Cerimedo had directed. He is now being held in prison while the investigation proceeds.
Weeks before the incident, Cerimedo had publicly denied accusations of physically assaulting Beller. In the interview after the attack, Beller explained that she had been a victim of an attempted strangulation by her then-partner, and that several cabinet members, including Oviedo himself, had acted to protect her aggressor and cover for him to prevent the incident from reaching the press. According to journalist Raúl Peñaranda, director and owner of Brújula Digital, President Paz was informed of the initial aggression against Beller and knew the seriousness of the situation. Peñaranda states that, despite this, the president did not act and kept Cerimedo as his advisor.
On July 24, Cerimedo decided to respond publicly to the allegations. “In recent weeks, completely false publications began to circulate… about an alleged act of domestic violence attributed to me, an arrest warrant, a flight… surreal.” He claimed on X, “In honor of the truth, that event never happened.” Cerimedo attributed the publications to pages of former President Evo Morales’s followers who, he claimed, sought to damage the image of public figures for political purposes. He asked for respect for the people involved, and said that a false accusation harmed the person presented as the aggressor and unfairly exposed the “supposed victim.” In the end, he issued a warning: “Everyone must assume responsibility for the consequences of their actions.”
The advisor no one pays
Fernando Cerimedo does not hold a formal position within the Bolivian government. However, the government has publicly acknowledged that he works for Rodrigo Paz, a fact confirmed by former Minister of the Presidency José Luis Lupo when he was still in office. In an interview, Lupo confirmed that Cerimedo advised the president on communication, although he claimed that he did not receive a state salary or have an assigned office. The minister for public works, Mauricio Zamora, later gave a similar explanation: Cerimedo worked on the president’s communication, but he was not a member of his ministry, and Zamora did not know who financed his services. In May, during an interview with Argentinian radio station Rivadavia, Cerimedo himself declared: “I am the president’s personal advisor.” However, it remains unknown who pays him and what his attributions are; questions that led a parliamentarian, Leonardo Roca, to request a report from the authorities.
“[Cerimedo is] a ghost without an official position, without a transparent contract, making decisions and moving with total freedom within the state apparatus, while any ordinary Bolivian must justify every procedure before bureaucracy,” Roca said in a social media post. “Who brought him? Who kept him close to power despite the warnings? How much longer would he have continued operating unchecked if this very serious event had not occurred?” asked the senator from the right-wing Libre party.
His entry into Bolivian politics occurred through the president’s family, as Cerimedo had been a professor of Catalina Paz, the president’s daughter and one of the figures in his campaign’s digital strategy. When questions about the Argentinian’s presence began, Rodrigo Paz introduced him as “my daughter’s university professor.” After the elections, Cerimedo remained with the president, participated in the communication strategy, and appeared in meetings, trips, and activities within his inner circle. Vice President Edmand Lara also publicly identified him as Paz’s personal advisor.
From Bolsonaro to Paz
Cerimedo is one of the digital operators linked to the new Latin American right-wing movements. He worked on Jair Bolsonaro’s political ecosystem in Brazil, and was later involved in the digital strategy that accompanied Javier Milei’s rise in Argentina. He was also a founder of La Derecha Diario, the media outlet currently controlled by Spanish businessman Javier Negre. Both have been media and financially supported by Mexican magnate Ricardo Salinas Pliego. Nueva Sociedad has placed him within this continental network, and right-wing outlet The Economist even defined him as the “MAGA man in Latin America.”
Before this incident, he had a run-in with the police in Brazil. After Bolsonaro was defeated in Brazil’s elections by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, Cerimedo broadcast a transmission in which he questioned the reliability of the Brazilian electoral system. As a result, the federal police included him in the list of 37 individuals indicted in the investigation into the coup plot after the elections. Investigators identified different nuclei within the coup plot structure, including one dedicated to disinformation and attacks against the electoral system. The federal police attributed the authorship of strategies aimed at attacking that system and spreading false accusations of fraud to Cerimedo. According to the investigation, on November 4, 2022, he made a broadcast to disseminate what he presented as an investigation into the elections. The material was subsequently amplified by members of the Bolsonaro circle. Cerimedo has rejected the accusations, and was later not included by the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office among those accused before the Supreme Federal Court.
Cerimedo also appeared in ‘Hondurasgate,’ the investigation published by Diario Red based on dozens of leaked audios about a transnational network of right-wing political and communication operators acting in the Honduran elections. The far-right advisor rejected those accusations as well and questioned the investigation. This trajectory of investigations allows for the tracing of some of Cerimedo’s portfolio: Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, and Bolivia; electoral campaigns, digital communication, social media; and links with the new Latin American right and the MAGA universe.
Nadia Beller: from MAS to Camacho and the new power
The shooting victim also has an extensive and controversial political career. In the annulled 2019 elections, she was a candidate for plurinominal deputy for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). Shortly after, she appeared alongside Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the main protagonists of the violent protests that ended in the overthrow of Evo Morales. Beller later revealed that, while still holding conversations with MAS leaders, she allowed Camacho to listen to some of them. “Camacho was listening to the conversation,” she recounted. “He was next to me.” Camacho himself then confirmed that Beller had served as a liaison with sectors close to the MAS government during the 2019 crisis. The former candidate ended up becoming a fierce opponent of MASismo.
During Luis Arce’s government, she remained close to opposition sectors and, with Rodrigo Paz’s arrival to the presidency, she once again reappeared in the new circles of power; an environment which included Cerimedo. According to her statement, she went to the hotel where she was shot because she believed she was going to receive compromising information against former President Evo Morales. She said that Cerimedo, with whom she continued to communicate, entrusted her with this mission and assured her that she would be protected by police escorts. She noted that this turned out to be a lie, and that it was merely a ploy to get her to the site where the hitmen were to shoot her.
A government at a bad time
This scandal has broken out as Bolivia goes through one of the most difficult moments since Rodrigo Paz assumed the presidency. Two days ago, the government once again raised the price of diesel for what it calls “large consumers;” in reality, their criteria for this classification makes the majority of the population “large consumers.” It had already implemented a “gasolinazo” (fuel price hike) in December 2025, to which agro-industrial sectors had complained about not being consulted and warned that the increase in production costs could end up being passed on to food prices.
The economic backdrop to this is one of around 20% annual inflation, devaluation of the Bolivian currency, and a productive recession feared to reach -3% by the end of the year.
People from all social classes have continued to express their annoyance at the economic situation. A few weeks ago, one of the government’s allies, Samuel Doria Medina, withdrew his support for Paz, citing “ethical reasons” and high corruption in the government. President Paz’s popularity is half of what it was three months ago, sitting currently at around 32%, and he has yet to complete even one year in office.
In this context, this scandal is a real public relations and communication problem. But, beyond that, it truly draws attention to what kind of politics has arrived in Latin America with this latest rise of far-right activity and its entry into the main stages of democratic power.
(Diario Red) by Susana Bejarano
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
