Last year, he played a prominent role in the campaign that brought Nasry Asfura to the presidency of Honduras. He even claimed credit for facilitating a message of support from U.S. President Donald Trump—posted on Trump’s platform, Truth Social—for the conservative candidate ahead of the election.

This is Fernando Cerimedo: an advisor to Milei and other right-wing politicians. In Bolivia, he was accused of ordering a hit squad to attack his own partner. He is now in prison, where he has also faced allegations of illicit appropriation—hardly surprising for an unscrupulous individual accustomed to lying.

He has fallen so far from grace that many now seek to distance themselves from him, even denying that he has any connection to the U.S. president—who, in reality, has entrusted him with various tasks to bolster the policy championed by Marco Rubio under the so-called "Shield of the Americas." This initiative is ostensibly aimed at combating drug trafficking and general crime, but it also serves as a vehicle for all sorts of schemes designed to denigrate the Cuban Revolution—including support for the criminal blockade that the United States has imposed on the island for more than six decades.

A DECLINE? In short, the Argentine Fernando Cerimedo has gone, in the blink of an eye, from being an influential consultant to presidents—figures often embroiled in all sorts of shady dealings and representing the political right in Latin America—to being detained in Bolivia, accused of attempted femicide.

The Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office has requested that Cerimedo, who served as an advisor to President Rodrigo Paz, be held in pretrial detention for at least 180 days; he has been charged as the mastermind behind an attempt on his partner’s   .

The victim, Nadia Beller, survived an armed attack in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on Monday night. Police arrested Cerimedo at an airport in that city the following morning as he was allegedly attempting to fly to Buenos Aires.

Beller, a lawyer and political activist, told the media from the clinic where she is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds that she is pregnant and suspects Cerimedo sought to "get rid" of her.

She also stated that he had assaulted her previously and mentioned alleged acts of corruption in both Bolivia and Argentina—where Cerimedo served as an electoral advisor to President Javier Milei.

"If I hadn't faked my own death, they would have finished me off," Beller said regarding the attack, which took place at a hotel and was carried out by two hired gunmen disguised as delivery workers; the assailants remain at large.

The scandal is already causing ripples elsewhere in the region where Cerimedo was active. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum identified him as part of "international right-wing networks that seek to exert influence across various countries."

"The Cerimedo case sheds light on something that goes beyond his own personal role: it reveals how digital campaigning has evolved in Latin America," Natalia Aruguete, an Argentine expert in political communication and social media, told BBC Mundo. Cerimedo, 45, is the founder of *La Derecha Diario*—a digital outlet that disseminates conservative and libertarian content—and runs Numen, a political marketing agency that originated in Argentina.

He also has a criminal record in his home country: in 2016, he was convicted in a legal case for selling the same apartment to two different people in his hometown of Mar del Plata.

HOW IT BEGAN

He first gained prominence in regional politics in 2022, when Brazil’s then-far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, was defeated at the polls by the current leftist leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In the days following that runoff election, Cerimedo used social media and live broadcasts to promote baseless theories questioning the legitimacy of Lula’s victory. Bolsonaro was later convicted for an attempted coup d'état aimed at preventing the transfer of power to his successor; Cerimedo, meanwhile, was never charged in that case, though he did come under police scrutiny.

Last month, the Argentine participated in another digital broadcast alongside former Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro—son of the former president and brother of Flávio Bolsonaro (a right-wing candidate who faced Lula in the October elections and led in the first round). During the broadcast, they once again raised unfounded doubts regarding the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting machines.

Cerimedo also took part in the campaign that brought Milei to the Argentine presidency in 2023, providing consulting on digital strategy and communication. Although he denied at the time that his specialty was political disinformation, he admitted to employing thousands of trolls to influence algorithms and alter the prominence of topics on social media or digital platforms.

"We run negative campaigns," Cerimedo told the Argentine newspaper *La Nación* back then, explaining that this involves aggressively disseminating damaging information about rival candidates.

Milei has avoided commenting publicly on the arrest of his former advisor, but on Thursday, he reposted messages on X that cast doubt on the attack against Beller, suggesting it was a political "stunt."

FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER

The most recent Argentine presidential election appeared to open new doors for Cerimedo in the region.

In Bolivia, Cerimedo served as a digital communications advisor for the campaign of Paz, whose 2025 victory brought an end to two decades of leftist rule.

"After the campaign ended, he continued to collaborate with the president’s administration—though he did not hold an official position within the state structure," presidential spokesperson José Luis Gálvez stated this week.

However, Bolivian Vice President Edmand Lara claimed that Cerimedo "wielded power and made decisions within the government" of Paz—with whom he is now at odds—and demanded an explanation as to how the Argentine arrived in Bolivia.

Following his advisor's arrest, Paz expressed his solidarity with Beller via X, maintaining that she is afforded "all necessary guarantees" in the case—an investigation into which he has requested.

Beller, meanwhile, speaking while in recovery, told the Bolivian outlet DTV that the government has "the greatest interest" in silencing her, and claimed to possess evidence of alleged illicit dealings by Paz and his family.

She also stated that Cerimedo told her that Karina Milei—the Argentine president’s sister and the secretary-general of his administration—was involved in acts of corruption. However, to date, none of the evidence she claimed to possess has been made public.

Beller stated that she went to the hotel where she was attacked at the behest of Cerimedo, in order to receive information allegedly damaging to former Bolivian President Evo Morales.

AGENT OF THE EMPIRE

Following the eruption of the scandal this week, Morales described Cerimedo as an "agent of the empire," while Sheinbaum characterized him as a political operative who disseminated lies and insults on social media alongside the Spaniard Javier Negre—another director of right-wing media outlets who acquired a stake in *La Derecha Diario*.

"This is how they have won elections in Latin America: through the spread of fake news—something very difficult to counter because they possess significant financial resources and operational frameworks," Sheinbaum asserted during her morning press conference on Thursday.

CONICET, an Argentine agency that promotes science and technology, notes that the Cerimedo case "illustrates an increasingly visible model [in electoral campaigns], where communication does not rely solely on a candidate’s official account."

"A campaign might employ factual information, memes, video clips, personal attacks, slogans, or coordinated trending topics to create the impression that a social majority is discussing the same subject," it explains.

Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has revealed the existence of an alleged plan by Fernando Cerimedo—a far-right digital strategist active in Latin America—to interfere in Mexico’s elections. During her morning press conference this Monday, the president presented a clip from an interview with Nadia Beller, the former partner of the one-time advisor to Javier Milei. Beller was the target of an attempted femicide carried out by hired assailants allegedly commissioned by him. During a conversation on the program *Ventana al Mundo*, the woman stated the following: “He [Cerimedo] told me he was going to participate in the Mexican elections. He said he would have his own candidate because they were extremely interested in removing the lady from the presidency.”

Sheinbaum has emphasized the allegation regarding the “distortion of public debate.” “It’s not just me saying this,” the president stressed. Since November 2025—following a protest driven by discontent among Generation Z—the National Palace has pointed to a network of coordinated accounts, opposition figures, and international right-wing groups as the drivers of an “articulated digital strategy.” This strategy allegedly involves bots, influencers, politicians linked to the opposition, and businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, all aimed at destabilizing her government and promoting United States interventionism in matters of national interest.

As early as last September, the president suggested that Congress could investigate the activities of Cerimedo and Negre in Mexico to determine whether the Argentine consultant and his network have influenced public opinion via social media. At that time—also during her morning press conference—Sheinbaum noted that both individuals have acknowledged “that they exert influence on social media against the president of Mexico,” and that Beller had previously stated that her ex-partner “was going to finish her off” politically.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff