Adviser to far-right Latin American leaders arrested for allegedly plotting to kill girlfriend

Political Strategist Fernando Cerimedo Detained in Bolivia Over Alleged Plot to Shoot Girlfriend

Wanderstayfinder.com – The man once called the architect of a new far-right axis across Latin America found himself handcuffed in a South American airport on Tuesday morning, not over a diplomatic scandal or an electoral controversy, but over what police say was his alleged orchestration of a gun attack aimed at his own romantic partner. Fernando Cerimedo, a 42-year-old businessman and political consultant, was seized in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, moments before he was scheduled to board a flight to Buenos Aires. Authorities say they detained him on suspicion of ordering a targeted shooting against Nadia Beller, a Bolivian attorney with whom he had been carrying on a relationship since the previous year — despite being married.

The Shooting and the Alleged Trap

Surveillance video captured the moment two men, dressed in delivery-rider uniforms and wearing helmets, opened fire on Beller outside a hotel in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on Monday evening. She was wounded but survived and was rushed to a nearby hospital. According to police accounts, Beller had been drawn to the hotel location after receiving anonymous messages that promised to deliver documentary evidence of alleged crimes committed by Bolivia’s former leftwing president, Evo Morales. Morales currently faces two outstanding arrest warrants and has been sheltering in a coca-growing region of the country.

Beller told investigators she believed the entire encounter had been a trap set by Cerimedo himself. The local police commander, Col David Gómez, told regional media that investigators were pursuing the hypothesis that the two had been in a romantic relationship and had experienced “a personal dispute” in the days immediately preceding the shooting.

Cerimedo’s Defense and Government Response

Cerimedo’s attorney, Ernesto Giraldes, pushed back sharply on the narrative of a fugitive. He stated that his client had not been attempting to escape to Argentina and had traveled to Santa Cruz de la Sierra specifically to visit Beller in the hospital. Giraldes denied any involvement in the attack.

On the government side, presidential spokesperson José Luis Gálvez clarified that Cerimedo had served as Paz Pereira’s “personal consultant” but did not occupy any formal government position. Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz Pereira voiced “solidarity” with Beller and took to X to declare that his administration would exercise “zero interference” in the ongoing investigation.

The Strategist Behind the New Right

Cerimedo’s arrest lands at a moment when his name has become almost synonymous with the consolidation of far-right power across the continent. He was one of the principal strategists behind Javier Milei’s successful bid in Argentina’s 2023 presidential election and has been widely described as MAGA’s man in Latin America — a nod to Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. He is credited with helping secure the US president’s endorsement of Nasry “Tito” Asfura, who went on to win Honduras’s presidential election in December.

In Milei’s campaign, Cerimedo played a prominent advisory role and has boasted publicly that he was the one who suggested the self-styled libertarian candidate bring a chainsaw to campaign rallies as a theatrical prop. Yet despite his outsized influence, he has never held a formal post in the Argentine government.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro Coup File

Cerimedo’s political footprint extends beyond Bolivia and Argentina. In Brazil, federal police indicted him over his alleged role in the attempted coup led by far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. The episode dates to 2022, when, five days after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the presidential election and Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat, Cerimedo hosted a live stream titled “Brazil Was Stolen.” During that broadcast, he presented an anonymous dossier containing false claims about the vote count.

Brazilian federal police later concluded the dossier had been part of a premeditated operation coordinated with Brazilian military officers and Bolsonaro aides, who had supplied the report to Cerimedo. Prosecutors, however, ultimately declined to bring charges against him, stating that investigators had failed to produce evidence showing Cerimedo knew the document contained fabricated information.

What the Arrest Signals

The case raises questions about the personal entanglements that can accompany the rapid rise of political consultants who operate across borders without formal titles. Cerimedo’s network spans at least three national governments and a US presidential endorsement operation, yet his current detention stems from what police describe as a domestic dispute escalated into a contract-style shooting. For observers tracking the consolidation of rightwing power in Latin America, the episode underscores that the informal advisory channels through which these leaders coordinate remain as exposed to personal scandal as they are to geopolitical scrutiny.