MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian prosecutors open a second case against the consultant who advised Milei and Paz

Cerimedo co-founded the website La Derecha Diario and took part in the digital strategy of Javier Milei's 2023 presidential campaign

Prosecutors in La Paz have opened an investigation on their own initiative into alleged illicit enrichment by Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, who was charged this week in Santa Cruz with attempted femicide following the shooting of his former partner, lawyer Nadia Beller.

As part of that second case, prosecutors and police carried out at least four simultaneous raids on properties linked to the consultant in Bolivia's seat of government. Departmental prosecutor Luis Carlos Torrez said more than half a million bolivianos — around 43,400 dollars — had been found, along with sums in dollars and euros not yet quantified, documents and a set of computer equipment preliminarily identified as a “mini bot farm.” “The names of many people who will be called to testify are coming up,” he said.

Beller was shot three times on Monday night outside a hotel in Santa Cruz. She survived and remains in hospital. According to the medical report released by her lawyer, the rounds struck her shoulder, arm and chest without hitting vital organs; her right humerus required a plate.

The custody hearing that was to determine whether Cerimedo remains in pre-trial detention took place on Thursday at the Santa Cruz Palace of Justice but was suspended because the prosecuting team failed to appear, and was rescheduled for Friday. The consultant arrived under police escort, covered his face before the press and said tearfully that he wanted to see his children. On his lawyers' advice he declined to testify. His defence maintains the attack was staged. He has not been convicted in either case.

Beller's lawyer, Jerjes Justiniano, said a forensic examination of the accused's phone revealed conversations proposing that his client be eliminated. The claim rests on a document attributed to the Public Prosecutor's Office that circulated in local media and which prosecutors have not publicly authenticated.

Beller also says that through her relationship with the consultant she learned of an alleged scheme of commissions linked to state fuel and gold contracts, implicating President Rodrigo Paz's circle. She has presented no evidence and the government has asked her to do so.

Cerimedo co-founded the website La Derecha Diario and took part in the digital strategy of Javier Milei's 2023 presidential campaign. He worked for Jair Bolsonaro on the dissemination of fraud claims in 2022, a matter over which he was investigated in Brazil and later cleared, and last year worked on Nasry Asfura's campaign in Honduras. Bolivia's presidential spokesman, José Luis Gálvez, described him as a close collaborator of Paz during the 2025 campaign, without being part of the state structure.