In the transit halls of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, a man who helped script the rise of Latin America's far-right found himself stopped mid-flight — not by political opposition, but by a criminal allegation rooted in the most intimate of betrayals. Fernando Cerimedo, 42, architect of chainsaw rallies and MAGA-inflected campaigns from Buenos Aires to Tegucigalpa, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of orchestrating a shooting against his own girlfriend, lawyer Nadia Beller, who survived the Monday night attack. The arrest invites a broader reckoning: when the same operatives who traffic in narrative
Far-right Latin America adviser arrested over alleged girlfriend murder plot
Nadia Beller, a Bolivian lawyer, was shot and wounded in an alleged assassination attempt orchestrated by her former partner; she survived and was hospitalized.
The line between political operations and criminal activity may be thinner than we thought.
Mark
Why does a political consultant's arrest matter beyond the immediate crime?
Mimi
Because Cerimedo wasn't just advising—he was architecting campaigns for presidents and helping coordinate international endorsements. His networks span Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Honduras. If he's credibly accused of ordering a shooting, it suggests the line between political operations and criminal activity may be thinner than we thought.
Mark
But his lawyer says he was visiting his girlfriend in the hospital. Could this be a setup?
Mimi
Possible, but the timing is suspicious. He lands in Bolivia the morning after the shooting and tries to leave immediately. And there's the pattern—he's already been indicted in Brazil for spreading false election claims. This isn't his first entanglement with legal trouble.
Mark
What about the woman who was shot? What happens to her now?
Mimi
She survived, which is the essential fact. But she's a lawyer in a country where her alleged attacker has connections to the president's office. Even if Cerimedo is convicted, she's living in the aftermath of an assassination attempt, and the investigation itself could become politically fraught.
Mark
Does his arrest change anything for Milei or the other leaders he advised?
Mimi
Not immediately. Cerimedo never held formal government positions in Argentina or Bolivia—he was always a consultant, a strategist working behind the scenes. That distance gives the politicians plausible deniability. But it also means the networks that produced him are still intact.
Mark
What's the Brazil indictment about?
Mimi
He promoted a false narrative about a stolen election after Bolsonaro lost. Federal police traced it back to a coordinated operation with military officers and Bolsonaro's people. He wasn't charged because prosecutors said they couldn't prove he knew the information was fabricated. But the coordination itself was real.
The Pulse
- A woman lured to a hotel with a promise of political intelligence was instead met with gunfire — two men disguised as delivery riders shot Nadia Beller outside, and she survived only to name her own partner as the suspected architect of the trap.
- Cerimedo, the consultant who claimed to have put a chainsaw in Javier Milei's hands and helped carry Bolsonaro's election-denial narrative across borders, was intercepted at the airport before he could board a flight to Buenos Aires.
- His lawyer insists he traveled to Santa Cruz de la Sierra to visit Beller in the hospital, not to flee — but investigators are tracing a trail of anonymous messages, a romantic dispute, and a parallel marriage that complicates that account.
- Bolivia's president, whose administration Cerimedo quietly advised, has publicly pledged non-interference in the investigation, distancing the government from a man it now describes only as a 'personal consultant.'
- The arrest reopens scrutiny of Cerimedo's prior indictment in Brazil for his role in Bolsonaro's alleged coup attempt — a case that collapsed on evidentiary grounds — raising urgent questions about whether accountability can ever catch up to operatives who move fluidly across borders and political networks.
In the transit halls of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, a man who helped script the rise of Latin America's far-right found himself stopped mid-flight — not by political opposition, but by a criminal allegation rooted in the most intimate of betrayals. Fernando Cerimedo, 42, architect of chainsaw rallies and MAGA-inflected campaigns from Buenos Aires to Tegucigalpa, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of orchestrating a shooting against his own girlfriend, lawyer Nadia Beller, who survived the Monday night attack. The arrest invites a broader reckoning: when the same operatives who traffic in narratives of order and strength are implicated in violence and deception, the distance between political theater and personal conduct collapses into a single, troubling question.
Fernando Cerimedo was mid-transit in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, bound for Buenos Aires, when Bolivian police closed in. The 42-year-old political consultant — one of the most influential far-right strategists in Latin America — was detained on suspicion of ordering a shooting against Nadia Beller, a Bolivian lawyer with whom he had been in a relationship, one that ran alongside his marriage.
The night before his arrest, two men dressed as delivery riders opened fire on Beller outside a hotel. She had been drawn there by anonymous messages promising evidence against former leftist president Evo Morales. She survived, was hospitalized, and told investigators she believed it was a trap set by Cerimedo.
Cerimedo's footprint across the Latin American right is substantial. He helped design Javier Milei's 2023 campaign — including, by his own account, the chainsaw stunt — advised Bolivian president Rodrigo Paz Pereira, and secured Donald Trump's endorsement for Honduras's winning presidential candidate. He became known as the man exporting the MAGA playbook southward.
His lawyer denied any involvement in the shooting, saying Cerimedo had come to Santa Cruz de la Sierra to see Beller in the hospital. Bolivia's presidential office, meanwhile, moved quickly to describe Cerimedo as a private consultant with no formal government role, and Paz Pereira publicly pledged his administration would not interfere in the investigation.
This is not Cerimedo's first encounter with serious legal jeopardy. Brazilian federal police indicted him for his alleged role in Bolsonaro's post-election coup attempt, after he hosted a livestream claiming the 2022 vote had been stolen and presented a dossier later found to contain fabricated claims. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the case, concluding there was insufficient evidence that Cerimedo knew the report was false.
Now in custody on a far more personal charge, Cerimedo's arrest throws into relief the question that has shadowed far-right political networks across the continent: whether the operatives who move between governments, campaigns, and crises are ever truly held to account.
Fernando Cerimedo landed in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on a Tuesday morning with plans to catch a connecting flight to Buenos Aires. He never made it to the gate. Before he could board, Bolivian police arrested the 42-year-old political consultant on suspicion of ordering the shooting of his girlfriend, a lawyer named Nadia Beller, the night before.
Cerimedo is not a minor player in Latin American politics. He has spent years as a senior strategist and adviser to some of the region's most prominent far-right leaders. He worked as a personal consultant to Bolivian president Rodrigo Paz Pereira. He was one of the architects of Javier Milei's 2023 presidential campaign in Argentina, the one where Milei famously brought a chainsaw to rallies—an idea Cerimedo has claimed to have suggested. He helped secure Donald Trump's endorsement of Nasry Asfura, who won Honduras's presidential election in December. In political circles, he became known as the man bringing the MAGA playbook to Latin America.
On Monday night, two men dressed as delivery riders and wearing helmets opened fire on Beller outside a hotel in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. She was hit but survived and was taken to hospital. According to police, Beller had received anonymous messages luring her to the hotel with a promise of evidence related to crimes allegedly committed by Bolivia's former leftist president Evo Morales, who remains a fugitive. Beller told investigators she believed the shooting was a trap set by Cerimedo, with whom she had been in a relationship since the previous year—a relationship that existed alongside his marriage.
The local police commander, Col David Gómez, told media outlets that investigators were pursuing the theory that Beller and Cerimedo had been romantically involved and had experienced a personal dispute in the days leading up to the attack. Cerimedo's lawyer, Ernesto Giraldes, pushed back against the allegations, saying his client had traveled to Santa Cruz de la Sierra specifically to visit Beller in the hospital and had no intention of fleeing to Argentina. Giraldes denied that Cerimedo was behind the shooting.
A presidential spokesperson clarified that Cerimedo held no formal government position, describing him only as Paz Pereira's personal consultant. The Bolivian president himself expressed solidarity with Beller and pledged that his administration would maintain zero interference in the investigation, posting the commitment on social media.
Cerimedo's arrest is not his first brush with serious legal trouble. In Brazil, federal police indicted him over his alleged involvement in the attempted coup orchestrated by far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. In the days after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the 2022 election and Bolsonaro refused to concede, Cerimedo hosted a live stream titled "Brazil Was Stolen." He presented an anonymous dossier containing false claims about the vote. Federal police later concluded the operation had been premeditated and coordinated with Brazilian military officers and Bolsonaro aides, who had provided Cerimedo with the report. Prosecutors ultimately declined to bring charges, arguing that investigators had failed to produce evidence showing Cerimedo knew the report contained fabricated information.
Now, with Cerimedo in custody in Bolivia on suspicion of attempted murder, questions loom about the networks connecting far-right operatives across the continent and what accountability, if any, exists within those circles.
Notable Quotes
Cerimedo had traveled to Santa Cruz de la Sierra specifically to visit Beller in the hospital and had no intention of fleeing to Argentina.— Ernesto Giraldes, Cerimedo's lawyer
The administration would offer zero interference in the investigation.— Bolivian president Rodrigo Paz Pereira, via social media
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Politics & Governance