From Mar-a-Lago to prison: The fall of Fernando Cerimedo in Bolivia

Fernando Cerimedo, a political consultant dubbed “MAGA’s man in LatAm,” is locked in a maximum-security prison in the Bolivian Andes after prosecutors accused him of hiring assassins to kill his pregnant mistress, a 33-year-old former congressional candidate named Nadia Beller.

Security-camera footage that has ricocheted across social media and news screens shows two people posing as food-delivery drivers ambushing her outside a hotel last month in a brazen attack.

Beller was shot three times. She survived.

Now, she’s giving interviews making a bombshell accusation: She says her former partner Cerimedo, a 45-year-old married father of two, ordered her killing to prevent her from exposing corruption and influence-peddling inside the government.

Cerimedo has denied involvement in the attack, breaking down in tears at a preliminary hearing. His lawyer has suggested Beller may have orchestrated the plot herself. The gunmen are still at large.

The dark and bloody drama is now roiling Bolivia’s government and tarnishing one of the newest additions to Latin America’s growing conservative bloc. Using information and documents provided by Beller, prosecutors are investigating Cerimedo for alleged illicit enrichment, money-laundering, usurpation of public functions and allegations involving flights linked to drug-trafficking. The scrutiny is focused on what Cerimedo did inside the government, despite not having any official role in the administration.

It’s a spectacular fall for Cerimedo, an Argentine national and former advertising executive who rose from obscurity to become a prominent operative in movements across the region aligned with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. 

He had helped lead digital strategy for successful right-wing candidates and causes across Latin America, including campaigns in Argentina, Chile and Honduras, drawing comparisons with Brad Parscale and Steve Bannon, who helped harness online media and populist messaging during Trump’s rise to the presidency.

His work brought him closer to Trump’s political orbit. In February, he accepted an award as the year’s top Hispanic political consultant at a gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he thanked Parscale.

Cerimedo first attracted international attention after Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s 2022 election defeat, when he publicly alleged voting irregularities. Federal Police later named Cerimedo as a suspect in their investigation into an attempt to restore Bolsonaro to power, though Cerimedo was never charged. Bolsonaro was later convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Cerimedo’s involvement in Bolivia intensified ahead of the 2025 presidential election, and he became a key figure in Rodrigo Paz’s successful run-off campaign. Paz’s victory ended two decades of dominance by the socialist MAS movement after he ran on a platform of fiscal discipline, currency reform, phasing out fuel subsidies, attracting foreign investment and restoring ties with the United States.

But after the vote, Bolivia proved different from Cerimedo’s previous political ventures. Rather than moving on to the next country and next campaign, he followed his client into government.

Current and former officials say Cerimedo controlled presidential communications and participated in high-level discussions, including cabinet meetings, despite holding no formal government position. 

He worked from an office on the 23rd floor of the presidential palace, alongside Paz and his closest aides. He also had access to a government vehicle, a driver and personal security – privileges normally reserved for ministers – according to people familiar with the arrangement.

Speaking by phone from Santa Cruz, where she is still convalescing, Beller said Cerimedo’s authority came directly from Paz.

“Fernando could never have had the power he had without Rodrigo Paz delegating to him the authority to coordinate with all the ministries, all the state-owned companies and all the decentralized agencies,” she told Bloomberg News.

Cerimedo’s arrest abruptly ended his access to the presidency. He was charged with attempted femicide, which under Bolivian law is the intentional killing of a woman because of her gender, as well as with an earlier case of alleged domestic violence against Beller. 

Government spokesman José Luis Gálvez declined to comment on the matter, saying that the administration didn’t wish to fan media coverage while the justice system is still investigating.

Cerimedo’s lawyer, Ernesto Giraldes, said his client had no connection to the attack on Beller and is innocent of all the other accusations against him. Cerimedo was a “communications marketing adviser” in the 2025 campaign, but wielded no influence within the government, Giraldes said.

Edgar Morales, who quit as labour minister in May, said colleagues would sometimes reach out to Cerimedo before contacting Paz himself.

“He would call asking me to appoint certain people as directors and deputy ministers,” Morales said by phone.  

Five other people who are or were close to the government’s inner circle, and who asked not to be identified, also said that Cerimedo would call senior government officials to issue instructions and request dismissals and new hires. 

Cerimedo’s growing influence contributed to divisions inside the administration. José Luis Lupo, then minister of the presidency, clashed with the Argentine and ministers close to him over decrees and other policies, according to people familiar with the disputes. 

Cerimedo’s opponents said he emerged as an advocate of confrontation rather than compromise, pushing ministers to take a harder line against protesters during months of social unrest.

The tensions intensified after Paz’s government partially reduced fuel subsidies in December, helping trigger road blockades and protests. Cerimedo favoured holding firm, while Lupo subjected government initiatives to legal and policy review, slowing some measures, the people said.

Lupo didn’t respond to requests for comment. In July, he told a local media outlet that Cerimedo's role as an adviser to the president undermined government unity.

A business card found during a search of Cerimedo’s home described him as the president’s principal adviser and carried a telephone number and email linked to the presidency. 

Paz has acknowledged that Cerimedo worked on his campaign and contributed during the early months of his administration, but denies he held an official position. 

“Mr. Cerimedo never had the authorisation to represent me, the presidency, the government or my family,” Paz said last month. 

The scandal comes at a difficult moment for the president, whose approval rating fell to 21 percent last month from 65 percent at the start of the year, according to an Ipsos Ciesmori poll reported by Brújula Digital.

Bolivian Attorney General Roger Mariaca said his team would get to the bottom of the matter without regard to politics. But Mariaca suggested this week that he was the victim of politics when the US State Department accused him of soliciting and accepting bribes to facilitate drug-trafficking and revoked his US visa.

Mariaca, who denies the allegations, suggested the move was retaliation for his involvement in the Cerimedo case.

Beller says that after Cerimedo threatened her, she started gathering the evidence that is now in the hands of prosecutors as a way of protecting herself. 

“When I wanted to distance myself from him, I told him I was going to report him, and he told me that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” she said. “The only thing I am seeking is justice in order to protect my life.”