Political consultant Fernando Cerimedo has been detained in Bolivia while attempting to board an Aerolíneas Argentinas flight to Buenos Aires, hours after his former partner, Bolivian activist and lawyer Nadia Beller, was shot three times.
Cerimedo, a political consultant, has worked on the presidential campaigns of several Latin American right-wingers, from Argentina's President Javier Milei to former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro to Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz.
He stayed on as Paz's advisor after the center-right politician took office in November, ending 20 years of socialist rule.
The consultant was detained by police early Tuesday at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
He was subsequently taken to the offices of the FELCC special Bolivian police force, where he was placed at the disposal of investigators, local media reported.
The attack took place on Monday night at a hotel in the Canal Isuto area of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Two men dressed as food delivery drivers approached Beller outside a hotel in Santa Cruz and opened fire on her, video footage broadcast by local media showed. They then fled.
Speaking from her hospital bed, Beller directly linked Cerimedo to the attempted murder. She told the local DTV channel in an interview: "Clearly, he [Cerimedo] wanted to get rid of me."
She said that her relationship with Cerimedo had made her a "witness" to the inner workings of Paz's government and party, including, she claimed, cases of corruption.
She then added that she was four weeks pregnant.
The attorney general, Roger Mariaca, told reporters that an investigation into attempted femicide had been launched.
Santa Cruz police chief David Gomez told reporters that investigators suspected the attack on Beller was related to her past relationship with Cerimedo.
“He is under arrest, we are investigating whether he has any involvement. We are working with several hypotheses; the first is that Beller had some kind of romantic problem with Cerimedo,” Santa Cruz Police Commander David Gómez told Bolivian media outlets La Razón and El Deber.
Beller ran for a congressional seat some years ago with MAS, the leftist party of Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president. More recently, she has been linked to the political right.
Cerimedo is a prominent political consultant, digital strategist and media entrepreneur who has played a key role in the development of right-wing political movements in Latin America.
He is the one of the leading figures behind La Derecha Diario, a right-wing news outlet, and heads the digital marketing firm Numen. He has faced scrutiny in Brazil over alleged involvement in digital campaigns linked to jailed former president Bolsonaro.
Cerimedo was one of the main architects of President Milei's digital strategy during his 2023 presidential campaign, helping build decentralised online networks and mobilise supporters of La Libertad Avanza.
Although Cerimedo did not take up a formal government post after Milei's election, several people close to him went on to hold positions within the administration.
He previously co-founded a political training school at which Milei once taught courses.
– TIMES/AFP/NA/PERFIL
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