Argentinian political consultant Fernando Cerimedo has worked on successful campaigns for far-right politicians across Latin America. His arrest over his alleged role in the attempted femicide of his former romantic partner Nadia Beller has brought renewed scrutiny to his disinformation operations on behalf of powerful political figures with ties to U.S. president Trump. Teodoro Manuel on Latin America’s “King of Trolls”.
On August 18, Fernando Cerimedo was detained at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Cerimedo is one of the most influential political consultants in Latin America. He worked on the campaigns that brought far-right presidents to power across the continent, such as Milei in Argentina, Paz in Bolivia, Asfura in Honduras and Bolsonaro in Brazil (as well as in Bolsonaro’s failed coup in 2022/23), to name just a few.
In the same line of work, Cerimedo campaigned for the Rechazo („Rejection”) option in Chile during the historic September 4, 2022 constitutional plebiscite, in which roughly 62 percent of Chileans voted to reject a highly progressive draft constitution that would have once and for all eliminated Pinochet’s 1980 constitution. For this work, Cerimedo received around USD 30,000, according to figures disclosed by the Electoral Service of Chile, SERVEL. The money was most likely public, and the total amount is still unknown. Since his imprisonment in Bolivia, countries across Latin America have begun investigating this digital mercenary’s modus operandi.
Known as the “King of Trolls,“ Cerimedo set up bot farms and hired people to work across the social media ecosystem. Their job was to amplify far-right propaganda through disinformation and smear campaigns against political opponents, including figures on the right of the political spectrum. After his arrest, around USD 40,000 was found in his home in La Paz, along with equipment used to run bot farms, such as modems, USB hubs and micro servers. Beyond his work in the shadows of political debate, he is also one of the founders of La Derecha Diario – a far-right digital outlet that has repeatedly been accused of creating and spreading disinformation campaigns, and it is one of Milei’s most loyal media allies.
From Digital Mercenary to Murder Investigation
Strangely enough, Cerimedo has never been convicted or thoroughly investigated for his actions against democracy or for the people he harassed and attacked. The one exception is Brazil, which investigated him for his involvement in Jair Bolsonaro’s 2022/23 coup attempt, but he was acquitted. That may now change. Bolivian prosecutors have opened an investigation against him, though for a different matter: the attempted murder of his former romantic partner, Nadia Beller. After she reportedly told him she was pregnant, he allegedly arranged for two hitmen to kill her outside a hotel in Santa Cruz. Beller was shot three times but survived with injuries to her neck, chest and arm, according to Bolivia’s then attorney general, Róger Mariaca Montenegro. Cerimedo was arrested at the airport as he allegedly tried to flee the country, and is under investigation for his suspected role in the attempted femicide.
Cerimedo’s arrest brought to light schemes that were already common knowledge but had never been officially disclosed. Almost every country in Latin America began to reveal his involvement in its national politics. Bolivia opened investigations into him for attempted murder and money laundering. The Chilean Congress set up a commission to examine Cerimedo’s links to disinformation campaigns and their illegal funding in politics. The scope of these investigations and the real impact of Cerimedo’s work remain unknown, but the damage done to democracy in the region is evident.
The power Cerimedo wields, even from jail, is palpable. Labeled Latin America’s MAGA man, he benefits from US influence on the continent. On September 30, Bolivian police arrested Róger Mariaca, then the country’s attorney general and the prosecutor overseeing the investigation into Cerimedo. Mariaca has since been removed from office and placed in pretrial detention on separate charges of alleged organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering. Two days earlier, the US State Department had revoked his visa. It accused him and other Bolivian prosecutors and judges of complicity with drug cartels and other illegal activities, claiming it had done so to „protect democracy in our hemisphere and fight corruption and drug trafficking.“
This response by Rodrigo Paz’s far-right government and the US is backed by the Shield of the Americas, a US-led security and intelligence coalition for the region established in March 2026 under US president Donald Trump. Every right-wing president in Latin America has joined it without hesitation. It poses a serious risk to democracy in Latin America and further enables US imperialism in the region.
