Fernando Cerimedo, the influential Argentine political consultant for right-wing leaders in Latin America, such as Javier Milei, Rodrigo Paz, and Jair Bolsonaro, is increasingly in trouble. In addition to his arrest in Bolivia for the attempted femicide of his ex-partner, lawyer Nadia Beller, he now faces a new preventive detention in the case of illicit enrichment.
Judge Douglas Borda ruled that the digital communication strategist, known as the “king of trolls,” serve six months of preventive detention in the maximum-security prison of Chonchocoro. For now, Cerimedo remains in the Palmasola prison in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, accused of having planned the attempted femicide of his ex-partner on August 17. That night, Beller suffered a shooting attack carried out by two hitmen disguised as food delivery workers in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
“I have not received any money from the State nor taken money from the State of Bolivia; on the contrary, the same case shows that I have brought money to Bolivia,” said the consultant detained since August 18 in Bolivia.
“I am not going to flee, Your Honor. I want to finish this process because they ruined my life,” he said at the hearing. According to the Bolivian newspaper El Deber, the advisor broke down in tears repeatedly before the court.
In his statement, Cerimedo assured that his annual income is around one million dollars and is the result of his “lawful activities” with his companies outside Bolivia. In his previous presentation, he had also claimed to earn one million per month, not per year.
The Argentine also said he is an “international political consultant in Argentina and the United States” and that he has no companies in Bolivia. “In the United States, I have a company, Numen Group Inc., since 2021, through which I provide services to clients from different countries, and in Argentina, I have an advertising company, Numen de Publicidad, where I have 35 employees and a portfolio of twelve clients with two branches,” he specified.
Cerimedo also faces a third case in the Beni department, where he is accused of trafficking controlled substances and conspiracy, according to the newspaper Página/12. He is linked to the circulation of small planes transporting various substances. He is also accused of cover-up.
This case that Cerimedo faces in Bolivia is directly related to the first, since it was Nadia Beller who, in her testimony, mentioned alleged maneuvers linked to drug trafficking. The reported events allegedly took place within the Beni department, on the border between Bolivia and Brazil.
Specifically, the consultant’s ex-partner accused Cerimedo of using the installation of GPS devices and radars on various small planes as a front to control flights and routes. “His excuse was that he released the planes to put radars on them and then bring them down. He never admitted that he received money through corruption, but rather in a disguised way to put radars on them, bring them down, and thus get rid of the drug traffickers,” Beller stated, according to the Spanish newspaper ABC.
Página/12 highlights that Beller will testify this week as a protected witness before the La Paz prosecutor’s office. She promises to provide information about the consultant’s assets and his links with the Bolivian government.
According to the Argentine newspaper, the lawyer will say that between Fernando Cerimedo and the wife of the Bolivian president, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, they arranged a scheme through which 2 million liters of fuel were sold daily that were taken from the flow of the company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivia (YPFB) and sold on the black market, with Cerimedo-Bibi Urquidi keeping 1 Bolivian peso per liter, about 150,000 dollars per day. Rodrigo Paz came out to assert that his wife is impeccable and that “my family is Christian.”
Beller will also say that Cerimedo was involved in the attempted shipment of 189 kilos of gold destined for Dubai, an operation in which a young man, Adrián Lema Roca (22 years old), was arrested, who, according to Beller, is very close to the Bolivian president’s daughter, Catalina Paz, also linked to Cerimedo.
The central case is that in the early hours of July 23, the young Adrián Lema Roca was arrested at Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He was about to board a private plane to Dubai and was carrying 4 suitcases with 189 kilos of gold, valued at 25 million dollars. Lema Roca showed shipment documentation, but it turned out to be false. The two companies that appeared in the documentation were also fake.
What Beller claims is that Lema Roca is related to Rodrigo Paz’s daughter, Catalina, because they were classmates. According to Página/12, this is not entirely accurate: they attended the same educational center but at different levels. Another brother of Lema Roca was the one who studied with Catalina. However, Beller’s version is that this was the relationship and, through Catalina—who has been very linked to Cerimedo for two years—such a shipment of almost 25 million dollars in gold was attempted.
According to Senator Leonardo Roca and the site DataClave, there would also be some corporate relationship that would be proof of Cerimedo’s link to the shipment. For now, the prosecutor’s office has not been able to verify these data.
And finally, the lawyer who was the victim of the attempted femicide will also say that the Argentine consultant is linked to a scheme in the Beni department that facilitated the landing and takeoff of planes, supposedly carrying drugs.
Beller’s statement will be made in the illicit enrichment case, where the Justice ordered the Argentine a second preventive detention, detailed Página/12.
Sources close to the La Paz prosecutor’s office confirmed to the newspaper that during the raids of his homes, Cerimedo was found with 100,000 dollars—reports of more money are false—but there are records of transfers of another 400,000 dollars abroad.
And in a new precedent that reinforces his link with Javier Milei’s administration, the Argentine media La Política Online (LPO) reported that Economy Minister Luis “Toto” Caputo granted Cerimedo access to the lucrative business of port services of the Hidrovía through Sanabria SRL, a company based in Puerto General San Martín, 35 kilometers from Rosario.
The company originally operated as a nautical daycare but was converted to provide naval services in the heart of the agro-export complex. One of its main businesses is the supply of diesel for barge tugboats, a strategic activity charged in dollars and concentrated in a handful of operators.
“The file for Sanabria to operate on the river had to have the green light from the Ports and Navigable Waterways Agency. In the agro-export sector, they know that any decision made by its head, the former Macrista Iñaki Arreseygor, must have the approval of Luis ‘Toto’ Caputo, who directly manages the agency,” LPO points out.
Businessmen providing services on the Hidrovía told the media that it is a market practically impossible to access without contacts with the highest authorities.
“To start talking, you need 100 thousand dollars for the Coast Guard to give the green light on port security. You have to have access to the highest power to be allowed a kiosk in a super-monopolized plaza,” a businessman with decades of experience in the sector told LPO.
The landing in the Hidrovía adds to the business expansion that Cerimedo started after Javier Milei’s victory. In addition to his communication and advertising firms, the consultant incorporated investment, technology, and energy companies, the media adds.
The Casa Rosada is beginning to show the impact of the fall from grace of the Argentine consultant. LPO reports that Javier Milei’s X account began to experience the consequences of political wear combined with the collapse of Cerimedo’s bot farms. “The president’s interactions fell, who increasingly has less margin to impose an agenda. His follower list filled with profiles without photos,” it details.
The Ad Hoc consultancy measured that between August 18 and 27 there were about 417 thousand mentions of Cerimedo within the digital conversation about Javier Milei. Of that total, 85.4% of the mentions had a negative tone, 10.7% neutral tone, and only 3.9% were positive for the president.
Milei’s follower list includes hundreds of thousands of accounts without photos, in non-Western alphabets and unpronounceable without followers. They are usually bots, although proving it is complex, LPO acknowledges.
For Maximiliano Firtman, programmer, professor, and journalist, “there is no concrete evidence that Cerimedo’s farms were active in Argentina and were shut down after his arrest. It is all speculation.”
According to the Ad Hoc report, Milei had a peak of mentions on X that reached 13 million in February 2025, just before the Libra crypto scam scandal. Since then, the succession of cases such as the candidate for national deputy for Buenos Aires province, José Luis Espert, the bribes of Andis (National Disability Agency), and former chief of staff Manuel Adorni, have been eroding the president’s positive impact, and his mentions fell to 3.7 million in June this year.
The AdHoc consultancy revealed that precisely the mentions from the 15 X accounts most linked to the president mention him less and less.
The report, titled “Digital Fatigue,” reveals that these users, among whom are Gordo Dan, Traductor Te Ama, and La Derecha Diario, “lost the ability to set the agenda and drive public debate.” These users mention the president less and also generate fewer interactions.
“Beyond the metrics, we lost the discussion,” libertarian sources told LPO.
The AdHoc report analyzes that the loss of freshness on social media reflects political wear that goes beyond X: the government is unable to channel social discontent and blame the previous administration.
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