A man and a woman, who are a couple, were charged in Bolivia with being accomplices in the murder attempt of political activist Nadia Beller, who the local judiciary believes was attacked under orders of her ex-partner and presidential advisor Fernando Cerimedo.
Beller was shot several times by two hitmen on August 17. Argentine political advisor Cerimedo — who until now had been working for Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz — is currently under pretrial detention at the Palmasola jail. The judiciary ordered him to remain locked up for 180 days, accused of femicide attempt.
Cerimedo led Argentine President Javier Milei’s digital strategy during his presidential campaign and has also worked for former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro. He was suspected of intentionally spreading fake news in favor of Bolsonaro in 2022 as part of an investigation into a coup attempt in Brazil, although charges were later dropped.
On Monday morning, a judge charged the couple over the alleged complicity in the crime. The man is suspected of having sold the gun used to shoot Beller. The man was also accused of illegal possession of a firearm.
The couple was arrested on Saturday during a police operation in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the city where the attack happened. Firearms were found during the raid, although the gun used in the attack was not there.
Beller was approached by two men disguised as delivery drivers, but only one of them shot her. The attacker is a foreign man who is on the run and police are after him, prosecutor Herland Rodríguez said on Monday.
A Colombian national who was suspected of being one of the attackers was also summoned to appear in court, but the charges against him were dropped. Investigators said he was actually the neighbor of the man who shot Beller.
The Colombian man had turned himself in on Saturday after learning police were looking for him, but saying he was innocent.
Another report
Beller was released from hospital on Saturday after spending several days recovering from an operation on her right arm, which was severely damaged from the shots, as well as other injuries caused by the bullets.
Over the weekend, Beller denounced on social media that a man had tried to come into her hospital room saying he was a police officer, despite being dressed like a civilian. According to her, a man wearing the same clothes — a yellow jacket, jeans and white sneakers — appeared in footage captured by security cameras during the attack.
Beller said hospital staff asked him why he was not wearing his uniform if he was a policeman, to which he answered that he would change and come back, but that never happened.
Although she reported the incident to authorities, Beller said she has not received any answers regarding who that man was or what he wanted. She said that an investigation must be conducted on whether he was an informant to Cerimedo or intelligence chief Érick Correa, who she has also linked to the attack.
“Are there any doubts that this was a state-endorsed crime?” she said about the attack against her.
Cerimedo’s situation
Meanwhile, Cerimedo’a lawyers made public a statement made by their client from prison: “My career and my life were destroyed over something unfair that has not been proven.”
Cerimedo is also being investigated for alleged illicit enrichment after police found large sums of money during a raid in two of his properties in Bolivia.
On Sunday, the judiciary ordered pre-trial arrest for former military man Fritz Gironda and his wife on the grounds that they were in charge of a currency exchange shop in La Paz, where Cerimedo allegedly made operations for over US$400,000, La Razón reported.
Argentine President Milei initially seemed to back Cerimedo as he shared several X posts casting question over the veracity of the attack — he reposted comments by national deputy Lilia Lemoine and other Libertarian supporters saying Beller did not really seem injured and that the shooting was staged.
However, on Sunday he told Argentine broadcaster Radio Mitre that Cerimedo is not part of ruling party La Libertad Avanza and that he has “not been in contact with him since 2023,” when he was elected president.
He still said the attack could have been a political operation with ex-Bolivian President Evo Morales behind it.
Beller denounced, among other things, that Cerimedo told her Milei’s sister and presidential secretary Karina Milei was behind a corruption scheme involving state contracts in an office dedicated to the disability sector, a scandal that broke in 2025.
