The Bolivian prosecutor’s office opens a new investigation for illicit enrichment against the Argentine citizen.

On Thursday, Bolivia’s Prosecutor’s Office opened another investigation against far-right Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo for illicit enrichment, a case that adds to a first proceeding against him for attempted femicide.

RELATED:

Argentine President Milei to Attend U.S. Gala Organized by Cerimedo’s Media Platform

Previously, Cerimedo was detained Tuesday at the Santa Cruz airport, hours after an armed attack carried out by unidentified assailants against his former partner, attorney Nadia Beller, who was shot at least three times but survived.

La Paz Department Prosecutor Luis Torrez said four raids were carried out at residences Cerimedo occupied in the city.

“Obviously, several documents were collected, more than half a million bolivianos (US$43,402),” as well as dollars and euros, and a mini bot farm, he said.

“We are carrying out simultaneous raids. There is a lot of information and a lot of documentation. Many people named will be summoned,” the prosecutor said.

On Wednesday, Cerimedo’s defense attorneys said the cases against him are part of a “political show” intended to destabilize President Rodrigo Paz. They cited as evidence the connection that attorney Beller had with the Movement for Socialism (MAS), led by former President Evo Morales (2006-2019).

However, Bolivian Vice President Edmand Lara himself has publicly confirmed that Cerimedo was President Paz’s personal adviser, which the Bolivian government denies in those terms.

On Tuesday, presidential spokesman Jose Galvez only acknowledged that Cerimedo was a “close collaborator” of Paz during the 2025 election campaign and that he subsequently continued collaborating on some specific communications matters, without being part of the state structure.

Following the attempted assassination of attorney Beller, Cerimedo has gained international public notoriety because the Argentine consultant advised the presidential campaigns of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Javier Milei in Argentina and Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia. Cerimedo was also linked to the investigation into the attempted coup in Brazil in 2023 and founded the online outlet La Derecha Diario in 2021.

The text reads, “On the night of August 17, in a hotel in the Canal Isuto area of ​​Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, two hitmen disguised as delivery drivers shot 33-year-old lawyer and activist Nadia Shirley Beller Delgado three times at point-blank range.

She threw herself to the floor, pretended to be dead, and survived. She underwent surgery at the Clínica Las Américas, where she was four weeks pregnant. From the hospital, she accused her ex-partner, Argentine Fernando Cerimedo (owner of La Derecha Diario, former advisor to Milei, and a close associate of President Rodrigo Paz), of ordering the attack to silence her.

She stated that she had witnessed government corruption, that he had assaulted her previously, and that her cell phone containing the evidence was stolen. Early this morning, Cerimedo was arrested at Viru Viru Airport as he attempted to flee to Buenos Aires.”

Cerimedo Manipulated Public Opinion With His Own Bot Farm

Despite the evidence found by the La Paz Prosecutor’s Office, Margarita Arce, Fernando Cerimedo’s defense attorney, denied that her client had a bot farm.

Referring to one of the findings from the raids conducted by authorities, she said: “It is not a bot farm … The prosecutor’s assessment is ridiculous.”

Previously, however, the far-right political consultant had acknowledged using thousands of artificial accounts to intervene in algorithms and position content.

“Cerimedo’s relationship with this type of tool is not new. Years before the investigations opened in Bolivia, the digital strategist himself had publicly acknowledged in Argentina that he managed tens of thousands of artificially created accounts… Cerimedo did admit to using bots, trolls and artificial accounts, but denied that the tools under his control were used to spread fake news or develop dirty campaigns,” Bolivian outlet Red Uno recalled.

In a 2023 interview, Cerimedo said he had nearly 50,000 artificially created accounts solely for Argentina. He explained that those accounts were used to monitor digital conversations, generate content and increase the relevance of certain topics to get the algorithms of platforms such as X, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok to give them greater exposure.

“An investigation by the Brazilian Federal Police, made public in 2024, placed Cerimedo within an investigation into an alleged ‘digital militia’ linked to events following the 2022 presidential elections … investigators maintained that Cerimedo may have participated in the production, dissemination and amplification of false information about Brazil’s electoral system after Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,” Red Uno also mentioned.

Bot farms are organized operations that use large numbers of automated or human-controlled social media accounts to create the appearance of widespread online activity. The term can refer to networks of automated accounts, as well as groups of people operating multiple accounts in a coordinated manner.

These accounts may use false identities or fictitious personas and can be programmed or managed to post, repost, like, comment on and otherwise amplify content at a scale that would be difficult for a single person to achieve.

Social media bots are usually one component of broader efforts in which automated and human-operated accounts work together to mislead users. In politics, bot farms can be used to manipulate the appearance of public opinion by making a political message, candidate or cause seem more popular than it actually is.

Operators can use coordinated accounts to rapidly amplify particular posts, hashtags or narratives, generate artificial likes and shares, attack or harass opponents, and make an issue appear to have grassroots support.

This practice is sometimes described as “astroturfing,” in which organized political activity is deliberately made to resemble spontaneous participation by ordinary citizens. Coordinated political accounts can display distinctive patterns of synchronized posting and reposting that distinguish them from regular users.

Bot farms can also be used to spread false or misleading information, influence political debates and elections, suppress opposing views, or direct audiences toward websites and other platforms.

The operations may be domestic or foreign and can be run by governments, political organizations, commercial entities or other groups seeking political or financial influence.

Social media companies have documented networks that used fake accounts to pose as local residents, manage pages presented as independent news outlets, promote political narratives and target audiences around elections and other civic events.

The central objective is often not simply to generate a large number of posts, but to manipulate how real users perceive an issue by creating a false sense of consensus, controversy or popularity.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: EFE – CISA – Nature – FB – Red Uno

IN THIS ARTICLE