The rise and fall of “Maga’s Man” in Latin America
Since Trump’s return to the White House in early 2025, the United States has expanded its power over Latin America with ruthless efficiency. In Venezuela, US forces pulled off a two-hour regime change operation by kidnapping the president, Nicolás Maduro. In other countries (Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia…) Trump-endorsed presidential candidates have had a field day.
With the exception of a few outliers — Cuba (under crippling siege), Nicaragua (also in Rubio’s crosshairs) and Brazil (elections in October) — most countries are now under firm US control. They include Bolivia, where a violent episode has pulled back the veil on how the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine — aka the “Donroe Doctrine” — is being executed from behind the scenes.
On the night of August 17, Nadia Shirley Beller Delgado, 33-year-old lawyer and activist, was waiting alone outside a hotel in the Canal Isuto neighbourhood of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Two men approached her disguised as delivery drivers and shot her three times from point-blank range.
Beller, who is four weeks pregnant, threw herself to the floor, pretended to be dead, and miraculously survived. She was rushed to hospital where she underwent major surgery. Days later, from her hospital bed, she accused her Argentine ex-boyfriend of ordering the hit to silence her.
“Maga’s Man in Latin America”
Beller’s ex-boyfriend is Fernando Cerimedo, the co-owner of La Derecha Diario (“The Right-Wing Daily”), one of the main digital disseminators of far-right ideas in Latin America and Spain. He is also former advisor to Argentine President Javier Milei and current advisor to various political leaders in the region, including Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz. The Economist has called him “MAGA’s man in LatAm” for helping to forge “close ties” to the Trump’s right-wing movement.
The following morning (August 18), Cerimedo was arrested at Viru Viru Airport as he attempted to flee to Buenos Aires. The assassination attempt was caught on CCTC cameras. The footage quickly went viral:
According to Beller’s testimony, Cerimedo had arranged to meet her outside the hotel to give her information on former President Evo Morales. Before the hit, Beller had publicly accused Cerimedo of domestic violence and even shared photographs of bruises and private conversations to document the assaults.
The lawyer accused Cerimedo of acts of corruption in Bolivia and Argentina and alleged that Cerimedo had even bragged of being a CIA agent, though she lacks the evidence to back up the claim. Speaking from hospital, Beller said she fears for her life and asked Bolivian authorities for protection. The problem is that Cerimedo is a senior advisor to the Rodrigo Paz government.
Following the arrest of Cerimedo, the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office requested a minimum of 180 days of preventive detention for the Argentine citizen. Cerimedo faces charges of attempted femicide, money laundering and illicit enrichment, and is being held at Palmasola prison, Bolivia’s largest and most dangerous detention centre. Given his contacts, he will presumably be able to afford one of the “luxury” suites.
So, Who Is Cerimedo?
Before entering the dark murky world of political spin doctoring, Cerimedo had worked as a taxi driver, insurance consultant, as well as a high school teacher. In 2016 he was sentenced to two years in prison for selling the same house to two people. In Argentina, he is under investigation for a possible case of bribery.
Cerimedo rose to prominence on the Latin American political scene in 2022 during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign. Days after Bolsonaro lost re-election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, aka Lula, he hosted a live-stream titled “Brazil Was Stolen”. In it he alleged that old voting machines had been rigged to swing votes to Lula.
Two years later, Cerimedo become the only foreigner charged by Brazil’s Federal Police in the investigations of the coup attempt led by Jair Bolsonaro, for which Bolsonaro was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment. His media outlet, La Derecha Diario, was also implicated in the attempted coup and has since been banned from the country.
Since his break out campaign for Bolsonaro in 2022, Cerimedo has played a role in the presidential campaigns of Javier Milei in Argentina (2023), Nasry Asfura in Honduras (2025), Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia (2025), and José Antonio Kast in Chile. He also has close ties to Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and El Salvador’s Nayeb Bukele.
Following his election in 2025, Rodrigo Paz was so pleased with Cerimedo’s work that he offered the Argentine a full-time position in his cabinet. This put him on direct collision course with Paz’s popular vice president, Edmand Lara, who recently accused Cerimedo, an unelected Argentine, of commanding more influence than anyone bar the president.
“I saw it there. Imagine, Cerimedo participated more in the meetings than the vice president himself, who was democratically elected,” Lara said. “Fernando Cerimedo managed the editorial line of some media outlets… and oversaw the government’s communication both on the outside and also from the inside.”
Lara also noted that nobody seemed to understand how Cerimedo was getting paid:
“He had a position, but he did not appear on any payroll, he did not have any memorandum. We never knew where he was paid.” (According to Beller, Cerimedo was being paid $800,000 a month from Argentina)
Lara is not the only senior figure to have made such allegations…
Nick Corbishley 