Bolivia Lets Cerimedo’s Ex-Partner Leave for Mexico With Asylum
Lawyer Nadia Beller left Bolivia for Mexico on Wednesday with diplomatic asylum, almost three months after being shot. Bolivia's inquiries continue.
Bolivian lawyer Nadia Beller left Bolivia for Mexico on Wednesday under diplomatic asylum, Bolivia’s foreign ministry said. She departs almost three months after surviving an armed attack in the city of Santa Cruz.
Mexico granted the asylum while Beller sheltered in its embassy in La Paz. The foreign ministry said in a statement that it issued the safe-conduct (salvoconducto, the document that lets an asylee leave the country) that Mexico had requested, and that officials accompanied her departure in the early morning.
The attack and the accusation
Beller is 33. On Aug. 17 she was hit by three bullets in Santa Cruz, when she was four weeks pregnant. From the hospital she accused her former partner, Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, who had advised Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, of planning the attack to stop her from exposing corruption in the government.
Cerimedo has been jailed in Bolivia since August awaiting trial for attempted feminicide. According to the reports, he also faces proceedings for illicit enrichment and money laundering, and for alleged family and domestic violence against Beller. EFE, cited by El Financiero, described the shooters as unknown persons.
How the asylum came about
Beller told Radio Fides she had been in the embassy since Nov. 3 because of police “harassment.” She also said on social media that police were following her illegally, even though prosecutors had agreed to lift police custody over her as a protected witness in one of the cases against Cerimedo.
On Sunday the foreign ministry confirmed that the Mexican embassy had granted her asylum and had asked for a safe-conduct, which was then under evaluation. Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo told the TV channel Unitel that Bolivia would grant it unless Beller changed her mind. He said the government had no objection, and the government has said Beller faces no open proceedings in Bolivia.
What this means for the investigations
Oviedo said the asylum does not end the inquiry into Beller’s own conduct. As the complainant, he said, she is part of a broad investigation in which new elements keep appearing.
In late October Beller told AFP that the investigations into Cerimedo had stalled after the arrest of then attorney general Roger Mariaca, who was detained over an accusation of protecting drug trafficking, and his replacement.
Since Cerimedo’s detention, audio recordings have circulated that are said to capture conversations between him and members of Paz’s government. Prosecutors created a commission last week to investigate whether they are authentic. Paz, in an interview with EFE in Madrid, urged the courts to investigate everything that needs investigating. He said Cerimedo had a job and did it on the media side.
Who Cerimedo is
Cerimedo founded the news site La Derecha Diario in 2021 and was part of Argentine President Javier Milei’s communication strategy in the 2023 presidential campaign. Journalistic investigations, according to AFP, mention him as running a regional machine of electoral disinformation. Besides Paz, he worked on the campaigns of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Nasry Asfura in Honduras.
Sources: eleconomista.com.mx, El Financiero
