US Maneuvers for Cerimedo's Release. "It Uses Visas for a Coup," Former Presidents Say
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Bolivia's attorney general was arrested two days after Washington pulled his visa, just as his office was widening its probes into the MAGA-linked consultant.

This article by Obed Rosas originally appeared in the October 1, 2026 edition of SinEmbargo, a Mexican independent digital news outlet.

The arrest of Attorney General Mariaca, following US sanctions, raises suspicions of a maneuver that could favor the release of Fernando Cerimedo in Bolivia.

Mexico City, October 1 (SinEmbargo).— The arrest of Bolivia’s Attorney General, Roger Mariaca, just two days after the government of Donald Trump revoked his visa and accused him of taking bribes to facilitate drug trafficking, comes at a time when the Public Prosecutor’s Office was expanding several investigations against Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine consultant with close ties to operatives of the MAGA movement and the political circle of the US President.

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales linked Mariaca’s arrest to the United States and to the Cerimedo case. Morales maintained that the latest operations show, in his view, an “open and direct interference” by Washington in Bolivia, and accused President Rodrigo Paz of having used his recent trip to the United States to agree on actions aimed at protecting the Argentine consultant. “What he went to define was whom they are going to persecute and arrest to save Cerimedo, and saving Cerimedo is saving Rodrigo Paz and family,” the former president said.

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From Colombia, former President Gustavo Petro made a similar accusation and directly linked Mariaca’s fall to Cerimedo’s US ties. “This is why the Bolivian government has kidnapped the Attorney General of Bolivia, a coup d’état against justice and the fight for the truth,” wrote Petro, who also recalled the consultant’s closeness to Donald Trump Jr. and other figures in the MAGA orbit. Petro stated that Cerimedo was a “friend of Donald Trump’s son” and maintained that there were meetings in the US president’s circle with Latin American political operatives.

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Nadia Beller, Cerimedo’s ex-partner and survivor of an attempted femicide ordered by the Argentine consultant, has also maintained that the crisis against Attorney General Mariaca is being used to remove those investigating the Argentine from the path and to prepare the ground for his eventual release, a plot in which Cerimedo’s ties to Trumpism are key.

“All of this leaves us with the reasonable doubt as to whether this crisis is being used to remove those investigating Cerimedo from the path,” Beller said. “Is the ground being prepared to install an attorney general who serves the government? One who does not investigate the President or his family, his operatives, his officials, the Police, or Fernando Cerimedo. Because an attorney general aligned with power can mean the end of the investigations, the loss or alteration of evidence and, ultimately, the freedom of Fernando Cerimedo and impunity for the long list of acts attributed to the presidential circle,” she warned.

This week, Beller released a photograph of Cerimedo alongside Donald Trump Jr., son of the President of the United States; American Brad Parscale; Cerimedo’s consultant and friend Andy Rivas; and Dick Morris, a US political consultant with a long track record in electoral campaigns, whose presence in Mexico dates back to the 2000 presidential election, when he advised Vicente Fox, and who in 2006 joined Felipe Calderón’s campaign team and played a central role in the contrast-and-fear strategy aimed at Andrés Manuel López Obrador, summed up in the slogan “López Obrador, a danger to Mexico.”

Andy Rivas, Donald Trump Jr. and Fernando Cerimedo

From left to right: Andy Rivas, Donald Trump Jr., Fernando Cerimedo. Photo: Nadia Beller.

Cerimedo’s MAGA Network

Cerimedo’s ties to Trumpism, for their part, do not depend solely on Beller’s accusations. The Washington Post published an extensive investigation on September 26 for which it reviewed hundreds of pages of court files and conversations included in the case. The newspaper summed up the role the Argentine built between both political spheres with one sentence: “Cerimedo became a bridge between Latin American and US politics.”

The Washington Post documented that, through his consulting firm Numen, Cerimedo worked with US operatives linked to Trumpism. It pointed to his partnership with consultant Damian Merlo during Javier Milei’s campaign; it reported Cerimedo’s account that he worked with Dick Morris to help coordinate Trump’s endorsement of Honduran Nasry Asfura; and it identified Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, as his closest connection to MAGA. The newspaper also documented that Cerimedo was announced as the Latin American representative of two of Parscale’s political platforms used during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Washington had publicly singled out Mariaca for allegedly soliciting and accepting bribes to facilitate drug trafficking and help violent criminals evade justice. The Attorney General rejected the accusations and assured that no pressure, national or international, would stop the investigations under his responsibility, among them those of Cerimedo. Two days later he was apprehended along with 13 other people. The Bolivian government now maintains that Mariaca headed a criminal organization entrenched in the Public Prosecutor’s Office to protect drug trafficking.

The offensive against Mariaca came a month after the Attorney General himself issued a warning to senior officials of the Executive and other institutions who might try to intervene in the inquiries into Cerimedo. “Let them face the consequences,” he said on August 28, warning in particular against any attempt to “block” the investigation or to surveil the prosecutors in charge of it. That same day he reported that a lieutenant colonel of the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking (FELCN), surnamed Correa González, had testified before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, acknowledged that he knew Cerimedo, and admitted contacts with him, including one on the day of the attack against Beller.

Nadia Beller with Fernando Cerimedo

Photo: Facebook, Nadia Beller

“To those senior officials of the Executive or of any public institution of the State who, in some way, want to block this investigation, who want to follow my prosecutors in Santa Cruz and in Bolivia, let them face the consequences,” Mariaca said.

Nothing is going to stop us from investigating this. And let them know, we are independent and brave enough to carry this investigation forward.

Bolivian Attorney General Roger Mariaca

On that August 28, Mariaca also announced three new arrest warrants against foreign nationals within the investigation into the attempted femicide against Beller. The warrants had already been handed to the Bolivian Police for execution. In parallel, the Beni Prosecutor’s Office opened another case against Cerimedo for trafficking in controlled substances and conspiracy, related to alleged protection of irregular flights linked to drug trafficking.

Added to that scenario this week was an audio recording released by Vice President Edmand Lara and attributed to Cerimedo. In the recording, a woman talks about payments of 15,000 dollars per aircraft in Beni, and the voice attributed to the consultant replies that he will talk with “Cabrera” to look into the matter. Lara identified that reference as Franz William Cabrera Quispe, who headed the FELCN.

The Attorney General Who Was Investigating Cerimedo

That web is what Beller now places behind the arrest of Attorney General Mariaca. The lawyer questioned the fact that the US accusations against Mariaca quickly led to his arrest, while the accusations arising from the audio recordings attributed to Cerimedo and the mentions of Cabrera have followed a different course. She also denounced that the Police raided Prosecutor’s Office facilities where, according to her, there are investigations and evidence linked to Cerimedo, and argued that Mariaca’s removal could end up benefiting the Argentine.

Mariaca had gained notoriety for high-profile investigations. As Santa Cruz prosecutor he faced criticism after the 2023 escape of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, although he maintained that it was precisely an inquiry by the Prosecutor’s Office that made it possible to locate him. As Attorney General, a post he reached in 2024, he led the stage that culminated in Marset’s capture in March 2026. Afterwards, unverified videos circulated in which Marset supposedly stated that “Mariaca is my friend,” material that has not been authenticated.

Another of the relevant case files under his tenure was the one opened against Cerimedo after Nadia Beller accused him of ordering the armed attack in which she was shot five times. The Prosecutor’s Office launched inquiries against Cerimedo and even went so far as to open a preliminary investigation against the first lady, María Elena Urquidi, although it was later dismissed by Mariaca himself.

Fernando Cerimedo

La Derecha Diario maintains ties with figures on the right in Mexico and other countries. Photo: Instagram @cerimedofernando

“Why is Marset’s audio valid to arrest the Attorney General, but Cerimedo’s audio does not have the same value? Why didn’t Cerimedo and Cabrera go on the same plane? The United States withdrew the visa of Cabrera, who until a week ago was head of the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking of Rodrigo Paz’s government. Why didn’t he receive the same treatment as Mariaca? Why isn’t the same yardstick applied to everyone?” Beller asked this Thursday.

The lawyer also put the focus on what happened inside the Public Prosecutor’s Office facilities themselves. According to her complaint, the police intervention reached prosecutors’ offices where case files and evidence related to the investigations against Cerimedo and against members of the presidential family remain. Beller maintained that the situation is particularly delicate because some of the inquiries opened over the attack she suffered reach precisely members of the Police, so she questioned who now guarantees the chain of custody and the preservation of documents, phones, audio recordings, photographs, and other records included in the case files.

“Meanwhile, the Police illegally raid the prosecutors’ offices where investigations and evidence linked to Cerimedo and the President’s family are located. The Police that are being investigated for their possible ties to Cerimedo end up intervening in the facilities where the evidence against Cerimedo is. In my own attempted femicide case there are investigations into members of the Police who allegedly collaborated with Cerimedo in planning and carrying out the attack meant to kill me. Who now controls the police officers who are intervening in that evidence? Who guarantees the chain of custody? Who guarantees that no document, phone, audio, photograph, or record disappears, is altered, or is manipulated? Who investigates those who are intervening in the investigations?” she said.

The post US Maneuvers for Cerimedo’s Release. “It Uses Visas for a Coup,” Former Presidents Say appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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