Former Milei advisor accused of hiring a hit on his pregnant ex
Fernando Cerimedo, a former advisor to Javier Milei and regional right-wing election consultant, was arrested last week at Viru Viru Airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and is under investigation following a shooting attack on Bolivian lawyer and activist Nadia Beller, whom the media have identified as his ex-partner.
Two men on a motorcycle shot Nadia Belle outside the hotel where she was staying in Santa Cruz. She survived the assassination attempt. Belle is with child, according to Argentinian media.
Cerimedo, who remains detained while an investigation unfolds, denies the accusation. It is the latest scandal for Milei in Argentina, who continues to endure corruption and graft investigations into multiple Ministers and appointees of his government.
Cerimedo is renowned for employing his digital “troll farm” to support right-wing candidates during elections across Latin America. He also worked for the campaign of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil in 2022.
Cerimedo was convicted of fraud in Argentina. In 2016 he sold the same apartment to two people, trying to keep the money from both before being briefly arrested by police.
A conviction in the case would be merely the latest of people in Milei’s political orbit to face legal ramifications for questionable actions under his presidency.
Noboa expands ban on opposition candidates in upcoming elections
In March, right-wing Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa rescheduled local elections — ostensibly because of El Niño or something — dissolved some opposition parties and canceled the registrations of many “Correistas” in elections now slated for November.
Ecuador’s National Election Council (which is packed with Noboa appointees), quickly acted to enforce the decision. At the time Noboa pushed back on accusations of a power-grab by stating that disqualified candidates “are free to register under other political parties.”
Many of them tried to do exactly that. Pachakutik, Ecuador’s principally indigenous political coalition, put aside historical differences with many Correista candidates by allowing them to run under their banner.
But this week, Ecuador’s election commission ruled their campaigns as invalid, removing them from the ballots.
“A lot of people have suggested that Noboa is attempting to consolidate power for his political coalition on a local level ahead of the next presidential elections,” Will Freeman, a fellow at the Council of Foreign affairs told PWS last week. “This accusation seems credible to me.”
Noboa’s government has used courts and a “state of emergency” to widely broaden the powers of the presidency, and now seems to be employing that power to engage in election manipulation. This story certainly bears watching in coming weeks and months.
Colombia’s State Oil company is losing millions to theft by Armed Groups
Colombia’s new right-wing President, Abelardo de la Espriella, has vowed to “eradicate” criminal and non-state armed groups in the country. So far, however, he is off to a rocky start. (For more information about that Thomas Garrison, a conflict expert who has contributed work here at PWS, has an excellent summary this week.)
His latest fixation is on oil theft from Colombia’s state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol.
Ecopetrol has long been a target for armed groups, particularly in the eastern and southern regions of the country. Not coincidentally, many of the oil-rich areas in Colombia have also long been conflict zones.
Armed groups use taps to steal massive quantities of oil moving through pipelines in regions where state presence in weak, sometimes with help from corrupt Ecopetrol employees.
In the Venezuelan borderlands, the ELN also regularly carries out attacks on Ecopetrol infrastructure as a way to pressure Bogota, which is highly dependent on carbon exports to fund the state.
On Sunday, de la Espriella announced new operations to protect Ecopetrol, estimating that the state company loses 1.5 million barrels of oil a year to theft or loss from the actions of non-state armed groups.
Many presidents before him have tried to secure those oil pipelines. All have failed. Will his attempts be any different? At PWS, we usually don’t like to make predictions, but in this case we are relatively confident in saying “no.”
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Hasta pronto, piratas!
