Power Essay
The Machine That Landed in Bolivia
Cambridge Analytica was reborn as campaign software and landed in Bolivia at the hands of Fernando Cerimedo, the shadowy adviser to Rodrigo Paz. He is now behind bars, charged with attempted femicide.
By Violeta Ayala — Tecnóloga Creativa
The code
Cambridge Analytica's code did not die with the 2018 scandal. A consortium of US investors put more than 140 million dollars into buying and developing it.
It was reborn under other names: Campaign Nucleus and Eyes Over.
Since March 2025, the exclusive Latin America licensee of those platforms is an Argentine consultant: Fernando Cerimedo.
Tonight he sleeps in custody in Santa Cruz, charged with attempted femicide.
The machine
The machine has a technical floor and a familiar name: Brad Parscale, Trump's digital chief in 2016, the man behind the segmented Facebook ads of the Cambridge Analytica era.
Parscale built his empire between Texas and Florida. According to The Economist he is Cerimedo's business partner in Numen and manages the technical side of the firm. Cerimedo credits part of his success to him.
A review by the Associated Press describes what Campaign Nucleus offers: AI-written personalized emails, masses of data to gauge voter sentiment, amplification of friendly influencers.
And building, in seconds, web pages that look like news outlets.
A company slide sums it up: let every team make its own news.
Cerimedo describes his own method unprompted. In December he told The Economist he uses neither troll farms nor smear campaigns run through bot accounts.
What he does, he says, is monitor online conversations and use that information to influence public opinion with tailored messaging. He rejects accusations of shady operations and invites journalists into his Puerto Madero office.
Cerimedo's apparatus completes the other floors: a political marketing academy and an outlet, La Derecha Diario.
The tour
The machine tours the region. 2022, Brazil: the "Brazil Was Stolen" livestream after Bolsonaro's defeat, alleging voting machines had been tampered with. He was investigated by Brazilian police and never charged.
That same year he worked in Chile, on the campaign that defeated the attempt to install a new constitution.
2023, Argentina: Milei's campaign. Cerimedo admits to commanding thousands of troll accounts.
2025, Honduras: he works with Dick Morris on Trump's public endorsement of candidate Nasry Asfura.
US FARA records show his firm working with Washington lobbies.
The landing
In Bolivia the technology lands through the door of an academy. Catalina Paz, daughter of the then candidate, trains at Academia Numen and runs the digital strategy of her father's campaign.
Paz: "He has been my daughter's teacher." Cerimedo: "Yes, yes, yes." The Economist names her as a graduate of Numen Academy who now advises her father's government.
In December 2025, Catalina Paz recounts the episode in a talk in the United States. She says she called a former teacher of hers, from a political marketing course, when the campaign got away from her after the first round.
She describes him as one of the most significant political advisers of the 21st century. She never says his name.
She says they did not have a dollar to pay him, and that he joined without earning a peso.
And she says what he brought: this help gave the team what it was missing, data. Data on Bolivians, which her teacher obtained daily.
The campaign's strategist describes the adviser's contribution as daily data on Bolivians. That adviser holds the regional license for Eyes Over, a platform that measures public sentiment with artificial intelligence.
What data, where it came from and who paid for it remain unanswered. The campaign says it did not.
In the same account, Catalina describes youth groups organized across all nine departments, posting content from their personal accounts.
And a disinformation war during the runoff.
After the victory, Cerimedo settles in as the president's personal adviser.
No title. No office. No known contract. A direct line to the ministries.
On March 7, 2026 he appears at the Doral, at the Shield of the Americas summit, alongside Paz and Trump.
The consequences
In July, audios circulate: first lady María Elena Urquidi, Cerimedo and YPFB officials in alleged deals with fuel traders.
While the country lines up for diesel.
On July 25, Cerimedo writes on X that false posts are circulating about an act of partner violence attributed to him. He insists there is no complaint, no warrant, no investigation.
The information warfare specialist denounces an information war against him.
On the night of August 17, two men dressed as delivery drivers shoot Nadia Beller, a 33-year-old lawyer and Cerimedo's former partner, outside a Santa Cruz hotel. They take her phone.
She survives by playing dead. She says the phone held evidence on fuel and gold.
Hours later, police intercept Cerimedo at Viru Viru airport as he tries to board a flight. Investigators say his plan was to reach Argentina.
Charged with attempted femicide. Prosecutors describe an ambush and point to the pregnancy as the motive.
From the hospital, Beller delivers the line that travels the continent: "In Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz does not govern. Cerimedo governs."
Her accusations have not yet been independently verified.
The case file adds alleged chats with an intermediary, released from a forensic report: "Brother, they just shot her," at 8:54 pm on Monday.
Another message names a Nadia: "We eliminate her now or we're screwed." Forensics must still confirm authenticity and authorship.
Cerimedo testifies on Thursday: he calls the relationship a friendship, denies inviting her to the hotel and denies any role. His defense floats a self-staged attack.
From Buenos Aires, Milei retweets posts calling the case a political operation.
Prosecutors raid five properties linked to Cerimedo in La Paz and open a second case for illicit enrichment: half a million bolivianos, dollars, euros.
And equipment the prosecutor describes as a "mini bot farm." The defense denies that version.
Prosecutors request 180 days of pretrial detention in Chonchocoro, the maximum security prison in the highlands. They cite flight risk and telematic and forensic evidence.
The custody hearing is set for this Friday.
The data
The hitmen remain at large. The daily data on Bolivians, the stolen phone, the chats under forensic review, the seized bot farm: data is the weapon and the evidence.
This technology was built in Texas and Florida and sold as campaign software.
It landed in Bolivia without prior discussion. The consequences are being discussed now, in a criminal case file.
Sources
- Catalina Paz. Talk at the Global Youth Leadership Forum, United States. Published by Trendsetter Bolivia and reproduced by eju.tv on December 11, 2025.
- Associated Press. Review of Campaign Nucleus features and the company's commercial material.
- The Economist, "MAGA's man in LatAm", The Americas section, December 2025. Profile documenting the partnership with Brad Parscale and his technical role at Numen, Cerimedo's regional trajectory, and his statements on bots and working method.
- Associated Press, May 2024. Review of Brad Parscale's public statements, company websites, slide decks, marketing materials and documents not previously made public. Establishes that Parscale, as a top aide to Trump in 2016, was responsible for tapping Cambridge Analytica for the Facebook campaign. Republished by Fortune and others.
- Associated Press. Report on Data Propria, a firm doing voter and consumer targeting work similar to Cambridge Analytica's, led by Matt Oczkowski, the firm's former head of product, and including at least four former employees, among them its former chief data scientist.
- Ámbito, March 12, 2025. "Fernando Cerimedo será el representante en América Latina de las plataformas digitales clave en la campaña de Trump". Reports that the tools emerged following the acquisition of Cambridge Analytica by a consortium of US investors that put more than 140 million dollars into buying the code and developing it.
- A24, March 12, 2025. Reports Cerimedo's designation as exclusive Latin America licensee citing sources close to the consultant, and attributes the information on the Cambridge Analytica acquisition and the more than 140 million dollars to specialist sources.
- Fernando Cerimedo's post on X, March 10, 2025, announcing that he had joined the project.
- Foreign Agents Registration Act filings, US Department of Justice. Records linked to Numen Group.
- Brazilian Federal Police. Investigation into the spread of electoral fraud allegations after the 2022 election. Cerimedo was investigated and never charged, per The Economist.
- Statements by Rodrigo Paz, October 2025, and by Fernando Cerimedo on Radio Splendid, October 2025.
- Attorney General's Office and Santa Cruz Departmental Prosecutor's Office. Charges, filings and detention request in the Beller case, August 2026.
- Statements by Nadia Beller to DTV, C5N and Radio Rivadavia from hospital, August 2026.
- Press coverage of the case: Infobae, Brujula Digital, ERBOL, El Deber, BioBioChile and Público, August 2026.
This piece distinguishes three levels. The judicial acts and public statements cited are verifiable. Nadia Beller's accusations are attributed and remain without independent verification. The origin of the data the campaign received is still unanswered, and it is the open question of this report.
