Second preventive detention for Fernando Cerimedo over illicit enrichment in Bolivia
A Bolivian court ordered six additional months of preventive detention for Argentine consultant Fernando Cerimedo on suspicion of illicit enrichment. The vice president of the state intervened in the hearing.
Second preventive detention for Cerimedo: illicit enrichment added to previous charges
A Bolivian court on Saturday imposed a second preventive detention on Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, this time on suspicion of illicit enrichment, according to notimerica.com. The ruling is added to the already ongoing case for attempted feminicide against his ex-partner, Bolivian lawyer Nadia Beller, 33, who survived three gunshots.
Judge Douglas Borda ruled, after a virtual hearing lasting approximately six hours, that Cerimedo serve six months of preventive detention in the maximum-security prison at Chonchocoro, located on the highlands of La Paz. It was not established which of the two proceedings takes precedence in the event of a transfer from the Palmasola prison in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where the accused is currently held.
Defence objects ruling and warns over accused's safety
Lawyer Ernesto Giraldes, part of Cerimedo's defence team, declared to television network UNO that the prosecution "was unable to demonstrate" how his client harmed the state. Giraldes also announced that the judicial decision had been challenged, arguing that his client's life "is in danger" if the transfer between prisons goes ahead.
From his cell in Palmasola, Cerimedo participated virtually in the hearing held in La Paz. On three occasions during the day he broke down in tears, always in connection with references to his family, according to reports by local newspaper El Deber. "I am not going to flee, your honour. I want to finish this process because they have ruined my life," he stated before the court.
Half a million dollars confiscated; accused claims annual income of one million
During raids on properties linked to the accused, the Bolivian prosecution confiscated 500,000 dollars in cash, in addition to Bolivian national currency and euros in unspecified quantities. In the hearing, Cerimedo responded that his annual income reaches one million dollars, a figure he attributed to his work as consultant and strategist for political campaigns.
"I am in a prison, I am locked up, your honour, for something that did not happen," the accused maintained. He also rejected the version from the Public Ministry that he attempted to evade justice: "It was falsely proven in another case that I was not escaping."
Political tension: vice president requested transfer during hearing
The session recorded a moment of high tension when Edmand Lara, vice president of the Bolivian state, took the floor to request Cerimedo's transfer to Chonchocoro prison. The Argentine strategist responded sharply, denying he had wielded real influence in government: "If I had possessed high influence, your honour, I guarantee you that many of the things that happened in Bolivia would not have occurred."
Cerimedo also rejected other characterisations which, according to him, Lara made during the hearing: "I am not a murderer as the mythomaniac vice president said, who is already judging me in a way to condition the judges. I am not a drug trafficker—I have reported drug trafficking with positive results—. And I am not a violent person, your honour."
For the accused, the presence of the second-in-command was not coincidental. "It appears to be an attempt to intimidate or to try to influence decisions, over a personal matter he has with me, because he believes his management failure is connected to decisions I made, which I did not make," he stated.
The "senior adviser" card and link to President Paz
Another point of debate was a personal business card found in Cerimedo's possession bearing the title "senior adviser" to President Rodrigo Paz. The strategist dismissed the validity of that title: he explained it was "a business card template I requested, but which was never printed because the position does not exist". He added that that position would not have been formally in place either because "it is not a position that exists in the state".
Cerimedo acknowledged his link to Paz, but limited it to electoral consultancy: he advised the current president during the second round ballot that gave him victory and was present in the early stages of government, though without a formal position in the state structure, according to confirmation by presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez.
"I came to Bolivia to set up my digital companies and planned to bring my family. With the president I had a conversation between friends; I travelled permanently and the president needed someone who was permanent and present, which I was unable to provide," he explained in the hearing.
Paz, for his part, publicly distanced himself from the Argentine two days earlier, in a televised statement: "He never had authorisation to represent this Bolivian, the Presidency, the government or my family."
Four active proceedings and scandal that taints government
The illicit enrichment charge is added to the accusations already weighing on Cerimedo. The strategist was under preventive detention for six months in Palmasola as part of the attempted feminicide case against Beller. That file is joined by two other active proceedings—one for domestic violence and another for money laundering—and a fourth investigation into alleged drug trafficking under way.
Regarding his relationship with Beller, Cerimedo stated in the hearing: "The Nadia Beller matter was a fling and the entire accusation is based on TikTok. She has ruined my life."
The case has triggered one of the largest political scandals facing Paz's government. Beller accused Cerimedo of sending hitmen to silence her and, after surviving the gunshots, launched a series of allegations involving state ministers, legislators and members of the presidential circle, whom she linked to bribery payments.
By the close of Saturday's hearing, Judge Borda had not yet ruled on vice president Lara's request to transfer Cerimedo to the maximum-security Chonchocoro prison.
Source: Google News BO — Crime