Mexico grants asylum to former partner of Fernando Cerimedo in Bolivia shooting case, Digi Mart USA News (Bolivia): Bolivia’s government said Monday that Mexico has granted diplomatic asylum to Nadia Beller, former partner of political consultant Fernando Cerimedo and a victim of an armed attack that Bolivian authorities are investigating. The announcement comes nearly three months after Beller survived a shooting in Santa Cruz, an incident that led to Cerimedo’s arrest and opened an investigation that touched figures close to Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz.
Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry said it received notification of the granting of diplomatic asylum to Beller and a request from the Mexican government for a safe-conduct pass so she can leave the country. However, the ministry said Bolivia had not committed to issuing the safe-conduct pass, according to an official note issued Sunday.
Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo said Monday that he received a report from Mexico’s ambassador on the asylum request and that Bolivian authorities raised “no objection.” Oviedo said Beller has no open proceedings in Bolivia, although she is part of the investigation into the attack against her, in which, he said, “everything is being investigated.”
Beller, a 33-year-old Bolivian citizen, survived three gunshot wounds on August 17 in Santa Cruz. From the hospital, she accused Cerimedo of planning the attack to prevent her from revealing their relationship with those in power.
Last week she asked that the police custody assigned to her be withdrawn, amid controversy over the leak of recordings of alleged calls by Cerimedo to senior officials, including President Paz and people in his circle, before his arrest.
Beller also says she witnessed acts of corruption in the Paz government and claims she has been subjected to “harassment” by authorities. In late October, she told AFP that the investigation against Cerimedo had stalled after the arrest and subsequent replacement of then-Attorney General Roger Mariaca.
Mariaca was detained that same month and remains in pretrial detention while under investigation for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering offenses.
A day before his arrest, Mariaca had been included by the United States on a list of dozens of Bolivian, Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Colombian officials and businesspeople sanctioned with visa revocations. Cerimedo, whom investigative journalism reports have linked to running a regional electoral disinformation operation, has worked on presidential campaigns for right-wing leaders including Javier Milei in Argentina, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Nasry Asfura in Honduras.
