SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia — Bolivian prosecutors have widened the case around the Aug. 17 shooting of lawyer Nadia Beller, ordering the arrest of a suspected coordinator of the attack and opening a fourth criminal process against presidential adviser Fernando Cerimedo. Separately, two legal filings now aim directly at President Rodrigo Paz and his wife, and Cerimedo's own sworn testimony has emerged as an awkward complication for the narrower account the president has given of how close the two men actually were.
A Suspected Coordinator of the Hit Squad
Prosecutors on Monday ordered the arrest of María Argentina Rojas Roca on suspicion of complicity in Beller's attempted murder, accusing her of meeting with and transferring money to the men later identified as the gunmen. Investigators say she had previously been placed in charge of a customs post at Santa Cruz's Viru Viru airport — the same airport where Cerimedo was detained trying to leave the country — a posting Beller has said came from Alberto Soto, a former customs chief she's named as a Cerimedo associate. Soto resigned the day after the shooting.
El Deber reports Rojas Roca had already been removed from that customs post over suspected narcotrafficking ties before this week's arrest order, and by Tuesday a second report added that she had previously served time in Brazil on drug-trafficking charges of her own. The two men who fired the shots remain unidentified and at large.
Two Earlier Arrests, Tied to the Weapon and the Money
Rojas Roca isn't the first person taken into custody around Cerimedo. Days after the shooting, a Santa Cruz judge ordered 120 days of preventive detention for two people accused of effective complicity in the attempted killing: Roger Aguilera Céspedes, 41, accused of supplying the weapon used in the attack, and Paola Andrea Vargas, 39, identified by prosecutors as the partner of one of the still-fugitive shooters.
Separately, a former Army lieutenant — a lower rank than the lieutenant colonel described in some earlier accounts of this case — was ordered jailed for 45 days after fleeing a raid on a currency-exchange business that investigators say handled transfers to Cerimedo. Security-camera footage cited by Bolivian prosecutors shows Fritz Juniors Gironda scaling a wall with a bag they say held roughly $700,000. His wife, Claudia Inés Layme, received house arrest rather than jail time.
A Second Detention Order Widens the Case to Four Fronts
Cerimedo's legal exposure has grown sharply over the past week. A La Paz judge ordered him held six more months — this time on an illicit-enrichment charge, at Chonchocoro, Bolivia's maximum-security prison, rather than at Palmasola in Santa Cruz, where he's currently held. His defense has appealed the transfer on health grounds, citing high blood pressure, and as of Monday it remained unresolved which prison takes precedence.
Beyond the shooting and enrichment cases, Cerimedo also faces open investigations for domestic violence and for allegedly protecting drug-trafficking flights out of Beni department — four separate criminal processes in total. Testifying by video link from Palmasola, Cerimedo denied all of it, telling the court: "I'm not a killer, I'm not a trafficker, and I'm not violent," and dismissing Vice President Edmand Lara's description of his influence as the words of a compulsive liar.
Cerimedo's Own Testimony Complicates the President's Account
Three days before that hearing, in a separate sworn statement to prosecutors in the enrichment case, Cerimedo made an admission that sits uneasily next to the president's version of events: he confirmed that Paz was his "principal contact" inside the government and said he earned roughly $1 million a month from businesses outside Bolivia, while declining to detail his day-to-day role, his access to Cabinet meetings, or who authorized his presence around the president. When prosecutors read him Paz's own public description of their relationship and asked whether he agreed with it, Cerimedo gave the same reply to nearly every follow-up question: "That has nothing to do with the case." It's an answer that neither confirms nor directly disputes the president's account, but it leaves Paz's characterization of a distant, campaign-era relationship resting almost entirely on Paz's own telling.
Paz Breaks His Silence, Defends His Wife
Speaking publicly for the first time since the shooting, Paz said in a video message on Aug. 26 that his former adviser "never had authorization to represent the state, the presidency, or my family," describing Cerimedo's role as limited to the 2025 campaign and the government's earliest months. He called his wife, María Elena Urquidi, "above reproach." It's a narrower account than the one offered by Lara and several officials who have described Cerimedo operating with far greater proximity to the presidency than Paz now acknowledges — and one his own former adviser's testimony has so far neither fully backed nor refuted.
Two formal legal actions were filed the same week. In La Paz, attorney Wilmer Vázquez and two private citizens petitioned a constitutional court to have the Legislative Assembly open a "juicio de responsabilidades" — an accountability trial — against Paz on grounds of treason, arguing that allowing a foreign national into a position of influence over state affairs violated national sovereignty. In Santa Cruz, a separate complaint filed by attorney Lucas Torres asked the departmental prosecutor to investigate First Lady Urquidi over alleged irregularities in fuel, gold, and insurance dealings, built on Beller's public claims that the first lady functions as a single point of contact — a "ventanilla única" — for government contracts. Neither filing has produced a formal case as of this writing; both remain under preliminary review.
Attorney General Warns Officials Against Interference
Bolivia's attorney general, Roger Mariaca, used a news conference to warn government employees against obstructing the investigation, saying anyone who tries to interfere should "face the consequences." The warning came the same week national police commander Mirko Sokol resigned amid a separate corruption probe into leaked audio recordings about alleged payments to influence police promotions — a distinct scandal, but one that has piled onto the pressure facing Paz's government just as questions grow over Cerimedo's alleged reach into police units.
Beller, for her part, has continued publishing documents she says corroborate Cerimedo's role in government decisions and has testified as a witness in the enrichment case; Cerimedo's defense counters that she's trying to shift blame onto him.
What's Still Unresolved
Several questions remain open heading into September. The two gunmen are still fugitives, and authorities haven't said whether Rojas Roca's arrest has produced leads on their whereabouts. It's still unresolved which prison — Palmasola or Chonchocoro — will ultimately hold Cerimedo while his appeal plays out, a decision that could affect how quickly his four cases move forward. And while the treason filing against Paz and the corruption complaint against his wife have both cleared the threshold of formal submission, neither Bolivia's Legislative Assembly nor the Santa Cruz prosecutor's office has said whether either will advance to a full investigation.
